If films like Midsommar or Let the Right One In have taught us anything, it's that exceptional female-driven horror can be far from ordinary. From Marion Crane in Psycho to Beverly Marsh in It, the horror genre has been punctuated by many portrayals of women in its century-long lifespan. A framework for many of these extraordinary female performances is provided by horror tropes; sometimes tasteful, sometimes not (just google "death by sex" and you'll understand).
One of the most compelling frameworks for horror films is the allegory of maternal love, or the "mother figure." Let's take a look at some of the most captivating maternal figures of the horror genre.
Laurie Strode - Halloween (2018)
Directed by David Gordon Green, Halloween reboots the classic clash of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers. A story that began in 1978, Halloween summons Laurie Strode four decades after the calamitous night during which she first encountered (and survived) Michael's bloodthirsty crusade.
In the years since, a PTSD-riddled Laurie has become all but a recluse. She isolates herself and trains in various combat tactics, estranged from her daughter and granddaughter. When Michael inevitably escapes institutionalization, however, Laurie is wholly prepared for his return. She safeguards her daughter and granddaughter with her life, reminiscent of her self-sacrifice forty years prior for the lives of the two children she babysat. This time, at least, she has a revolver.
Mother Suspiriorum - Suspiria (2018)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Suspiria reboots the cult-classic tale of Susie, an ambitious girl granted entry into an esteemed German academy of dance. Soon after her arrival, Susie (Dakota Johnson) begins to unravel a knot of ominous disturbances. This leads to the revelation that the academy is being operated by a malevolent coven of witches guided by the barbaric Mother Markos.
Though Mother Markos is the unseen omnipotence of the film and directs all of the actions of the coven, she is dethroned by none other than Susie. In a climactic and sanguinary scene, Susie reveals herself to be Mother Suspiriorum and puts an end to Markos' sadistic ritual. She kills Markos and her sympathizers, but shows mercy to the remainder of the coven and allows her grievously injured friends to choose a peaceful death.
Ellen Ripley - Aliens (1986)
Written and directed by James Cameron, Aliens is the continuation of the story of Ellen Ripley, sole survivor of the carnage aboard the spaceship Nostromo. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is awoken from suspended animation to the discovery that fifty-seven years have passed and her daughter, Amanda, is dead.
Dispatched back to the planet from which she narrowly escaped with her life, Ripley discovers Newt, a young girl and sole survivor of a massacred terraforming colony. Throughout the course of the film, Ripley becomes Newt's surrogate mother. She coaxes Newt out of her hiding place, cleans her, feeds her, and protects her until Ripley secures their escape back to Earth.
Adelaide Wilson/Red - Us (2019)
Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us recounts the story of Adelaide Wilson and her family's brush with terror. After encountering a doppelgänger of herself in a pier funhouse as a child, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) finds herself face-to-face with her's and her family's doppelgängers while vacationing at the same beach years later.
Adelaide fights tooth and nail for her family's survival, following her doppelgänger, Red, back into the funhouse. While Adelaide is the maternal figure of her family, it is revealed that Red (as the only doppelgänger with the ability to speak) orchestrated and led the retribution of the doppelgängers, and thus is their maternal figure parallel to Adelaide.
Grace - The Others (2001)
Written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar, The Others recounts the story of Grace (Nicole Kidman), a widow raising her two children in an isolated home in the Channel Islands. Because her children suffer from photosensitivity, Grace must ensure their constant envelopment in darkness.
When disturbing incidents begin to take place around the house, Grace becomes convinced that the house is haunted by malevolent spirits, or "others." She remains steadfast in her determination to keep her children safe from "the others," only to discover that she had suffocated her children and committed suicide and that they themselves were "the others" all along.
Mrs. Voorhees - Friday the 13th (1980)
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham, Friday the 13th follows a group of camp counselors in their attempt at reopening a summer camp two decades after the camp was host to the drowning death of a young boy. The counselors are methodically hunted and killed by an unidentified attacker, brutally dying one by one.
Their attacker is revealed to be Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), the mother of the young boy who drowned in the lake years prior. For over two decades, Mrs. Voorhees maintained her belief that the death of her son, Jason, was the result of negligence on the part of the former camp counselors. Determined to avenge Jason's death, she resolves to take the lives of the new counselors as retribution.
Wendy Torrance - The Shining (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, The Shining is the story of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a schoolteacher-turned-writer who takes a job as a winter caretaker for the extravagant but isolated Overlook Hotel. Despite the Overlook's macabre history, Jack moves his family into the hotel for their extended solitary stay, where he begins to exhibit aggressive behavior.
Jack's wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), grows increasingly dubious of his behavior, convinced that he physically harmed their son, Danny. Unflinching in her efforts to keep Danny safe with Jack becoming rapidly untethered, Wendy locks Jack in a store cupboard, and she and Danny eventually escape the hotel altogether while Jack is left for dead in a snowy hedge maze.
Mutter - Goodnight Mommy (2014)
Directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, Goodnight Mommy is an Austrian film that details the story of a woman returning home to her nine-year-old twin sons after undergoing extensive cosmetic surgery. Because of her heavily bandaged face and newly peculiar behavior, the twins, Elias and Lukas, grow skeptical that the woman is their real mother.
Convinced that their mother is an imposter, Elias and Lukas go to great lengths to discover the truth, including tying their mother to her bed, setting traps for her, and even gluing her to the floor to prevent her from escaping. It is ultimately revealed that she is in fact their mother, but that Lukas had perished in an accident before her surgery and Elias had been imagining his brother's presence as a means of coping with his grief.
Margaret White - Carrie (1976)
Directed by Brian de Palma, Carrie is the classic tale of Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), the painfully shy and sheltered daughter of single mother Margaret (Piper Laurie). A fervently religious woman, Margaret punishes Carrie for imagined offenses against god, causing Carrie to develop telekinetic powers as a means of overcoming her shyness and oppression.
Despite Carrie's numerous school bullies, Margaret is seen as Carrie's most formidable foe. After Carrie's prom goes infamously awry, Carrie returns home only to be physically attacked by Margaret, who is convinced that Carrie is a witch. Ultimately, Carrie uses her telekinesis to kill Margaret and burn their house down with the two of them still inside.
Annie - Hereditary (2018)
The directorial debut of Ari Aster, Hereditary details the turbulent journey of a family left reeling after multiple losses. The story begins with Annie (Toni Collette) losing her mother and her young daughter, Charlie, within a short period of time. As Annie grapples with the depths of her grief, sinister events linked to her mother's secretive past begin to develop.
What follows is an acutely disquieting series of incidents punctuated by Annie's discovery of her mother's headless corpse in her attic, her husband's death, her own possession and suicide, and the subsequent possession of her son, Peter.