Mother, May I Have Some Horror?
On the rise of pregnancy horror movies
I freelance for a website that focuses on movie nudity. It is one of my most consistent writing gigs and it’s honestly a lot of fun as it forces me to keep up-to-date with celebrities and film trends outside of the Letterbox/Criterion/substack bubble. I have to literally know “who’s hot right now”.
I was trying to write an article on new films with nudity and it was a struggle. Babes aren’t getting their sweaters slashed off their bodies by knife-wielding weirdos like they used to! As I browsed through the last year or two of horror movie nude scenes one trope was evident: pregnancy. Most of the scenes that I found involved pregnancy. I dove into it deeper: The First Omen, Deliver Us, Immaculate, and a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby (THE OG pregnancy horror film) all came out in the last year. Many horror films feature “birthing” scenes like Alien: Romulus. 2024’s Nightbitch is a post-partum horror story in which the pressures of motherhood make Amy Adams believe she’s turning into a carnivorous dog.
What is going on?
The answer is obvious: reproductive rights are endangered in the United States of America. After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, reproductive rights were rapidly decreased and taken away in several states. That has led to trickle-down arguments over IVF, Plan B, and birth control methods. It’s…terrifying.
If you don’t have a uterus, then it might be difficult to fully grasp just how scary - and deadly - pregnancy can be. It used to be the most common cause of death for women. Beyond that, it’s messy, painful, and long. I know people who have gone bald or lost teeth during their pregnancy! Your body changes in ways that are completely foreign to you. Not only that, but other people treat your body like it’s no longer just yours. People touch pregnant bellies without asking and ask invasive questions, and the government can dictate the kind of healthcare you receive. It can be hard for a pregnant person to feel like they have control of their body.
Birth is absolutely a miracle when you consider how hard it is! And humans have always done this?! Crazy! I’m not saying pregnancy is bad, but I am saying that it is valid for some pregnant people to feel like the baby is holding the host hostage. That feels like a new kind of creature feature. But who is the creature? The pregnant body that transforms or the baby that is born? Those ideas are explored in most of these movies, especially with the idea of the baby being born as some kind of demon spawn.
Side note: if you DO give birth to a demon, what are you supposed to do? Teach it shapes and colors and hope for the best???? Hell no. I’m sending that kid to boarding school for sure.
Pregnancy horror movies are not new! But they're more dominant than ever. The film landscape in 2024 is filled with two horrors: pregnancy horror and the horror of aging.
Several body horror films in 2024 deal with aging and changing looks: Shell, A Different Man, and most popularly The Substance. Two of those three deal specifically, again, with women aging. In all of these kinds of films, women are thematically reduced to their bodies. The message is one that certain politicians are spewing at the moment: women have an expiration date and they expire as soon as they no longer seem fertile. Thus a woman’s value in American life hinges on the appearance of youth as youth suggests fertility. Aging means decreased value which means decreasing in visibility until no one sees you as anything other than a mother or grandmother. Cute!
Horror is no stranger to women’s bodies - or bodies in general (I’m lookin’ at you, The Fly). Women’s bodies are either the object of horror, the vessel of horror, or they are the slashed-up victim. That being said, this remains a genre that is good for women! Horror is where SO many people get their start, especially women. Whether they are acting, writing, directing, editing, or anything in between horror tends to be the place where different kinds of artists get to work and workshop ideas that are “not marketable” for the mainstream.
That is why I applaud these films. But I didn’t immediately feel very “girl power” about any of this. When I realized how many pregnancy horror films have come out in the last few years, I felt more “girl, so confusing”. I appreciate honesty when it comes to talking about “the miracle of birth” not being all it’s cracked up to be or about the fears surrounding pregnancy, and more specifically the very real danger of reproductive health being taken away from people in a first-world country.
I want to see these things explored in every genre! But I know that execs and moviegoers alike might feel these topics are too preachy or extreme or “too for women”. Packaging these things in the cocoon of horror makes them more palpable, like putting a pill in peanut butter to make the dog swallow it. The dog doesn’t want to see “a chick flick”, but the dog will see The Substance because they’ve been told it’s a disturbing body horror despite it being helmed by women.
Maybe politicians should be forced to have a movie marathon of these horror films before they make laws (sleepover!!!). Maybe that’s the only way to get these themes across in a way that will make them empathize with the fears of the people.
That’s the purpose of horror. It’s not just meant to make us stay up all night. It also reflects society’s fears and dangers in a way that reframes how we think about them. And what’s scarier than that?
Next time: Vampires! I know I promised that for next week, but then I got really excited about this topic and wrote this piece in two hours. So sue me! (but become a paid subscriber first so I have money to be sued for.)