Originating from the Old Norse ‘ugglig’, meaning ‘to be feared or dreaded’, the term ‘ugly’ is now mostly used as an antonym for ‚beautiful’. Imagining the horror genre without elements of ‘the ugly’ seems almost impossible, as ugliness, often perceived as something disgusting and repulsive, forms the aesthetical basis for the horrors of the genre.
But what is it that we consider to be ugly? What attributes do we assign to ugliness? Whether consciously or not, many horror films support questionable notions of beauty as, for instance, racist and sexist stereotypes are reproduced and reinforced by forming the horror monsters’ physicality on noticeably discriminatory images. Further, the beautiful and the good are set up as binary opposites of the ugly and the evil.
In this talk, we are going to explore how ‘the ugly’ is represented in the horror genre by applying an intersectional feminist perspective. We will examine how sexism, racism, ableism, and classism still provide continuities within the idea of the ugly and, thus, in the horror genre itself.
Can ‘the ugly’ exist without discriminatory reproductions? And can there be horror without ugliness?
Ervehea Ziza, born 1989 in Kosova, is a writer & filmmaker based in Berlin. Since she grew up watching horror movies at an early age, monsters became her early companions. After studying philosophy, art history & dramaturgy she explores themes of intersectional feminism and anti-capitalism in culture, pop culture and especially in film & arts. Her latest academic work examines the aesthetics of the uncanny in the horror genre using the example of the series THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (US, 2018).
