In 1986, Linda Williams penned the landmark essay “When the Woman Looks,” a critique of how the female gaze in horror films reflects both a cultural status of subordination and an association with monstrosity. This project addresses what comes after that moment of identification: the female scream.

Popular thinking is that women scream in horror films because it is an inherently misogynistic media genre; that women are screaming because they are being terrorized. But this reading fails to account for any complexity of female emotions and experiences. While women do scream because they are afraid, they also scream in anger, grief, or simply to be heard. This public humanities podcast project examines the evolution of the female scream in horror films and explores the cultural underpinnings that potentially explain these shifts.

Season one consists of five episodes centered on horror films from the United States. Each episode covers a particular type of scream and considers what that scream suggests about the political and social context in which it was created. This season covers Hagsploitation, Sexual Harassment, Maternal Grief, Coded Queerness, and Post-Trump Anger. Funding for season 1 is generously provided by the Humanities Center at Lehigh University.

This is not a podcast about women being victimized. This is a podcast about women surviving and I hope you’ll scream with me.

Screams

Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)

Director: David Lynch
Actresses: Sheryl Lee, Grace Zabriskie
Category: Child Abuse in Twin Peaks
Themes: : Abuse, Recovered Memory, Family Trauma

The Purge TV Series (2018)

Creator: James DeMonaco
Actress: Amanda Warren
Category: Sexual Harassment
Themes: Harassment, Racism

The Night Walker (1965)

Director: William Castle
Actress: Barbara Stanwyck
Category: Hagsploitation
Themes: Gaslighting, Psychological Torture

Eye of the Cat (1969)

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

What’s the Matter with Helen (1971)

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

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)

Director: Robert Aldrich
Actresses: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford
Category: Hagsploitation
Themes: Disability, Caregiving, Mental Illness

Strait Jacket (1964)

Director: William Castle
Actresses: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker
Category: Hagsploitation
Themes: Intergenerational Trauma, Mental Illness

Lady in a Cage (1964)

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

Cat People (1942)

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Actresses: Simone Simon, Jane Randolph
Category: Coded Queerness
Themes: Queer Monsters, Otherness