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Prevenge
After the death of her unborn child’s father, Ruth must navigate the last months of her pregnancy alone. Mourning and isolated, she succumbs to the homicidal demands of her fetus, who speaks to her from the womb. As she slips further under the influence of her vengeful baby, Ruth confronts the bloody reality of single motherhood.
This is the second film in a three-part series Possession: Contested Bodies and the Monstrous-Feminine, which depicts experiences considered most crucial to women’s self-fulfillment in a patriarchal society—the transition into womanhood and the challenges of pregnancy and childbirth—rites of passage that become attacks from hostile others. In each film, when a female character deviates from her expected role as obedient daughter, wife, or mother, she suffers a visceral loss of bodily autonomy alongside a new and dangerous form of empowerment. Possession explores this subversive power dynamic, asking us to question which is scarier: the monster that possesses or the monstrous and untameable woman? The fiendish fetus, demonic daughter, and murderous mother figures central to the series implore you to find out for yourself.
Curated by Julia Elliott and Nima Yolmo, Possession: Contested Bodies and the Monstrous Feminine is sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies at USC. The series features presentational and marketing materials created by South Carolina Honors College students in Elliott’s Gender and Monstrosity in Horror Films course.
Other films in this series:
The Exorcist (1973)
88 min.