AustLit

'Ann Turner’s 1989 debut film Celia has often been classified as horror, due in large part to the presence of the monstrous Hobyahs that haunt Celia’s dreams. While Celia is not a horror film per se, this is complicated by the film’s application of horror tropes. Film scholars acknowledge the family as a common site of the horror film and for the character of Celia, who lives in an oppressive home environment, the Hobyahs clearly signify one of horror’s key concerns: the return of the repressed. In addition, Celia shares numerous narrative similarities with Mervyn LeRoy’s 1956 monster child film The Bad Seed, leading some commentators to compare the two films. Like Rhoda in The Bad Seed, Celia and her spiteful cousin Stephanie, can both be read as monster children. Through close analysis of key scenes in Turner’s film and a reconsideration of genre, this essay concludes that the close relationship Celia shares with the horror genre justifies its reception by some audiences as horror.'

Source: Abstract.

'In recent years the international film industry’s attention has turned to highlighting the lack of gender equality in filmmaking. There has been much discussion on ways to increase production led by female filmmakers, and continuing pressure applied to various film festivals to exhibit their finished works. In Australia, this disunion has already been noticed and some Australian funding bodies are now compliant. So why are female led films the exception rather than the rule? Why are there only a handful of A-listed actresses that are entrusted to open films that wear the mantel of ‘women’s film or chick-flick”? In horror film circles the same problems arise: apart from the strong Final Girl archetype, female characters are often side-lined to be a girlfriend or victim that is at the mercy of the stronger male characters, or worse, an insane harridan whose film is categorised under the ‘psycho biddy’ subgenre. This article closely considers Canadian filmmaker Ursula Dabrowsky, a filmmaker based in Adelaide, Australia, in both the context of gender representation in her film Inner Demon (2014) and in terms of her status as a woman making genre cinema in the context of the contemporary Australian film industry.'

Source: Abstract.

A roundtable discussion between three female film-makers, with a focus on genre film.