Horror Anthropology

Horror AnthropologyDr Hannah GilbertExploring the Extraordinary

Anthropology•Anthropology as a specific academic discipline emerged during the 19th Century

•Anthropologists were generally concerned with non-Western (many of the early famous studies involve generally small scale) societies, with whom they would live for particular periods

•Wanted to really understand the culture of the ‘Other’ scientifically (but were often inevitably bias)

•They are largely absent figures in horror fiction that involves non-Westerners (though other types of academics often feature)

Fear Walks Abroad…•The foreign Other can seem terrifying – it has different beliefs and behaviours from ‘us’.

•Horror films have often situated such foreign-ness as a dangerous outer zone we’ll suffer to visit, and as an infection that can be brought home via people, artefacts and knowledge.

•Horror films use various techniques to delegate the Other-ness of non-Westerners, often incorporating stimuli to encourage anxiety and disgust.

Horror Set Abroad

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)•Based on account by ethnobotanist Wade Davis about his experience researching the Haitian ‘zombie’ Clairvius Narcisse

•Native Haitians – particularly those involved with the military - are depicted as villainous, keen to guard the secrets of creating zombies

•Davis undergoes a nightmarish journey which culminates in his being buried alive, before he can defeat his foes

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)•Sadistic Kali worshipping cult of Thuggees are the central villains – they offer human sacrifices and kidnap local children into slavery

•It is up to the Western academic adventurer to vanquish the cult and save the children

•MacDermott (1993) has criticised the film for its misappropriation and misrepresentation of Kali

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)•Complex ‘moral’ sentiment – both sides commit acts of horrendous violence, involves self critique of exploitation films

•The ‘cannibals’ are depicted as primitive and savage, engaging in cruel means of eating (‘debased dining’)

•Cannibalism can be seen as largely based on ‘cannibal talk’ - a discourse about the Other, that is used by both indigenous peoples and colonial intruders. It can result in sometimes amusing and sometimes deadly cultural misunderstandings. Tales of cannibalism sometimes reflect the West’s fascination with people eating, rather than an indication of the forms of people eating as a cultural behaviour (Obeyesekere, 2005)

Horror Bought from Abroad

The Jewel of the Seven Stars (1903)

•Novel by Bram Stoker•Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971) and

The Awakening (1980) both subvert the novel’s clean ending, and focus on a difficult but enduring father-daughter relationship

•Both films involve Egyptologist (absent) fathers who bring back the body of an ‘evil’ Egyptian queen they have become obsessed by, who then ‘infects’ their daughters

•Queen is a powerful Other who seeks a foothold in the modern world

•They must ultimately sacrifice the corpse for their child – but too late?

The Reptile (1966)•Strained father-daughter relationship; Anna Franklin has become part of a snake cult in Borneo that her father was researching.

•Anna is watched over by a Malay servant who is more master than guardian, and is a key member of the cult who nurtures her reptilian metamorphosis and encourages her to attack and kill locals

•The film is concerned with the loss of a child’s familial identity due to her father-initiated trip to Borneo, and the dissolution of the role of the father as protector

The Ghoul (1975)•Similar plot dynamics to The

Reptile – strained father-son relationship following a trip to India where the father was horrified by the behaviours of a cult his late wife and son were inducted into

•Son has become ‘the ghoul’, and must be fed human flesh. His guardian is an Indian servant called Ayah (who has secretly set up an altar to Shiva/Kali in the house) while his father turns a blind eye to her procurement of human victims for his son

•There is a notion of the English country manor becoming infected by non-Western destructive evil

Plague of the Zombies (1966)•Secret voodoo usage to secure zombies for work in the local mine

•Squire is revealed to have lived in Haiti, where he learnt black magic rites which he brought back to England

•Again, there is the notion of non-Western evil contaminating the English locale – but this time, it is wielded by an Englishman in authority

•Incorporates common zombie narrative device of zombies quite literally depicted as slaves for Western greed – horror capitalism?

Folk Horror: The new ‘us’ versus ‘them’?

Lovecraft and Cthulhu Cults•Notion of ‘that which has risen may sink, and that which has sunk may rise again’ (The Call of Cthulhu, 1928)

•Lovecraft often involves academics or ‘modern men’ who uncover ancient subterranean evils.

•The world of Cthulhu (et al) is primitive and primordial, and pose a slumbering – rather than dormant – threat that is dangerous because it is largely forgotten

•Cthulhu cults often located in non-Western environments, but also in uncivilised, ‘backwater communities’

Urban Heroes, Agricultural Terrors

•Division of city and countryside, where country folk may be denigrated to the position of dangerous Other

•Characters from the city are often deemed outsiders by country folk because of their urban ties, and may suffer at their hands

•Distance and the roles of natural (or ‘old) ways and ‘forgotten’ traditions vs city led scientific scepticism segregate the urban and the agricultural, – but are urban norms therefore the epitome of Western?

Wake Wood (2010)•Couple suffering from the loss of their young daughter discover a village practised ritual for bringing deceased loved ones back for 10 days in their new countryside home

•Their ignoring of the ritual rules results in terrible consequences, and their daughter returns with monstrous desires and attacks the community

•Cites the city couple of selfish personal wants and desires, for which they must pay the price, and the distance between living in and being and part of a community

Conclusion

Conclusions• Much of our horror involves a battle between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and the fight to overcome or destroy the proponents of threatening Otherness

• The supernatural world is also a form of Otherness, and it is perhaps unsurprising that malevolent supernaturalism is manifest as dark and primitive

• Horror films that incorporate non-Western characters, behaviours and symbols may suggest a xenophobic anxiety of the future of ‘us’ after an infiltration by ‘them’ – which is sometimes manifest as a macabre contamination, or loss of familial identities

• The use of non-Western ‘cults’ may help to dampen such implied national xenophobia

• More recently, the ‘folk horror’ genre, which incorporates specific representations of small agricultural communities separated from modern cities, and reconceptualises what is ‘us’ and ‘them’ closer to home

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