The feminist horror film collective present a season of films with mould-breaking women that challenge notions of femininity, control and hysteria.
The Mafu Cage (Karen Arthur, 1978)
Tue 3 Jul 2018
A deeply underrated horror that looks at the twisted dynamic that emerges between an astronomer and her psychotic sister when they live in the large house they inherited.
A wildly compelling horror film that looks at the intense and unusual relationship between a psychotic woman and her sister living together. One of only three films directed by Karen Arthur, it’s an intense close-up on an co-dependent and toxic relationship of enablement.
Astronomer Ellen (Lee Grant) lives with her feral-like sister Cissy (Carol Kane) in the crumbling mansion they’ve inherited from their late anthropologist father, complete with a large cage in the middle of the living room, where Cissy keeps her pet ‘mafus’ (monkeys). Cissy lives in a bubble of her own creation, and reacts aggressively to any attempt to alter her world. Ellen, who’s been taking care of her since their father passed, tries to edge her into adjusting to normal society. When Ellen starts seeing a co-worker, Cissy feels threatened and the suitor finds him in the centre of a violent retribution.
Dementia (John Parker, 1955) + ScreenTalk
Thu 12 Jul 2018
Incorporating elements of horror, film noir and drawing heavily from expressionism, John Parker’s Dementia (also known as Daughter of Horror) is the portrait of a woman’s nightmarish journey into madness.
Shot entirely without dialogue and filled with suggestive violence and psycho-sexual imagery with an eerie score to boot, this avant-garde thriller follows the nocturnal prowling of a young woman (Adrienne Barrett) haunted by guilt after murdering her father.
The screening is followed by a panel discussion exploring how the films in The Final Girls present: Unholy Women portray mental illness and female anxieties.
Images (Robert Altman, 19782
Tue 17 Jul 2018
An unstable author escapes to her remote vacation home, where is terrorised by apparitions, not knowing if they are figments of her imagination or real.
A dreamlike, loosely structured psychothriller, Images is both a portrait of a woman’s mental breakdown, but also a study of the madness of the creative process.
In Robert Altman's sole foray into the horror genre, we follow Cathryn (Susannah York), a children's author who escapes to a remote house in the country after suspecting her husband (René Auberjonois) has been having an affair. Before long, Cathryn begins to see apparitions around the house of familiar figures from her past. As they grow more and more vivid, Cathryn begins to question whether they’re real - or if she’s going mad.
Both dreamy and nightmarish in tone, with notes of Psycho and Persona, this was one of Robert Altman’s most introspective works.
Curated in partnership with Barbican Cinema.