Revenge In Horror Films Essay

Revenge, according to the online Oxford dictionary, is “the action of hurting or harming someone in return for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands.” To me, this is essentially what Robin Wood means when he talks about “the return of the repressed.” In horror films, the things we try to repress in society, like female sexuality and social outcasts, end up being the things that return seeking revenge on their suppressers. That is why it can be said that the repressed return in horror movies. However, this can also be said about other movies as well and doesn’t only apply to horror movies. Thrillers, actions, even comedies, can have revengeful characters and themes, which is why Wood specifically states that there is a “basic formula for
Observing this threat paired with tension and relevance is what might seem to most people as the scare factor in these movies, however, this is not the case. In fact, what scares viewers is what “the makers of films communicate to the “unconscious” minds of the mass audience.” (fear in cinema site). This means that the real fear factor in horror movies is not the “Monster” that we see on screen, but how the “Monster” we see on screen interacts with our unconscious minds. For the two films I picked, Cat People and It Follows, most people would consider the “Monster” in either film to be non-human presence, and can be labelled as a black panther and a sex demon, but this is a common misconception. Our eyes see these two beings (panther and demon), but our sub-conscious sees the release of female sexuality which has been suppressed in our minds since infancy (fear in cinema). If we look back at our childhood, some of us may be able to recall a time where we were told “no sex before marriage” or being taught sexual education in school and learning that the best way to avoid devastating sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sex until marriage, in which case you can then fulfill God’s wish of