Women & Horror: Female sexuality and monstrosity awakens in Julia Ducournau’s ‘Raw’

Female sexuality seems to have always been closely linked to monstrosity. For example, tracing back to classic mythology, sirens were known to lure men using their inherent sexuality in order to devour them. This notion of women using their sexuality from lesser to larger monstrous and aggressive degrees is still prevalent in stories and media today. As horror critic Barbara Creed argues in her book, The Monstrous-Feminine, the connection between females and monstrosity is “almost always in relation to her mothering and reproductive functions.” Essentially, the perceived source of a female’s monstrosity is in what makes her different than a male.

Women & Horror: ‘Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts’ is a genre-bending victim-avenger story from director Mouly Surya

Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is at first glance a convergence of cinematic influences. Set in a rural Indonesian town, the story follows the recently widowed Marlina’s (Marsha Timothy) journey after she murders a band of thieves and rapists in self-defense when they invade her home. The film, with its simplistic narrative divided neatly into four acts, is less about the moral gaze and more about visual and aural rhetoric, recalling the works of Sergio Leone and others that make up the “spaghetti western” genre.

Top 10 Films of 2020 (So Far)

At their best, movies can offer healing, enlightenment and means to escape. In a year as unrelentingly hellish as 2020, all of the above have been necessary motivators or, conversely, balms for our souls. Despite the isolated year so far…

TYF’s 20 Best Films of 2019

Oh, what a year it was. 2019 has come and gone as we’ve already hit you with our best of the decade list and recently our best documentaries of the decade list, it’s time for our annual countdown of the…

The Greatest Documentary Films of the 2010s

A countdown of the most brilliant, unique, and fascinating accomplishments in documentary filmmaking in the past decade. If there’s a genre of film that has exponentially benefitted from the streaming revolutions and the newest waves of independent media and content…

The Young Folks’ Top 50 Films of the 2010s

Even with 50 entries ahead of us, our Best Films of the Decade list was a herculean task to take on for our writers, as it was hard to limit ourselves. Each and every year has had its share of…

With or Without Capes: Our Personal Heroes on International Women’s Day

We take time out of busy schedules to celebrate the women – fictionalized and not – who we either idolized as children, admired as adults or both. With Captain Marvel officially being released on International Women’s Day it felt only best…