Table of Contents
Horror is a genre full of tropes, to name a few: final girl, jump scares, and sex before grisly murder. Frequently in horror films (especially slashers) only the pure, virginal female character is the survivor and any woman, deemed than perfect, gets brutally killed. This was extremely prominent in the 70s and 80s in films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and Friday The 13th. Recently, horror has turned away from slashers and from the pure survivor trope, but has instead leaned into a trend that villainizes older women's bodies and uses them for shock value. Many recent films that brand themselves as being feminist like Barbarian and The Substance are actually promoting harmful ideas about women ageing in an era where plastic surgery and cosmetic enhancements are at an all time high.
One recent film that utilizes an older woman's body to invoke disgust is Barbarian (2022). In Barbarian the villain is called "The Mother" and is a naked old woman who has a disfigured, monstrous appearance. Her character is the victim of kidnapping and assault, but the film violates her further by unnecessarily making her nude. The villain in this film is supposed to be the toxic and abusive men, but AJ, a character who has been accused of rape, becomes a victim to The Mother. The audience is meant to feel sympathy for him at moments, even to laugh at his jokes. It's interesting to note that Barbarian was written and directed by a man, and it begs the question of how it could've been made differently if made by a woman.
The Substance is another film that's presented as being feminist horror but doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Although it's made by a woman, Coralie Fargeat, it still falls flat because Elisabeth Sparkle (a former Hollywood star who gets fired from her aerobics show due to her age) is ultimately turned into a monstrous old woman and ends up dying at the end of the film. Elisabeth gets no redemption, no chance to find happiness, and instead gets turned into a monster and a laughingstock in a finale that's played for comedy. Not to mention, the films plays into the older horror trope of constantly sexualizing the young women that appear on screen. For example, Sue (the younger version of Elisabeth) is shown in a highly sexual way every time she's on screen. Sue's nearly nude body is constantly shown in close-ups and from low angles, whereas Elisabeth is framed like a monster. The Substance is meant to be a satire but it's still perpetuating harmful tropes, especially as Demi Moore, who plays Elisabeth, is gorgeous. How are women who are older than her, or who have aged more naturally than her supposed to feel when they watch this film? The film is classified as "body horror" but a big part of that comes from the horror of seeing Elisabeth's body grow older and older.
There are, it seems, some horror films that are taking the opposite approach, foregoing these tropes all together, and making older women into protagonists. Films like Halloween (2018) and Hereditary allow older women to have more agency and to be active instead of passive or villainous. The progression of the Halloween franchise from being a typical misogynistic slasher, to an empowering film that highlights an older woman, is admirable and leaves room for the hope that horror is making progress. However, it doesn't mean we should be letting films that are deeply hurtful to the way women perceive themselves off the hook. It's imperative that, as women, we think deeper about why exactly older women are more often portrayed as villains, and why they are naked when portrayed in this scary light.
