Introduction: Feminist Worldmaking and Horror Film
Read Peirse’s introduction to the project and watch McLeod’ trailer for DWGHFH cut to original music by _HEAVYLEG.
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Welcome to MAI 13: Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History
Dearest MAI Readers,
We have to admit: we are very proud of this issue. Being the publishing platform for the final output of an AHRC-funded research project would boost any academic publisher’s confidence in their reputation. And that is a massive part of why we are happy to share this delightful collection of video essays with you today. However, there is more to it.
When we started MAI in 2017, not only did we dream about engaging international scholars whose feminist convictions were intersectional, but we also wished to mobilise knowledgeable and creative women to combat the traditional, formalised, patriarchal metanarratives and modes of research in academia. MAI was to celebrate not only what our authors had to say, but also how they said it.
And then, a few years in, Alison Peirse from the University of Leeds, UK, approached us with her vision for an issue consisting solely of video essays. ‘Slightly idealistic,’ we thought at the time, but we nevertheless placed all bets on it. Today, we can see how brilliantly she and her authors delivered on her promise and ambition, which she describes for you in her introductory notes that open this issue.
Launching this dossier of ‘Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History’ feels ground-breaking. It is a collection of articles from authors situated all around the world. They cover non-canonical film titles, offering visibility to some genre films that have never reached the centres of Western criticism or academia.
If Zygmunt Bauman believed that ‘[g]lobalisation divides, as much as it unites,’ this focus issue testifies that despite all our resistance to a globalisation primarily associated with neoliberalism, this unity can be both possible and precious. Perhaps, within our feminist community—and particularly with this issue—we can genuinely demonstrate how to forge connections above divisions and cherish engagement with what Appadurai calls ‘the grassroots’ global knowledge’—something that has been systematically marginalised by Western scholarship.
Whether you are a horror fan or not, we invite you today to embark on a journey to watch and read unconventional, decolonising analyses of films that speak to the fears of women today. Many of the movies selected by our authors for their close readings are pretty recent and timely, especially as regards their storylines and character development pathways. With this globalised world once again stricken by wars, violence, oppression and still-existing gender inequalities, the horrors we face are no less real now than they have ever been, and this is why women still make and watch this genre.
If Julia Kristeva’s philosophical thoughts on ‘the power of horror’ and ‘the abject’ never lost their meaning, this project makes them resonate with us again, no matter where we are. Therefore, we are grateful for working with Alison on this issue and for being able to edit with her such a myriad of unconventional academic talents. Servicing the project participants, she designed and facilitated a true transnational feminist collaboration.
As our standard practice, at the end of this volume, we’ve added some miscellaneous pieces which we find most topical. There, you’ll find a short story, critical articles, book reviews, a report from a Black feminist event and one unique animated film, Why Women Don’t Jump (2023), which was exceptionally well received at the La Femme International Film Festival (Los Angeles) in the autumn last year. Having collaborated with a podcaster Helen Ledwick and a group of student animators, its producer, Rosa Mulraney, draws our attention to a different fear, or a horror, most women dread at one point in their lives—the aftermath of childbirth. Instead of drowning in misery, the film and the article are a praise for some of our sisters for their courage to speak up against medical and cultural negligence.
To sum up, we are thrilled to share this issue with you, and aside from the intellectual pleasures and educational values you can get here, we hope that all our authors will make you and us fear less.
With courage and solidarity,
Anna Misiak & Houman Sadri
(Falmouth, UK & Gothenburg, Sweden)
Investigation, Realisation, Recognition: Women Editors in South Korean Horror Cinema
Focusing on moments of investigation and discovery, this video essay explores the work of six women editors working in Korean horror cinema.
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The Sound Worlds of the Pontianak
The pontianak, or the female vampire of Malay folklore and cinema, is known for her bloodcurdling laughter. What happens when she stops laughing?
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How Not to Reproduce What We Inherit
This video essay mobilises a statement by feminist antiracist scholar Sarah Ahmed, positioning it as a manifesto for researching women filmmakers.
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Splitting
Using clips from Da Khwar Lasme Spogmay (1997), Nisa explores sexual violence, colonialism, Partition, and visual material history.
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Wicked Seams
Avissar examines clothing and horror, using the case study of Israeli costume designer Michal Dor’s Rabies (2010) and Big Bad Wolves (2013).
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Female Monstrosity & Revolt in The Woman Who Makes Doves Fly (1978)
Saldanha explores the idea of female rebellion in Brazil in the 1970s through the monstrous women in The Woman Who Makes Doves Fly (1978).
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A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers
Wan-Ching (Hsiao-Feng Lu) and Ming (Lisa Yang) are doomed, tragic women, punished for ‘transgressions’. Could they be avengers?
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Consumida/Consumed: The Many Roles of Clara in Good Manners (2018)
Foletto Lucas examines Good Manners (2018) focussing on the underprivileged perspective of Clara, a lower class, queer, Black woman.
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Kūki
An imaginary discourse between three voices, this essay considers subject positions at the intersections of spectatorship and scholarship.
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To Eat and Be Eaten: A Productively Perverse Reading of Li Pik-Wah’s Dumplings
Seid’s essay explores perverse eating and ‘vulgar’ femme aesthetics in the Hong Kong horror film Gau Ji/Dumplings (2004).
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‘You Need To Marry Her’: Ghost Marriage in Lingo Hsieh’s The Bride
Geng explores the Taiwanese horror, The Bride (2015), exposing ghost marriage as a metaphor for the modern society.
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Storylines: Spectral Traces of Ungrievable Lives
In Tigers Are Not Afraid (2016), characters write and draw to mark dominion over body/possessions and leave trace of their war-torn lives.
