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All registrants will receive unique livestream access by email from Zoom, plus access to the recording within 24 hours of the event finishing. This course is taking place from 14.00 – 17.00pm GMT on 30 and 31 October. Please check the time difference if you are based outside the UK.
The horror genre in film follows from the literary tradition established by Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, eliciting fearful responses through suspense, gore, the macabre and the supernatural, consistently transfixing audiences via suspension of disbelief.
The status of female characters in horror cinema is often ambivalent, ranging from victims of violence to perpetrators of dread. In The Question of Lay Analysis (1926), Sigmund Freud claimed that “the sexual life of adult women is a dark continent for psychology.” Even at the end of his life, Freud maintained his long-standing preoccupation, asking: “What do women want?” The mystery of female desire has persisted with the advancement of psychoanalytic thought; a dimension of ‘the unknown’ frequently drives the depiction of women in dark tales.
In this course, we will investigate the feminine discursive position in horror cinema through the framework of psychoanalytic theory. It is sometimes claimed that the portrayal of women in such films is misogynistic, but here the proposition is that the horror genre affords us an indispensable language for approaching complex elements of feminine subjectivity.
Please note: this topic has been taught at Freud Museum London in previous years but the current course presents an entirely new film selection (all titles listed below). Content warning: graphic imagery will be presented, viewer discretion is advised.
Session 1
- Daughters of Darkness (1971) dir. Harry Kümel
- The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) dir. Amy Holden Jones
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
- Office Killer (1997) dir. Cindy Sherman
Session 2
- The Loved Ones (2009) dir. Sean Byrne
- Amer (2009) dirs. Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
- Kiss of the Damned (2012) dir. Alexandra Cassavetes
- Thelma (2017) dir. Joachim Trier
- Malignant (2012) dir. James Wan
PROJECTIONS is psychoanalysis for film interpretation. PROJECTIONS empowers film spectators to express subjective associations they consider to be meaningful. Expertise in psychoanalytic theory is not necessary – the only prerequisite is the desire to enter and inhabit the imaginary world of film, which is itself a psychoanalytic act. MARY WILD (@psycstar), a Freudian cinephile from Montreal, is the creator of PROJECTIONS.
Bursary
There are a limited number of bursary places available for £15. Priority will be given to UK unemployed and PIP/ESA claimants.
Click here to apply.
Members’ Discount
From the 1 April 2022, Freud Museum Members will be able to receive a 20% discount on tickets with a special Members code. Details will be circulated to all Members on 31 March.
