In 1984, Linda Williams penned the landmark essay “When the Woman Looks,” a critique of how the female gaze in horror films reflects the woman’s cultural status of subordination and her association with monstrosity. This dissertation addresses what comes after that moment of identification: the female scream.

When the Woman Screams challenges the idea of screaming as an inherently feminine act fueled by terror by suggesting that the scream acts as a disruptor to the male gaze, not least by shifting audience focus to (and in potential alignment with) the female survivor. Functionally, the scream is as transgressive as the monster’s violence. When a woman screams in horror, she is occupying a space of competing cultural categories of acceptable behavior. These vocalizations, whether stemming from fear, anger, grief, or a combination of emotions, resist cultural frameworks that have historically equated “good” womanhood with silence. The substantial narrative power that underlies female horror screams arises as a disruptor of this silence -- highlighting inequitable power structures -- and it is in this spirit of disruption that When the Woman Screams reimagines the format of the dissertation.

Explore the Screams

A woman screams in fright while on a staircase.

Homicidal (1961)

Director: William Castle
Actresses: Jean Arless, Patricia Breslin
Category: Coded Queerness
Themes: Gender Performance

a woman lets out a startled scream before being attacked

Play Misty for Me (1971)

Director: Clint Eastwood
Actresses: Clarice Taylor, Jessica Walter
Category: Systemic White Supremacy
Themes: Racism, Mental Illness

Eye of the Cat (1969)

Director: David Lowell Rich
Actress: Eleanor Parker
Category: Hagsploitation
Themes: Disability, Caregiving

Lady in a Cage (1964)

Director: Walter Grauman
Actress: Olivia de Havilland
Category: Hagsploitation
Themes: Disability, Psychological Torture

The Belko Experiment (2016)

Director: Greg McClean
Actress: Adria Arjona
Category: Sexual Harassment
Themes: Harassment, Silencing

AHS: Freak Show (2014)

Director: Anthony Hemingway
Actresses: Jyoti Amge, Jessica Lange
Category: Disability
Themes: Ethics of Museum Exhibition

Master (2022)

Director: Mariama Diallo
Actresses: Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Amber Gray
Category: Systemic White Supremacy
Themes: Racism, Academia

The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

Director: Michael Chaves
Actresses: Linda Cardellini, Marisol Ramirez
Category: Maternal Grief
Themes: Grief, Otherness

What’s the Matter with Helen (1971)

Director: Curtis Harrington
Actresses: Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters
Category: Hagsploitation
Themes: Grief, Mental Illness