romance between horror movies and motherhood o longevity The relationship between mothers and children (especially between mothers and daughters) is the core or one of the main themes of classics such as ‘The Devil’s Baby’ (1968), ‘The Exorcist’ (1973) and ‘Carrie’ (1976). Among the topics about motherhood is one that is particularly appealing for horror movies: pregnancy. The thematic and iconographic potential, belly and changes of a pregnant woman is enormous. Sometimes the protagonists of these films are pregnant, but their stories do not specifically mention pregnancy. Rather than referring to pregnancy, these include emphasizing the sense of threat (the vulnerability of the body that carries the other person to danger), the pursuit of mystery and fear (what is this woman carrying in her womb?), or triggering side themes (from the deepest trauma to the funniest physical mutation). For example, this would be the case ‘Peaceful place’ (2018), where the protagonist must give birth alone and silently, in a bathtub, so that a monster that is hypersensitive to sound does not discover him.
Pregnant and the engine of nightmares
However, there are suggestions that specifically explore where pregnancy is at the center, fears associated with the pregnancy process, sometimes fears that come from within the character (related to physical, psychological, or emotional changes), and other fears that are triggered. from the outside: structures and social pressures. Horror cinema of recent years (also TV series) in both commercial and minority offerings – a trend often overshadowed by Polanski’s classic – it gave numerous indications of this trend. Here is a small example: ‘Mom!’ (Darren Aronofsky, 2017), ‘prevent’ (Alice Lowe, 2016) or ‘Swallow’ (Carlo Mirabella-Davis, 2019). This year the Sitges festival presents two more films where pregnancy is the engine of nightmares: Norwegian ‘Nightmare’ (Kjersti Helen Rasmussen, 2022) and Mexico ‘Huese’ (2022). Second, the director Michelle Garza Cervera It does not specifically refer to pregnancy. The pregnancy of the main character (Natalia Solián) is the starting point for a ‘queer’ movie that also talks about class, myths (like prisons or liberating stories), mental health and different family models. But an important part of the story is about the protagonist’s vulnerability in the face of her own pregnancy: even her bones creak.
Contemporary horror cinema’s interest in motherhood and pregnancy in particular is obvious. There are films and ongoing projects on the subject; These are topics that are studied in script labs and that are very attractive to producers. A concrete explanation is hard to find, but perhaps it has to do with the need to contribute different visions to a new generation of creators, mostly women, on issues that have traditionally been approached from similar angles, either superficially or rejected. Themes such as depression during and after pregnancy, fear of physical transformation, and doubts about social structures. For the latter, for example, Heron Servera: “One of the things that drove me to make Huesera is the concern I shared with my friends about the nuclear family. At this point, it is not normal for us to be so afraid of not following the route set for us. The protagonist of his movie is a social rebel, implying a very stimulating interrogation of topics such as family models, female roles, and the maternal instinct.
“I really like ‘The Devil’s Seed’, it’s a very important movie for my education but in ‘Huesera’. [que se puede ver este jueves en el Auditori a las 10.30 horas y el viernes en el Prado a las 22.30] I wanted to explain the opposite. Polanski’s film talks about the impossibility of escaping the maternal instinct, and I wanted to say the opposite: It’s not an instinct, it’s a social construction.”says Garza Cervera. This is the need to seek renewed approaches and is more connected to the present (perhaps ‘Titan’Julia Ducournau’s most radical example) explains the plethora of movies in which being pregnant is extremely scary.