The Face of Horror: Ageing Anxiety in Horror Cinema and the 'Hag Horror' Tradition.
With the ageing of contemporary societies, anxieties surrounding old age and bodily decline have become increasingly visible in popular culture, particularly within horror cinema. While feminist film studies and ageing studies have addressed representations of older women, the specific cinematic str...
| Publicado en: | Ekphrasis (2067-631X) Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 24 - 42 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theatre & Television
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=190979218&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 190979218 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 2067631X H6D0 jtl: Ekphrasis (2067-631X) issn: 2067631X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2025 vid: 34 iid: 2 pid: 91118 pub: Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theatre & Television artinfo: ui: 190979218 10.24193/ekphrasis.34.3 ppf: 24 ppct: 18 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 2MB tig: atl: The Face of Horror: Ageing Anxiety in Horror Cinema and the 'Hag Horror' Tradition. aug: au: ERDEM, Serhat affil: Atatürk University, Turkey su: Ageism Older women Anxiety Women in the motion picture industry Grotesque Social context Horror films Kristeva, Julia, 1941- sug: subj: Ageism Older women Anxiety Women in the motion picture industry Grotesque Social context Horror films Kristeva, Julia, 1941- keyword: ageing anxieties Feminist film theory Hag horror Horror cinema Monstrous-feminine Patriarchal ageism ab: With the ageing of contemporary societies, anxieties surrounding old age and bodily decline have become increasingly visible in popular culture, particularly within horror cinema. While feminist film studies and ageing studies have addressed representations of older women, the specific cinematic strategies through which ageing female bodies are rendered horrific in the "hag horror" tradition remain insufficiently systematized. This article examines how ageing anxieties are narratively and visually articulated through elderly female characters in horror cinema, focusing on the persistence and transformation of this subgenre across different historical periods. The central research question asks how ageing femininity is constructed as a source of horror and which narrative, visual, and thematic mechanisms sustain this construction over time. Drawing on feminist film theory, the study engages Barbara Creed's concept of the monstrous-feminine and Julia Kristeva's notion of abjection, alongside interdisciplinary scholarship on ageism and gendered representations of ageing (Kristeva 205; Creed 33). Using qualitative textual analysis, the article examines three films from different decades--The Leech Woman (Edward Dein, 1960), Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (Curtis Harrington, 1971), and X (Ti West, 2022)--selected for their explicit engagement with ageing female protagonists and their representative position within distinct phases of the Hag horror tradition. A comparative reading reveals how themes such as bodily decay, loss of youth, sexual deviance, and psychological instability are mobilized to produce fear, while adapting to changing ci-nematic styles and cultural contexts. The findings indicate that despite aesthetic and narrative shifts, elderly female characters continue to function as sites of anxiety shaped by intersecting ageist and patriarchal discourses. The article argues that contemporary horror cinema reformulates rather than dismantles the core logic of hag horror, thereby sustaining cultural fears surrounding the ageing female body. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Ekphrasis (2067-631X) is the property of Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theatre & Television and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Ekphrasis (2067-631X) holder: Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theatre & Television dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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