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South Carolina Honors College

  • three posters

Season of the Witch: Gender, Monstrosity, and Occult Power

Taught By: Julia Elliott

Screening at the Russell House Theater, October 2021

October 16, 7:00 PM: The Witch (2016, Robert Eggers) 
October 23, 7:00 PM: The Love Witch (2016, Anna Biller)
October 28, 7:00 PM: The Invitation (2015, Karyn Kusama)

Season of the Witch: Gender, Monstrosity, and Occult Power is a film series that skillfully inverts the ubiquitous theme of the femme fatale in various settings, adding depth to traditionally two-dimensional, static female characters. Through an engaging horror lens, each of the films explores women as they leverage stereotypically weak aspects of femininity--their sexuality, hospitality, and emotionality. Portrayed as demonic, these women utilize the occult to undermine the patriarchy, evoking fear in fellow male characters. Despite their modern production, these films depict the course of history and the development of female empowerment from 1630s New England to pseudo 60s California and 21st century Hollywood Hills. As paranoia-inducing dinner parties, midnight cabin trysts, and frenzied witch hunts unfold, this series invites you to experience the monstrous feminine as it threatens the powers of patriarchy and creates institutions of its own. 

Curated by Julia Elliott, Season of the Witch  is sponsored by The South Carolina Honors College and Women’s and Gender Studies at UofSC. The series features presentational and marketing material created by students in Julia Elliott’s Gender and Monstrosity in Horror Films course at UofSC.

 

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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