Terrible Women: Monsters and Villainess

Horror movies were often treated as a genre that represent B-rated commercial movies and for those with cheap taste. What's worse for the horror movies was the criticism from Western feminists, claiming that the women in horror movies were always depicted as weak victims making the movie misogynistic. However, the socio-cultural and feminist approaches on the social sub consciousness underlying horror movies restored the once-tainted name of the horror movies by mirroring the subconscious fear of the society through depicting female monsters as objects to be feared, thus showing a subversive story.
In the films in this special program, especially among the movies that depict female monsters as horrifying objects, the movies that depicted femininity as a gender as a fundamental reason of horror, such as menstruation, female reproductive ability, fear of womb, and the fear of motherhood, but not as a secondary object of fear or a castrated male monster, are chosen. One of the earlier works of Brian DE PALMA, Carrie, expresses not only the fear that the women's blood instills, but also its transcending power. The female monster that appears in The Woman is depicted as a total outsider of the civilized society as well as the one belonging to Mother Nature, strengthening the movie's poignant criticism on the violence of ‘civilized men’ as well as the succession of such violence. All films directed by KIM Kiyoung, which is regarded as futuristic, depict women as fearful beings with anti-civilizational power. One of these movies, Ieoh Island will be shown here again, and its criticism toward civilization becomes apparent not only in the depiction of the female characters, but throughout the story.
The fear of motherhood is interestingly shown in the film Mother, a terrible story of vengeance about a woman looking for her daughter - a victim of human trafficking - and Serial Mom, a black comedy horror by John WATERS, which portrays a double-irony of a model mother and a serial killer, who punishes criminals that crosses the line of social norms.
Also, women who get their revenge through punishing the insane male power were portrayed through the keyword, ‘Evil Woman’. These evil women can be seen in the fierce heroines of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! by Russ MEYER which also inspired TARANTINO's Death Proof, as well as Gloria, a textbook movie that inspired many of the chase-thriller movies.
Also, among Asian horror movies, Audition by MIIKE Takashi, a movie that has inspired many horror movies with its exquisite female character, as well as one of the most famous works among the Toei Badass women series, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, were chosen.
In addition, it would be interesting to watch other new films in different sections through the lens of the subject, ‘Terrible Women: Monsters and Villainess’. Our recommendations include the female character in No Blood No Tears, which was invited to the special programs for 20-years debut of JEON Do-yeon, 'Contact, Jeon Do-yeon', Suddenly in Dark Night, a horror movie starring the late actress KIM Youngae, and The Villainess, which shows an intense action scene performance by KIM Okbin.
Nowadays, discussions on feminism are more active than ever. In the midst of such discussions, ‘Terrible Women: Monsters and Villainess’ is expected to make the feminist discussion more robust culturally.