This is part two of a video series analyzing Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. You can catch up on part one here, or you can jump right into this one.

Part one focused on Clover’s classic reading of the slasher film and her coining of the term Final Girl. Part two explores so-called “occult horror,” which includes ghosts, demonic possession, black magic, and the like. Clover’s take on occult horror is a useful complement to her analysis of slasher films, exploring the way male-driven arcs reflect the same underlying tendency we see in the female-driven spectacle of slasher films.

These two currents defined horror movies in the 1970s and 80s, and Clover argues that both draw on the same underlying anxiety: an unconscious fear the two sexes are one.

0:00 - introduction

1:45 - Don’t Look Now (dir. Nicolas Roeg 1973)

2:32 - white science and black magic

3:27 - the too-open female vs. the too-closed male

4:40 - sex in slasher films vs. reproduction in occult horror films

5:54 - The Exorcist (dir. William Friedkin 1973)

7:20 - Witchboard (dir. Kevin Tenney 1986)

9:44 - Possession (dir. Andrzej Żuławski 1981)

10:40 - summary and critique of Carol Clover’s analysis

14:08 - conclusion - slashers compared

I started this project a while back now, and do plan on finishing it out with two more installments. For a change of pace, the next installment will focus on Clover’s chapter on rape revenge films. You can expect a content warning!

Get full access to GUTTER STUDIES at gutterstudies.substack.com/subscribe