Lexi Klein Portfolio

An analysis of the evolution of the horror genre through the comparison of Carrie vs. Jennifer’s Body

Since the second half of the 20th century, the horror genre of film has become a mirror for society’s greatest fears and weaknesses, highlighting the social, economical, and technological changes throughout recent decades. While the horror genre has remained a reflection of our collective fears since the 1960s, the movement between the modernist era (1963-1976) to the postmodern era (1976-present) of horror films can be separated due to cultural changes seen within society between these two periods in time. As our shared fears have evolved, so too do pop culture’s comments on such seen through the horror genre. The modernist period reflects the cultural movements birthed by the rapid changes and technological advancements following the Industrial Revolution and WWII, a differing sentiment to reactions of globalization and consumer capitalism of the postmodern period. While the postmodern period can be seen as a reaction to the modernist period, it can also be seen as a continuation of it as the fears of society that were once merely possibilities have now become a part of reality. This evolution from modern to postmodern in the American horror genre is highlighted when comparing two depictions of the female ‘monster’ on film: Carrie (1976), a modern horror classic, and Jennifer’s Body (2009), a postmodern horror-comedy, revealing mankind’s progressive self-awareness.

The first distinction to be made comes from the contrasting story chronology of the two films,, while Carrie utilizes a progressive narrative timeline to emphasize intransitivity, Jennifer’s Body contains a more fractured, confusing experience due to its achronological order. Along with the horror genre’s evolution, audience reception modernizes as well, prompting filmmakers to utilize new storytelling techniques to tell their stories. Right off the bat, the opening sequence of Carrie showcases the intransitivity of the modern film through the use of disruption. As the camera consistently pans across the locker room while a non-diegetic, lullaby sound plays out, the film begins sexualizing young women and eventually pans to Carrie herself, with unblurred close-ups of the outcasted girl as she showers. Although this sexual tone is then quickly disrupted as the drip of blood down Carrie’s leg begins, paired with a cut in the music, the film successfully sparks an uncomfortable feeling within the viewer. At this moment, viewers must come up with their own perceptions of what is to come as the film never outright states that this moment is a catalyst to the rest, but it can be interpreted as such. The torments of her fellow classmates, the abuse of her hyper-religious mother, and the wrath of her telekinetic powers, all stem from this very moment when Carrie gets her first period, giving the viewer the background knowledge necessary to partially understand her ‘monstrous’ ways. In contrast to this, Jennifer’s Body does not give the viewer the cause of Jennifer’s powers right away. It is not until more than halfway into the film that the narrator and Jennifer’s former best friend, Anita ‘Needy,’ is told what really happened with Jennifer and the satanic boy band the night of the fire. The audience remains confused and unaware of exactly why and how Jennifer has become a succubus until it is attributed to the sacrifice going wrong since she was not a virgin as she had claimed. It is within this fractured experience, that the viewer continues to face confusion throughout the film until the blanks are filled. While this suspension of key information may leave the audience “dissatisfied” throughout the film, “the movie’s style is not random, but it is redolent of Art Nouveau” (“Cinema by Design : Art Nouveau, Modernism, and Film History,” Columbia University Press). In other words, Jennifer’s Body is strongly reminiscent of the modernist film Carrie, with its own modern twist in order to satisfy the present-day viewer.

