Monstrous-Feminine

<p>In almost all critical writings on the horror film woman is conceptualised only as victim. In <em>The Monstrous-Feminine</em> Barbara Creed challenges this patriarchal view by arguing that the prototype of all definitions of the monstrous is the female reproductive body.<br>With close reference to a number of classic horror films including the <em>Alien</em> trilogy <em>The Exorcist</em> and <em>Psycho</em> Creed analyses the seven `faces' of the monstrous-feminine: archaic mother monstrous womb vampire witch possessed body monstrous mother and castrator. Her argument that man fears woman as <em>castrator</em> rather than as <em>castrated</em> questions not only Freudian theories of sexual difference but existing theories of spectatorship and fetishism providing a provocative re-reading of classical and contemporary film and theoretical texts.</p>