La Llorona and the Absence of Latinx Slashers
Latinxs are big consumers of horror films. The 2016 article “Scare up Success with Hispanic Horrorphiles” by Diana Rasbot writes that “Hispanics are 42% more likely than non-Hispanics to be horror fans.” A 2018 study found that Latinxs make up 31% of paranormal and 23% of sci-fi attendees. However, Latinxs are rarely represented in horror films, that includes slasher films. In this presentation I discuss the absence of Latinx slashers, focusing on how the criminalization of brown bodies worked alongside the erasure of Latinxs in horror films to make a population that was both hypervisible (when criminalized) and invisible (when it came to issues of housing and citizenship). I read the invisibility of Latinxs in slashers as a clear indication of the U.S. desire to create and expand gentrified spaces. Second, I introduce La Llorona, a monster usually seen as a ghost, as a possible Latinx slasher by analyzing the direct-to-video film The Wailer: La Llorona (2006). In this film, the Latina body is sexualized and turned monstrous as La Llorona becomes a slasher, stabbing and massacring teens who invade her space. I theorize the role of the Latinx slasher in rethinking the genre’s traditional white middle-class façade. By centering the absences of race and then recentering our definition around a brown woman, La Llorona, I aim to begin a conversation about Latinxs in slasher narratives that can help us rethink issues of space, gentrification, and geography as they relate to this population.
- Orquidea Morales (State University of New York, US)
Latinxs are big consumers of horror films. The 2016 article “Scare up Success with Hispanic Horrorphiles” by Diana Rasbot writes that “Hispanics are 42% more likely than non-Hispanics to be horror fans.” A 2018 study found that Latinxs make up 31% of paranormal and 23% of sci-fi attendees. However, Latinxs are rarely represented in horror films, that includes slasher films. In this presentation I discuss the absence of Latinx slashers, focusing on how the criminalization of brown bodies worked alongside the erasure of Latinxs in horror films to make a population that was both hypervisible (when criminalized) and invisible (when it came to issues of housing and citizenship). I read the invisibility of Latinxs in slashers as a clear indication of the U.S. desire to create and expand gentrified spaces. Second, I introduce La Llorona, a monster usually seen as a ghost, as a possible Latinx slasher by analyzing the direct-to-video film The Wailer: La Llorona (2006). In this film, the Latina body is sexualized and turned monstrous as La Llorona becomes a slasher, stabbing and massacring teens who invade her space. I theorize the role of the Latinx slasher in rethinking the genre’s traditional white middle-class façade. By centering the absences of race and then recentering our definition around a brown woman, La Llorona, I aim to begin a conversation about Latinxs in slasher narratives that can help us rethink issues of space, gentrification, and geography as they relate to this population.
Class, Community & Carnage: The Swedish Teen Slasher
Following the successes of Halloween (1978) and Friday the Thirteenth (1980), the teen slasher became a dominant genre of early 1980s North American horror cinema. While multiple European filmmakers have imitated the narrative and stylistic conventions of the genre, however, relatively few Nordic examples exist. This paper investigates three Swedish teen slashers with the purpose of exploring how they relate to their North American antecedents. The films selected are The Bleeder (1983), Drowning Ghost (2004) and Death Academy (2005). The North American teen slasher has often been investigated in terms of subjects such as gender and sexuality. This paper suggests that Swedish filmmakers have employed, and in some cases transformed, the conventions of the genre in order to engage more specifically Nordic issues, such as welfare state politics and the ideals of social justice and economic equality associated with it. Indeed, they all seem to suggest a collapse of the welfare state ideal and a splintering of social cohesion and trust, while offering different interpretations of - and possible paths beyond - this particular crisis. By exploring these Swedish examples of the teen slasher, this paper can hopefully contribute to an understanding of the genre as a transcultural phenomenon.
- Morten Feldtfos Thomsen (Karlstad University, SE)
Following the successes of Halloween (1978) and Friday the Thirteenth (1980), the teen slasher became a dominant genre of early 1980s North American horror cinema. While multiple European filmmakers have imitated the narrative and stylistic conventions of the genre, however, relatively few Nordic examples exist. This paper investigates three Swedish teen slashers with the purpose of exploring how they relate to their North American antecedents. The films selected are The Bleeder (1983), Drowning Ghost (2004) and Death Academy (2005). The North American teen slasher has often been investigated in terms of subjects such as gender and sexuality. This paper suggests that Swedish filmmakers have employed, and in some cases transformed, the conventions of the genre in order to engage more specifically Nordic issues, such as welfare state politics and the ideals of social justice and economic equality associated with it. Indeed, they all seem to suggest a collapse of the welfare state ideal and a splintering of social cohesion and trust, while offering different interpretations of - and possible paths beyond - this particular crisis. By exploring these Swedish examples of the teen slasher, this paper can hopefully contribute to an understanding of the genre as a transcultural phenomenon.