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The Uncanny, The Abject, and The Monstrous Feminine in Contemporary Body Horror / Perfecting Audrey
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Holmes, Nathan
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Spring 2025
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2025
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9863_Madison_Farr.pdf
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This thesis explores how contemporary women-centered body horror films subvert traditional representations of femininity by externalizing psychological trauma and societal pressures through grotesque transformations of the female body. Using Sigmund Freud's concept of the uncanny, Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection, and Barbara Creed's notion of the monstrous feminine, the paper analyzes Black Swan (2010) and The Substance (2024) to reveal how horror operates not just as a spectacle of fear but as a space for cultural critique. Through the uncanny motif of doubling, both films expose the internalized tension between personal desire and oppressive social expectations. Freud's uncanny is illustrated through the protagonists–doubles–Lily and Beth in Black Swan, and Sue in The Substance–who embody repressed fears and fractured identities. Kristeva's abjection is rendered vividly in bodily breakdowns, from Nina's feathered metamorphosis to Elisabeth's decaying flesh and final monstrous fusion with her younger self. Creed's monstrous feminine framework illuminates how these abject bodies resist containment, challenging patriarchal norms by transforming female ambition into sites of horror. Ultimately, the thesis argues that while these films reflect a recurring pattern in horror–where women who seek power or transformation are punished–they also critique the societal forces that make female self-destruction feel inevitable. In doing so, Black Swan and The Substance demand that we reconsider how horror can be a vehicle for feminist resistance, even when it ends in annihilation.
Perfecting Audrey is a psychological horror script that explores grief, female identity, and the consequences of emotional erasure through the lens of body horror. After a traumatic stillbirth, Audrey undergoes an experimental procedure that promises to "fix" her pain, only to find her body and mind unraveling into grotesque, fractured versions of herself. As her sense of self deteriorates, the horror becomes both physical and existential, culminating in the murder of her emotionally manipulative husband. This script ties directly into my thesis by examining how horror externalizes internal trauma, particularly female suffering, through bodily transformation. Like the films discussed in my research, Perfecting Audrey critiques societal pressures for women to suppress grief, presenting bodily monstrosity as both a symptom of trauma and an act of rebellion.
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