Fairy Tale and Film

Fairy Tale and Film
What does she imply with this notion of being ‘too close together’? The 
answer can be found in plots featuring new wives violently seeking to 
oust their predecessor’s offspring from the nest, fathers with an incestu-
ous interest in their daughters, and siblings that see each other only as 
rivals (all of which challenges the idea that ‘family values’ is a synonym 
for the best of human behaviour). Psychoanalysts may argue that such 
storylines reflect primal desires and fears, yet researchers have asserted 
greater significance in the socio-historic circumstances in which such 
stories developed, pointing to factors such as multiple marriages and a 
relative disdain for social prohibitions that led to dysfunctional family 
relations. Whether we regard fairy tales as an expression of sublimated 
anxieties, or a reflection of actual experiences, the family is invariably 
perceived to be ‘damaged’ or deviant in some way, causing us to ques-
tion if the ability to forge and maintain good relationships within the 
family unit is just another form of wishful thinking.
Horror cinema reprises a number of familial motifs, including destruc-
tive devouring mothers, ‘unnatural’ incestuous fathers, and children 
who are far from innocent. Given its intended audience, the genre is 
relatively free to explore taboo subjects, updating seemingly age-old con-
cerns, while also inviting the opportunity to question perceived norms. 
In some ways, given its supernatural and surreal qualities, horror cinema 
has become an ideal forum for rearticulating fairy tale tropes, particularly 
unhappy families. In detailing abusive parents and aberrant upbringings, 
the genre offers a relatively unique opportunity to say the unspeakable, 
articulating flaws and failings that are not simply attributable to psy-
choanalytic accounts, inviting us to reassess assumptions surrounding 
parental virtue, villainy and blame. Although capable of corroborating 
questionable beliefs, as well as challenging them, the horror film has a 
tendency to subvert expectation, causing us to realign our allegiances 
and revise our beliefs. A key consideration here is whether these attrib-
utes, together with recent attempts to supernaturally reconstruct the 
family, offer a means of escaping psychoanalytic accounts, perhaps even 
challenging Carter’s contention that all family structures are inherently 
problematic.
Despite their reputation as wish-fulfilment fantasies, fairy tales often 
seek to induce a sense of fear. Indeed, facing what frightens us is the 
point to many tales, forcing us to realise that there are dangers both 
abroad and at home, and thereby accommodating audiences to some 
unpleasant realities – including the idea that parents may be predatory 
figures rather than protectors. Interestingly, while fairy tales are often 
criticised for nurturing unrealistic expectations with regard to romance, 

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they have been applauded in other quarters for broaching uncomfort-
able subjects such as a death in the family, or recognition that relatives 
may be abusers. The fairy tale’s proclivity at unveiling familial prob-
lems, whilst also showing children able to survive their experiences, 
consequently functions as a powerful therapeutic device, according to 
some psychotherapists.
1
Far from simply addressing sublimated anxie-
ties or suppressed desires, such tales thus potentially reflect real difficul-
ties, including those rarely admitted elsewhere. This is an important 
consideration, suggesting that, rather than seeking to evade reality 
(as detractors often claim), fantastical conceits may provide the ideal 
means to discuss ideas we prefer not to think about. Folklorists have 
debated along similar lines to horror critics in attempting to explain 
common thematic concerns, with psychoanalytic interpretations often 
used to assess narratives as a reflection of our unconscious. Fairy tales 
explicitly invite such a reading, given their abstract nature and the 
abundance of symbolism used. However, this approach is not without 
its problems, including a tendency to make questionable assumptions 
that potentially distort our understanding of fairy tales in the compul-
sion to ascribe Freud to every scenario (a problem amply demonstrated 
by Alan Dundes’ claim that incestuous fathers reflect an Electra com-
plex rather than actual experience).
2
According to psychoanalysts, 
abusive fathers are a figment of girls’ imaginations, wicked stepmothers 
are likewise imaginary (deriving from a need to protect the maternal 
ideal), and fairy tales chiefly fulfil the function of helping us negotiate 
adolescence and adulthood. An evident pitfall, in seeking to apply a 
pre-established framework of interpretation, is that nothing new is ever 
admitted or opened to examination, with a reluctance to see beyond 
these templates and question the familial relationships presented in 
tales: failing to assess the conflicts and dangers encountered by pro-
tagonists as more than necessarily symbolic or imaginary, or adequately 
considering the social forces that inform these relations. It is in seeking 
to extend our understanding, rather than entrench given beliefs, that 
narratives and their readings arguably achieve greater pertinence. 
Robin Wood productively conflates psychoanalysis and social critique 
in perceiving horror cinema’s monsters as a ‘return of the repressed’, 
reinvigorating psychoanalytic concerns through reference to negated 
social subjects, rather than drives. The term was originally used by 
Freud in his paper ‘The Uncanny’ (1919), arguing that repressing illicit 
fears and desires (an act we all engage in to comply with the demands 
of civilisation) is never wholly successful, resulting in their manifesta-
tion in what he termed as ‘the uncanny’ – fictional representations 

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