The cinematic witch : the development of the witch in popular horror films

Abstract

The film Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) established certain conventions related to the witch horror film genre. These conventions are specifically related to the witch’s body and her supernatural abilities and have appeared continuously in subsequent witch horror films in the twentieth and early twenty-first century. To trace and analyse the textual ripples that originate from Häxan I used Marjorie Levinson’s New Historicist approach in combination with Bloom’s six revisionary ratios to problematize the links that exist between the films, the sociocultural contexts in which the films were produced, as well as historical events that occurred before or during the time of production. In addition, Camile Paglia’s theories regarding Dionysus and Apollo were included to expand on the abject and how the abject relates to the witch. With each new film the witch reflects and is influenced by sociocultural norms and ideals of the times in which the films were created. Her physical body changes in accordance with the sociocultural norms and ideals to create horrific elements in the films, most likely due to a fear response society harbours towards powerful women. In many instances her body is used in opposition to some of these potentially negative norms and ideals, thus fostering change. The same can be said where her supernatural abilities are concerned, since the supernatural imbues the character with power and agency which is ostensibly linked with the sociocultural but also to historical events. The witch was found in most instances to be aligned with nature and in opposition to progress and industrialisation. The witch was also found to collapse the boundaries between Baudrillard’s real and hyperreal, especially in horror films of the twenty-first century. Furthermore, Bloom’s revisionary ratios enabled me to trace the influences that exist between generations of filmmakers. I have demonstrated that horror filmmakers rely heavily on the conventions established by their predecesors while simultaneously changing and expanding on these conventions.