Maternal Horror Film Melodrama and Motherhood

Horror film is particularly prone to articulating fears and tensions about maternal figures, and reflects cultural apprehensions concerning the changing nature of motherhood. Via predominantly US and European case studies, Maternal Horror Film: Melodrama and Motherhood establishes a framework for understanding two dominant representations of motherhood: self-sacrificing and demonic. Building on this, Arnold investigates how discourses of motherhood exist within East Asian horror texts using popular recent horror films to illustrate. Historical and contemporary case studies include Psycho (1960), Poltergeist (1985), Invasion (2007), Ringu (1998), The Others (2001), Dark Water (2003), and The Seventh Sign (1988). Ultimately, Arnold suggests that, while such films might have some cultural and historical specificity, there is nonetheless a dialogue between genres, eras, and national cinemas and cultures, which is only evident through close textual analysis.

Sarah Arnold is Lecturer in Film and Digital Media at University College Falmouth, UK. Her research interests include the history of the moving image, postmodernism and film, and women on film. She has presented at a number of international conferences, and recently contributed to the edited collection, Bound by Love (edited by Laura D'Amore). She has also written for the journal, Jura Gentium Cinema.