Ever noticed how horror films of the 60's and 70's seem to try to scare us away from motherhood?

Yes, in the 60's and 70's Hollywood loved to portray infants and children as little monsters. That weird trend started in England, though, with Wolf Rilla's "Village of the Damned" and Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" (an adaptation of Henry James' "Turn of the Screw"). I guess the defining moment of the Monstrous Kiddies genre was Larry Cohen's "It's Alive"--which featured a mutated infant clawing and tearing its way through various stupid suburbanites. And that masterpiece spawned several sequels (which I haven't been lucky enough to see yet).

Monstrous Kiddies also started to appear outside the horror genre: just take a look at the sadistic brats who unleash their flesh-eating dolls on Jane Fonda in Vadim's "Barbarella," a cult classic of sci-fi...

Anyway this strange defamation of children reached it climax in Sean Cunningham's "Friday the 13th" (1980) which centered around the deformed, retarded, murderous ghost-boy Jason Voorhees (and his equally delightful and loving mother Pamela)... After that macabre outing, child monsters appeared less and less frequently. Filmmakers had milked the idea for all it was worth: what more could be said? --Carlos

I have noticed this, and like you I do think that it is significant that it was at the time of feminisms greatest influence.

But... Children of the Damned was from a John Wyndham novel of the 50's, and also there were a lot of other things that were going on at that time around the nature/ nurture debate - are some people just born evil, what is the nature of evil etc - it was a time of questioning everything.

Also, the horror genre was very strong at that time - Hammer Horror from the UK for eg and the idea that something evil could grow within you is great for horror, and of course doesn't work with men unless it is sci fi (John Hurt in Alien 1979 which is said to be a feminist quadrilogy ultimately, but clearly wasn't at the outset).

Anyway, hope I have given you a bit to be going on with.

Edit: I have just remembered Eraserhead - Lynch's first and wierdest.

I definitely see what you're talking about. Maybe this was a result of the baby boomers generation. You should research this. I believe the baby boomers were born throughout the 40-60s so thats probably a strong cause. Research other reason people would want to slow down the number of births. I think this is a great topic and it seems like something you are intrested in and have knowledge about. You should stick with this and go for it.

~%*!%~%!%!~%!Good Luck!~*!%~!%~%!*%~

Horror genre, eh? What about Norman Bates in 'Psycho'? He had a rather scary mother, as I recall.

Interesting premise for a paper. The most noteworthy film critic of this period was Pauline Kael. She was not the bubblegum Ebert-and-Roper type "film critic" we all know and DISMISS. Kael was brilliant, and she should make it into your bibliography:

"Prolific, enduring columnist for The New Yorker magazine, Pauline Kael remains the most influential American film critic of the last 50 years". When I took film studies courses at uni I was always coming across scholarly essays she had written.

Have fun writing your paper.

Many horror movies deal with sexual issues. Everything from the monstrous feminine (The evil, devouring mother) to female promiscuity most notably in 80s horror flicks ones. Anyone who's seen a number of recent horror movies will tell you, there's a hell of a lot of rape lately.

There's been quite a few other older ones like Last House On The Left and I Spit On Your Grave but they were pretty much centered on rape and revenge.

Horror movies are reflections of common anxieties. It's a common worry for pregnant woman that their baby will be born deformed, many have nightmares about it maybe it's because you can't really see what's growing inside of you.

Fetuses look nasty anyway. Who wouldn't be freaked out to have one of those in you?

An interesting observation.Most of these movies were based on popular novels of course so it's not necessarily the films themselves that started this subject.

Horror has gone through many phases over the years,the latest being the Asian remake which,according to many critics,is now way past it's sell by date.

Personally I think it's just because little children can be very very creepy. So they make a good subject for a horror movie.

Poltergeist is another from that era with a creepy little girl in it, if you want more examples I'll try to think of some.

I love scary movies.

:-P

I think mothers were used because we feel safe with them. When you put them in a threatening situation it scares us. That's why babies, santa claus, doctors, pets have all been used as horror subjects.

I think it's more about corrupting innocence then motherhood.

Personally, I think the whole having kids thing is overrated. There are already too many humans on earth and millions of orphans, my idea of mother is adoption.

I think you are right. It was the best time to release these movies and it certainly did not show women as being empowered.