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Looking Back in Anger: Niramon Ross and the Female Gaze in Shutter
This essay explores the female gaze in the male-dominated space as navigated by Niramon Ross, the female cinematographer for Shutter (2004).
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Ghost Time: Ghostly Temporalities in Mattie Do’s The Long Walk
Ancuta examines the temporal orientation of ghosts, gothic time loops and the (im)possibility of ghostly time travel in Mattie Do’s 2019 film.
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The Spectre of Ophelia: Girlhood, Love & the Supernatural in Fatal Frame (2014)
In her essay, Robertson explores the audiovisual motif of Ophelia in Asato Mari’s, film, a supernatural coming-of-age queer love story
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Dos Hermanas: Uncanny Femininity, Grief & Childhood in Carillo’s Animations
Sofia Carillo’s stop motion films weave tales about the Latina familial experience and the outcomes of holding on to generational grief.
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Ghost of Gaslight: The Female Experience in Two in the Morning (1987)
Zeng compares Bao’s 1987 film, the first gothic horror made by a woman in China to Cukor’s Gaslight (1944) to unveil its feminist twist.
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Ausencia
Ausencia is an essay film that explores the concept of horror and gender within Puerto Rico’s film and colonial history.
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Spectral Motherhood in Clementina: Violence, Coexistence, Pain
Reading Clementina (2019), Monteoliva’s debut feature film, the authors discuss spectral motherhood and fear in the domestic environment.
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The Care of Others
In Ghost Stories (2020), Akhtar and Mirza reinterpret the gothic horror film through intimacy of care that generates women’s agency.
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How To Cook Marlina’s Sup Ayam
A video recipe for a poisoned pot of sup ayam (chicken soup), composed of scenes from the rape-revenge film Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017).
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kwAIdan
Through AI technology, this video crafts female faces for male pleasure, placing them onto a male body in the world of Kwaidan (1964).
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The Door is a Mirror
Wan demonstrates how Li Shaohong’s The Door (2007) conveys horror through the lives of women in the toxic patriarchal society.
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An Ephemeral Composition of Disjointed Memories: Cristina Nigro’s Production Design in The Last Matinee
Potenza highlights the work of production designer Cristina Nigro in the Uruguayan slasher film Al morir la matinée (2020).
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Frames in Flames: Anxiety in Kaygı / Inflame (2017)
Kutlu edits the soundtrack from Kaygı, the first Turkish horror directed by a woman, to imitate the film’s disorienting ambiance.
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Agatha, They Are Coming
This video essay seeks to include African women in the new wave of critical writing on women and horror film.
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She Wants Revenge: Michelle Garza Cervera’s Scalpel-Sharp Filmmaking
Villegas Lindvall analyses medical environs in Garza Cervera’s short films to explore the patriarchal arbitration of the feminised body.
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Gender & the Jinn in the Work of Costume Designer Phaedra Dahdaleh
This video shows that Dahdaleh’s background as an Arab costume designer enables her to create nuanced female characters in 1980s Tehran.
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Exhausted Bodies & Spectral Return in Atlantique (2019)
This video essay on Mati Diop’s Atlantique (2019) reflects on the film’s antirealist aesthetics and its anti-colonial critique.
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The Teetering Act
Exploring the inner and outward conflict, this essay looks at the female protagonist in the Bangladeshi film Debi (2018).
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Why Mums Don’t Jump (2023): Animation as a Feminist Tool
Using the title film as a case study to promote ‘prolapse awareness’, Mulraney argues for animation as a powerful feminist tool.
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Saint and Screen: The Strangeness of Venerating a Saint through YouTube
Revisiting her connection with Saint Rosalia, Jay offers a new materialist reflection on religion, femininity and screen technology.
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The Arrival of Yonic Science Fiction and its Heretical-hysterical Becomings
Applying philosophical analysis to Arrival (2016), the authors show it as a unique and groundbreaking female driven sci-fi narrative.
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Suspicion
Triggered by a ‘tampon incident’, Suspicion is an intimate story of female mental health crisis at the time of puberty.
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Reading on Visual Culture and Domestic Violence
Waring reviews Moore’s new book, a compelling critical intervention into the study of the weaponisation of photography against aberrant bodies.
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The Womanism, Activism, Higher Education Research Network Conference
Parker reviews an event held at Birkbeck University in October 2023 where scholars discussed social justice and education of Black women.
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WHO SUPPORTS US
The team of MAI supporters and contributors is always expanding. We’re honoured to have a specialist collective of editors, whose enthusiasm & talent gave birth to MAI.
However, to turn our MAI dream into reality, we also relied on assistance from high-quality experts in web design, development and photography. Here we’d like to acknowledge their hard work and commitment to the feminist cause. Our feminist ‘thank you’ goes to:
Dots+Circles – a digital agency determined to make a difference, who’ve designed and built our MAI website. Their continuous support became a digital catalyst to our idealistic project.
Guy Martin – an award-winning and widely published British photographer who’s kindly agreed to share his images with our readers
Chandler Jernigan – a talented young American photographer whose portraits hugely enriched the visuals of MAI website
Matt Gillespie – a gifted professional British photographer who with no hesitation gave us permission to use some of his work
Julia Carbonell – an emerging Spanish photographer whose sharp outlook at contemporary women grasped our feminist attention
Ana Pedreira – a self-taught Portuguese photographer whose imagery from women protests beams with feminist aura
And other photographers whose images have been reproduced here: Cezanne Ali, Les Anderson, Mike Wilson, Annie Spratt, Cristian Newman, Peter Hershey