Consequently, changing human motivations in history inevitably reflects contemporary feelings of anxiety. Since horror films echo the fears of society on film, a modernist film and a postmodern film differ in their comments on the issues at hand within society during their film’s birth. For instance, since Carrie was created in the 1970s it mirrored the rebellious youth of the 60s and 70s during the Civil Rights movement and Sexual Revolution. As the children of a more traditional, conservative generation “questioned authority and rejected their parents’ values,” the fight between organized religion and spiritual rebellion ensued (“The Pill and the Sexual Revolution,” PBS). This very fight is reflected in the relationship seen between Carrie and Margaret, Carrie’s devoted Christian mother. This film, adapted from Stephen King’s 1974 novel, paints Margaret as an extremist, going to absurd lengths to keep her daughter “sinless,” mirroring low society’s distaste for the conservative ways of high society’s traditional religion at the time (Carrie). This distinguishing between high and low culture was a modernist staple for a horror film of the era. In addition, the film related Carrie’s isolation from her classmates to be a result of Margaret’s parenting style, since Margaret too isolated herself from the rest of society. Carrie’s mother only interacted with others within their small town when she would go door to door, preaching the gospel to the unwanting parents of Carrie’s classmates. She told Carrie’s classmate’s mother that these were “godless times,” while rambling on about the word of god (Carrie). This negative depiction of organized religion, seen through Margaret’s crazed obsession with the sins of the youth of the town, mirrored the fears of the young free-spirited teens in the audience of this film–making it the perfect modernist horror film. In contrast to the free-spirited, young rebels of the 1970s, the materialistic teens of the 2000s required a different form of horror film. The globalization and consumer capitalist culture during this time called for a collapse of the distinction seen between high and low culture in order to appeal to all audiences. For example, while Carrie was catered more towards only the rebellious teens of the 70s, Jennifer’s Body was for teens and adults of the 2000s looking for a horror that could also make them laugh. Jennifer, played by bombshell Megan Fox, was the perfect, popular teenage cheerleader, friends with the class dork, ‘Needy,’ their unlikely friendship mirrored the teenage fears of fitting in all well the sexualized jokes and focuses of the film appealed to more adult audiences. Rather than focusing on just one grand narrative, as seen in Carrie, the postmodern horror film is a multigenre piece that appeals to a larger audience in order to achieve its greatest purpose: to make more money. The consumer capitalism of the postmodern world could not produce a horror film that only showcased horror, it needed to entice its audience in more ways than one. Argo, Jennifer’s Body was not just a horror film, it was a horror-comedy. Due to the demand of the postmodern era to make its genres more complex in order to keep a generation of materialistic America entertained, horror films such as Jennifer’s Body could not only scare the viewer, they had to evoke other emotions as well.

The very victims who face death in these films are an important part of the evolution of the horror genre as well since they reflect the commentary on the society of their times. While Carrie’s own powers come from a place of pain from the torment of her bullies, there’s no separation between the innocent and the perpetrators of evil when it comes to who ends up dead in the end. Everyone at the school dance dies. Girls and boys, men and women, they all face Carrie’s wrath, “alike with equal and indiscriminate ruthlessness” (“Carrie at 40: Why the Horror Genre Remains Important for Women,” The Guardian). This is a commentary on society as a whole’s harsh judgment placed upon women in the modernist era. Carrie was not perceived as a ‘normal’ girl due to her lack of makeup, messy hair, hyper-religious mother, and out-of-style clothing. It is “because she doesn’t match up with the ideals maintained by her peers, it comes across as acceptable to punish her,” highlighting the unfair beauty standards for women in the 70s and putting the fear of such a burden on screen (“The Monstrous Feminine: Women and Horror,” Criminal Element). In contrast to this, Jennifer is every man’s dream: a sexy cheerleader in a mini skirt–and with that difference comes a difference in her victims as well. As a postmodern period horror film, Jennifer’s Body holds a deconstructive attitude, evoking irony in its very plot. Jennifer never wants to become a succubus, this terrible fate is instead brought on by a greedy group of men with their own agenda who sacrifice her and when the sacrifice goes wrong she becomes a killer of men, and only men. This ironic twist of fate showcases the film to be “delightfully subversive in how it plays out the ‘teenage vixen’ trope,” because Jennifer becomes the murderer of the very thing that looks to take advantage of her: horny teenage boys (“The Monstrous Feminine: Women and Horror,” Criminal Element). This trope serves as a commentary on the treatment of women seen in recent decades as discussions on sexual harassment, equal pay, and abortion come to the surface more and more in the 90s, 2000s, and so on. The film is also not timid about its commentary either, when ‘Needy’ confronts Jennifer that she’s “killing people,” Jennifer’s response is a direct punch at the sexualization and mistreatment of females in today’s world, “no I’m killing boys” (Jennifer’s Body). This film–made for women, by women–seeks to take down the patriarchy in a twisted, yet self-aware way, allowing the postmodern horror film to give a small wave to the modern horrors that came before it. Director Karyn Kusama knew exactly what she was doing when she cast the 2000s ‘it girl’ Megan Fox as the succubus in this film, she was luring in young men just to have them scarred by the fear of a sexy cheerleader ripping their jugular out and empowering young females to see men as an obstacle they could take down. While Carrie comments on the bullies of 1970s female beauty standards and conservative religion, Jennifer’s Body takes on the 2000s hyper-sexualization of young women and the high school hierarchy, making these films similar, yet different. Their differences showcase the evolvement of the horror genre as the fears of society evolve as well.

