Creed first considers women as Vampires in such films as Dracula (1992) and The Hunger (1983), wherein she discusses the image of the ‘archaic mother’ with the female vampire being ‘mother’ and her lover or victim as ‘child’ whom she promises eternal life to. This book is sometimes hard to read, and the concepts of psychoanlaysis that she draws on are often dubious.

She includes a definition of "Matrix" in the book's introduction, which she describes as a, " womb; place in which thing is developed", which closely relates to her discussion of the monstrous feminine.

She performs close textual analysis of key horror films including Carrie, The Exorcist, Psycho and Alien. The Monstrous-Feminine as Avenging Zombie: The Girl With All The Gifts (2016), The Dark (2018), Atlantics (2019).

In The Monstrous-Feminine Barbara Creed challenges this patriarchal view by arguing that the prototype of all definitions of the monstrous is the female reproductive body. Barbara Creed's The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (1993) [4] investigates the types of monsters that women are portrayed as in horror films, particularly examining archaic mothers, and mythological adaption's of characters. The Monstrous Feminine - an online day course with Dr Elizabeth Dearnley and Dr Katharine Fry takes place on the 11th of March. Throughout this piece, she makes connections to the notion of the ‘primal uncanny’, which suggests that men as monsters.

According to Kristeva, abjection is the failure to distinguish what constitutes as "self", and what is "other". The ‘primal uncanny’, as Creed looks at, was firstly discussed in Freud's work as just the ‘uncanny’ that linked to ideas of psychoanalysis and castration. Creed asserts that there are a variety of different appearances of the monstrous feminine which all reflect female sexuality: archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, possessed monster, witch, and castrating mother. Creed uses films that were influenced by Darwin in the nineteenth century to analyze film techniques related to Darwin's works. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.

In her profoundly original analysis of horror films, Creed upended a concept emanating from psychoanalysis, traditionally perceived as scaffolding supporting patriarchy, to demonstrate how women could be seen as the agents of abjection rather than as its passive victims. The Monstrous-Feminine is a brilliant book and I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in a unique portrayal of gender in horror film. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here.

With close reference to a number of classic horror films including the Alien trilogy, The Exorcist and Psycho , Creed analyses the seven `faces' of the monstrous-feminine: archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother and castrator.

In the beginning of this piece, she discusses The Matrix (1999) and Strange Days (1995) in relation to the concept of ‘jacking-in’, that is the use of technology to alter reality and experience life in other people's minds much like virtual reality. Barbara Creed frequently mentions in her work that horror movies play on this fear of the vagina dentata and even include it visually in films, through enormous toothed monsters or aliens, to settings such as dark and narrow hallways, deadly traps and doors, and spaceships such as that in Alien. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Creed reflects back to the Renaissance where the uterus is depicted in connotation with evil and the devil.Abjection, or Why Freud Introduces the Phallus: Identification, Castration Theory, and the Logic of Fetishism". We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Moving from mothers to maidens, this session delves into the terrifying bodily transformation of adolescence through two contrasting figures: the mermaid and the werewolf. Barbara Creed has identified several faces of the Monstrous Feminine in the horror film genre, and lays out the basis for these faces in psychoanalysis.