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,
Houses of Horror
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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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