While these films may differ in the postmodern period’s rejection of some modernist characteristics, both of these horror films showcase the evolution from the classical period of horror in their approach to ethics. The classical era shows a horror film with discrete distinctions between good and evil, while the modern and postmodern dwell in the shades of grey in the middle. In the classical period, directors stuck to the textbook–male villains slaying the female heroine. An example of such can be seen near the end of the classical era in 1960 with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, a horror film with “infamous shower scene, [where Hitchcock] introduced the basic slasher components of the male killer and the helpless female victim” (“Sex and Violence in the Slasher Horror Film: A Content Analysis of Gender Differences in the Depiction of Violence and the Evolution of the Comics Code,” The Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture). The audience knows who’s evil–the male killer–and who’s good–the female victim–but the modern and postmodern horror film doesn’t let its audience off so easily. It basks in the grey area, leaving the audience to feel pity for its villains and scorn for their victims. For example, in Carrie this boundary of a female victim is slightly broken since while Carrie “unleashes terrifying telekinetic powers against her schoolmates,” she’s also “viciously mocked for the onset of her first period,” she’s both a villain and a victim–blurring the line between innocent and guilty (“The Horror Film,” Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond, Edinburgh University Press). Good and evil are not so easily deciphered. This grey area is widened to an even greater extent in the postmodern horror genre. As Jennifer kills only boys, the audience would hope to label her a villainous victim, like Carrie. Although, in Jennifer’s Body, Megan Fox’s character kills creeps and innocents alike, also wreaking havoc on her former best friend as she tears into ‘Needy’s’ boyfriend out of jealousy. Since Jennifer was wrongfully killed out of a boy band’s greed, turning her into this monster, the audience feels pity for her, but her own selfish actions leave the audience unsure of who exactly is the villain in this film. Is it Jennifer? Is it her male victims? Is it anyone? As the film considers the fears of society, the “postmodern rhetoric reflects the recent experience of the collapse of the conceptual fixities” and has “captured the spirit of the times” through its ability to highlight the complexity of good vs. evil (“The Nature of Horror,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism). In the present day, good and evil are no longer separate boxes to be placed in, the grey area between has been–and continues to be–expanding, and the postmodern horror film makes sure to emphasize just that.

The postmodern and modern eras of the horror film genre cannot be viewed as absolute adversaries of one another, but rather as a dialogue between periods in time. While the postmodern era criticizes the modern’s inclusion of a grand narrative and distinguishment between high and low culture, it also adapts the grey area between good and evil that’s seen in modernism, pushing it further. Jennifer’s Body, while holding differing sentiments and themes in its own right, can be viewed as a nostalgic play on the vengeful teenage girl seen in Carrie. It’s a similar work manifested differently as a postmodern horror film is not only a reaction to the modernist horror genre but also a continuation of it as well. Thus, the horror genre reflects on human fascinations of an evolving world; while human fears alter along with the socio-political context in which the film was created, they also collaborate with each other to become more horrifying than ever.

Works Cited
Barry, Angie. “The Monstrous Feminine: Women and Horror, Part 1.” Criminal Element, 9 May 2018, http://www.criminalelement.com/the-monstrous-feminine-women-and-horror-part-1-angie-barry/.

Beckman, Joanne. “Religion in Post-World War II America.” National Humanities Center, Duke University, 2000, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/trelww2.htm.

“Carrie at 40: Why the Horror Genre Remains Important for Women.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Nov. 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/03/carrie-stephen-king-brian-de-palma-horror-films-feminism.

Carrie, Directed by Brian De Palma, Red Bank Films, 1976.
Carroll, Noël. “The Nature of Horror.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 46, no. 1, 987, pp. 51–59. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/431308. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

Fischer, Lucy. Cinema by Design : Art Nouveau, Modernism, and Film History. Columbia University Press, 2017, https://doi.org/10.7312/fisc17502.

Jennifer’s Body, Directed by Karyn Kusama, 20th Century Fox, 2009.

Langford, Barry. “The Horror Film.” Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond, Edinburgh University Press, 2005, pp. 158–81. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctvxcrbd3.11. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

“The Pill and the Sexual Revolution | American Experience | PBS.” PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-and-sexual-revolution/.

Welsh, Andrew. “Sex and Violence in the Slasher Horror Film: A Content Analysis of Gender Differences in the Depiction of Violence and the Evolution of the Comics Code.” The Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, vol. 16, no. 1, 2009, pp. 1–25.