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Episode 101 -- Powers of Horror (Film), Part 1 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-10-21 05:10:50
Edited:
2025-10-21 05:11:34
Imported:
2026-09

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Content

Just in time for spooky season, here's In Bed with the Right with a look at some classic horror films, asking: What's scary about gender? And what's gendered about fear in these movies? In keeping with the Halloween theme, we got way into this and watched way too many scary movies. And so we made a two parter. This first part dives into 1973's The Wicker Man and 1976's Carrie. The second part will be about Suspiria (1977) and Alien (1979). Hope you enjoy!

Here are the texts we refer to in this episode:

Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"

Carol Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws (1992)

Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror (1982)

David Sanjek, "Twilight of the Monsters: The English Horror Film 1968-1975"

Comments

Beth N

I haven't seen Wicker Man, but I don't need to because Alisdair Beckett-King summarized all folk horror: https://youtu.be/pV53qKliQZU?si=fkA8-ydPnJ1l50gt Kidding aside, great episode, as always! Made an early morning commute so enjoyable. ☺️

Kim

Now, wishing I had mentioned the movie, The Sentinel circa 1970-something. Maybe you two can look at it next year! It’s not grotesque, just a little cheesy?

William Knight

It’s worth noting as well that in the movie the return to the old ways is explicitly a con - the previous Lord Summersisle had bred new cold hardy fruit trees that could survive the Hebrides but needed a way to get the islanders to adopt them. Also there is a great final line where Howie yells at Summersisle that when the harvest fails again he will be in the Wicker man next year. The movie is very shifty and cynical in its identification with groups and characters and I think the way it is shot from odd angles in a pseudo documentary fashion helps that.

William Knight

Summersisle is a kind of nature worshipping commune but one overseen by its libertine feudal lord. Arguably all the fucking is enacting his and his ancestors fantasies that were themselves a reaction against the kind of Victorian moralism Howie represents.

William Knight

The other bit of context is that Wicca developed in England around 1950 and was increasingly prominent in the media in the 60s, in addition to older Neo Druid groups with roots that went back to the Victorian era (they helped make creation legal in Britain). Combine that with the English folk boom (Shirley Collins et al) and you have the kind of raw material for the movie.

James Hultgren

I think the other thing that’s really notable about Carrie is that in the book she is fat, yet every remake has had her portrayed by a thin actor. King describes her with such contempt in the book, talking about her “bovine” nature and slowness, and at the start I wondered if it was meant to be the contempt of the speakers (to Adrian’s point, it’s a sort of heteroglossia) but by the end I was just like “oh Stephen hates fat people”. I think there’s some really interesting body politics that could be explored with the right person behind the camera, so I’m curious to see what Mike Flanagan will do… though, considering his usual cast, I think it will be a thin person again.

Sierra Wilson

A really good resource for the origins of Wicca and folk horror is the work of Ronald Hutton in Triumph of the Moon and Queens of the Wild, the latter of which has an intro that sums up the the context for the Wicker Man quite nicely and includes a reading of it.

Sierra Wilson

William has hit many of the contextual notes for Wicker Man id give but I love the shiftiness of identification during it. Since 2020 I’ve introduced it to several friends, each of whom has been like “ACAB, fuck this guy” within minutes of the film starting. And yet…there’s still something awful, pitiful, and ominously powerful about the films climax.

Sierra Wilson

So much fatphobia in king. He clearly had not worked through it in the 70s or 80s. It’s so weird.

Sierra Wilson

Many thoughts about Carrie, King, and De Palma, and frankly everything discussed on this episode. Moira, I’ve given quite a bit of thought to the fact that the satisfyingly punk rock “blow up the school” endings of movies from the 70s-90s no longer fit the times…because school is now a site of mortal terror every day. I first read Carrie at 13, on the edge of getting my period, coming out of a miserable few years of bullying by other girls. Her character and power really spoke to me and lent me strength. The last two times I watched the movie as a 30 something I’ve been on the verge of tears every time, because it’s less of a horror movie and more of a classical tragedy, a combination events that lead to total disaster, set in motion by fate.

Sierra Wilson

If you come back to the topic of horror movies, there’s a whole bunch of newer criticism about queer reception of horror that deserves your consideration! I’m becoming a bit of a collector on feminist and queer horror criticism if you want some direction!

James Hultgren

Seriously lol. A friend lent me a few of his books this year cause I’ve never read him before and he’s such an engaging writer and storyteller… but I would have to regularly stop and be like “um, Stephen, wtf”

William Knight

Oh man yet another reason to read Queens of the Wild.

William Knight

Yeah I was riffing on Hutton’s lectures. He is doing a summary of his work on Neo paganism in his current Gresham College lectures.

Maud McInerney

Fun facts: Carol Clover was on my dissertation committee while she was writing Men, Women and Chainsaws; and Adrian could have (but did not) taken a course with me when he was an undergrad except that Swatties rarely trek up to Haverford. I really enjoyed this episode and am glad that you’re not going to waste too much time on slashers—the most tedious sub-genre. Excited for Alien!

Colette Katsikas

Imagine my excitement when one of my favorite podcasts discusses horror and theory! Clover! Mulvey! Sedgwick! So many great highlights. I am actually in the middle of planning a memorial for my feminist theory/video artist mentor who passed away after a long illness in July. I even found a letter from Laura Mulvey asking for some recommendations from her while preparing her archives. Thank you for all your hard work and humor!

Nina

So I decided to go watch Carrie and The Wicker Man before listening to the episode in order to celebrate spookie season myself. When I watched Carrie, I REALLY got the echoes of stories of like high school shooters in the US. It seemed to me that if you switched the gender of the protagonist, this parallel would be glaring. I wonder if this was intentional by King or if it's just a result of like american culture.