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1、The feminine appeal of British horror cinemaAlison Peirse*Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York, York, UKWhen Se ´ance on a Wet Afternoon (1964, Bryan Forbes) was set for release,cinema mana

2、gers were advised that ‘feminine appeal’ was a strong angle for publicity, and the film went on to be a critical and commercial success. Yet, it is relatively unknown in existing academic histories of horror cinema. The

3、female lead, spiritualist premise and psychological horror make it an uneasy bedfellow with existing accounts of 1960s British horror films, which focus on the sexualised colour-saturated violence of Hammer Studios and i

4、ts associated offspring. This article reverses this trend by revealing a cycle of 1960s black-and-white British horror films whose primary textual address is to women, manifested through complex female characters, interi

5、ority and stories of motherhood, stillbirth and child murder. Utilising Mary Ann Doane’s work on maternal melodrama, the article explores the parallels between this cycle and the woman’s film, and draws upon reception an

6、alysis in order to consider how the critics responded to the female-centred films. It is suggested that not only have film historians failed to note that this cycle exists, but more importantly they have also failed to u

7、nderstand how frightening the films could be for a female audience.Keywords: British cinema; horror cinema; spiritualism; Se ´ance on a WetAfternoon; woman’s film; melodramaIntroductionWhen Se ´ance on a Wet Af

8、ternoon (1964, Bryan Forbes) was set for release,cinema managers were advised that ‘feminine appeal’ was a particularly strong angle for publicity. The press book suggests that exhibitors should make a leaflet ‘a(chǎn)imed dir

9、ectly at the ladies for insertion in the large-circulation women’s magazines or for door-to-door distribution. Quantities should be left in beauty parlours, cosmeticians, hats and dress shops and all leading stores and r

10、estaurants’. The following text was suggested for inclusion: ‘Ladies, Do you have a choice in which film your husband or boyfriend sees? If so, then you will want to know about Se ´ance on a Wet Afternoon’, explaini

11、ng ‘it tells the off-beatstory of a woman who is a professional medium, her weak-willed husband and the terrifying real-life events which spring from her sheltered world of twilight’. Describing the two stars, ‘Richard A

12、ttenborough and Hollywood’s Kim Stanley’, the pitch concludes ‘Se ´ance on a Wet Afternoon is an unusually powerful dramawhich every woman will want to see’ (Rank Organisation 1964, 4). The macabreq 2015 Taylor by

13、the 1960s that body had become exclusively female’ (2000, 114). And when we think of 1960s British horror, it is these films we remember. But what about the ‘feminine appeal’ of Se ´ance ona Wet Afternoon? How does

14、a horror ‘film that every woman will want to see’ fit into this history?This article suggests that – contrary to existing writing – there is a cycle of1960s British black and white horror films whose primary textual addr

15、ess is to women. The progenitors of these texts come not from Hammer but the nervy black and white European horrors, Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot) and Les yeux sans visage (1960, Georges Franju), not to m

16、ention Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock). The cycle not only includes Se ´ance on a Wet Afternoonbut also The Innocents (1961, Jack Clayton), The Haunting (1963, Robert Wise), Night of the Eagle (1962, Sidney Hayers)

17、and Bunny Lake is Missing (1965, Otto Preminger). These films are often mentioned in passing in horror film histories, frequently under the subheading of ‘psychological thriller’. For example, Murphy’s final comment in h

18、is horror chapter is on ‘the other important group of horror films made in the 60s are contemporary thrillers which involve madness or the illusion of madness – what Todorov calls “an experience of limits” – rather than

19、supernatural forces’ (1992, 199). This may be an ‘important’ group of films to Murphy, but his references to madness films, including Bunny Lake is Missing, take up less than one page. The 1960s films discussed here have

20、 become relegated to a brief reference, a line, a paragraph, a final page in a chapter as a bridging device, or filed away neatly in the catch-all ‘psychological thriller’ footnote, or in the case of Se ´ance on a W

21、et Afternoon, hardly ever referenced at all. It is a shamewhen this cycle of films so clearly provides a basis for later female-led horror films, including Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Roman Polanski) and The Haunting of Julia

22、 (1977, Richard Loncraine).There is more to this exclusion though than a lack of fit in prevailingdiscourses. I’m suggesting here that there are gendered implications arising from the decisions made by male writers as th

23、ey select, categorise and write our horror film histories. As it currently stands, when discussing 1960s horror films, if the terror is interior, formed by a woman, taking place inside her mind, it is not usually recogni

24、sed (or prioritised) as a horror film. Instead, it is considered a thriller (and probably not that frightening). I’m seeking here to overturn this, and to suggest that what Hutchings, Murphy, Forshaw et al. have failed t

25、o take into account is how frightening and disturbing this cycle of films could be for a female audience. To describe them as ‘psychological thrillers’ is to miss the dark heart at the centre of each narrative. Se ´

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