Six Horror Films About Fears of Female Sexuality

By Matt Prigge
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Jan. 23, 2008

Teeth

Cat People (1942): Along with creating a sense of ambiguity and atmosphere on a limited budget, the cheapie horrors of producer Val Lewton featured transgressive and satirical thinking decades before their time. His first production nimbly established the Lewton template, with Simone Simon as a delicate Serbian newlywed who won't consummate her marriage, believing she has a curse that will turn her into a panther when aroused. Which she does, but only long after the subtext has eaten into our brains.

Repulsion (1965): Making a mockery of the sexist notion of the sexually repressed beauty, Roman Polanski's fetid, phantasmagoric English-languge debut stars Catherine Deneuve as a withdrawn, probably insane beautician who unravels over a weekend spent by herself in a London apartment.

House of Whipcord (1974): Dedicated "to those disturbed by today's lax moral codes," sleaze master Peter Walker's British exploitation film has members of the old guard--one of them based on infamous anti-pornographer Mary Whitehouse--secretly imprison sexually liberated women in a country "institute." Once there, they're psychologically beaten down, tortured and, if particularly insolent, hung.

Rabid (1977): After an experimental skin graft, porn star Marilyn Chambers finds a fanged phallus that spreads rabies growing under her armpit. Guess how quickly it takes most of Montreal to become infected? One of David Cronenberg's early Canadian shockers, it carries over themes from his previous Shivers but with a parody of male horniness thrown in for good measure.

Ginger Snaps (2000): Carrie has spawned sequels and remakes, but John Fawcett's Canadian horror film is its true successor. After being bitten by a werewolf, a goth girl (guess her name) experiences all kinds of bodily changes, among them a raging libido--just in time for puberty, wouldn't you know.

Teeth (2008): Finally, the vagina dentata--an old cautionary tale to keep men from sticking their thing in certain women--gets a movie all its own.

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