Films & Events

Spooky Spawn: Reproductive Body Horror and Perverse Parenthood explores how parent-child relationships, often idealized as nurturing and selfless, can become horrifying. In each film, a parental figure is thrust into unexpected circumstances they can’t fully control. As a result, they place their needs above their children’s, leading to disastrous outcomes that highlight moral corruption. Featuring bone-chillingly monstrous offspring, each story depicts the warped side of human procreation. Gone are rosy cheeks, soft skin, and infant laughter—these grotesque children are anything but endearing. Spooky Spawn lays bare the hidden dread that haunts life’s most joyous milestones, rendering horrors the mind can barely conceive. Spooky Spawn, curated by Julia Elliott and Nima Yolmo, is sponsored by the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at USC. All presentational and marketing materials were designed by South Carolina Honors students from Dr. Elliott’s Gender and Monstrosity in Horror Films class.