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The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis
In almost all critical writings on the horror film, woman is conceptualised only as victim. In The Monstrous-Feminine Barbara Creed challenges this patriarchal view by arguing that the prototype of all definitions of the monstrous is the female reproductive body.
With close reference to a number of classic horror films including the Alien trilogy, The Exorcist and Psycho , Creed analyses the seven `faces' of the archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother and castrator. Her argument that man fears woman as castrator , rather than as castrated , questions not only Freudian theories of sexual difference but existing theories of spectatorship and fetishism, providing a provocative re-reading of classical and contemporary film and theoretical texts.
With close reference to a number of classic horror films including the Alien trilogy, The Exorcist and Psycho , Creed analyses the seven `faces' of the archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother and castrator. Her argument that man fears woman as castrator , rather than as castrated , questions not only Freudian theories of sexual difference but existing theories of spectatorship and fetishism, providing a provocative re-reading of classical and contemporary film and theoretical texts.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published September 9, 1993
157 people are currently reading
6998 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Creed
17 books50 followersBarbara Creed is Professor of Cinema Studies and Head of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. She is author of the acclaimed The Monstrous-feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Media Matrix: Sexing the New Reality, Phallic Panic: Film, Horror & the Primal Uncanny and Darwin's Screens: Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema. She is also a well-known film critic and media commentator, and her writings on cinema have been translated into many languages for a range of international journals and anthologies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
December 13, 2016
Well written, well researched and engrossing. I was somewhat disappointed (and confused) by Creed's reluctance to push back against assertions that female monsters are abjectly horrifying solely because they represent castration in some form. I wish she had spent more time with the tropes of women as vehicles for possession, witches, and brood-mothers, rather than her expanded engagement with vagina dentata and femme castratrice, which took up the latter half of the book. I know everything comes back to Freud but whyyyyy must everything come back to Freudddddd.
April 21, 2020
if i read the words "freud"/"freudian theory" or "castration" just one more time i'm gonna snap !!!
March 31, 2016
This is a classic of film analysis and media theory, and it was revolutionary in its way. However, as a queer feminist, I disagree with 85% of pretty much everything Creed uses as a basis for her analysis. Her work is strong, focussed, and she writes well. But the Freudian underpinnings are just too dank for me to be able to agree with much of her analysis. The strong review is for her clear style, excellent scholarship, and the wonderful way she clearly sweeps the legs out from under the analysis of male critics who seemingly can't see the wood for the trees eg, they can't extract themselves from a white, male, western perspective long enough to even consider that another perspective exists.
February 1, 2022
3.5 ⭐️
I think I concur with most of the reviews on here. Sometimes the book is painfully Eurocentric and the analyses hardly penetrate the ecosystem of material and colonial history in which these films are bred. Usually, that would deduct more than a few points in my eyes, but there’s a flow and rigidity to Creed’s ideas and evaluations which are absolutely captivating, and though the foundation is at times flimsy, it is firm enough to engender serious thought and discussion on the psychoanalytic angles of the horror film. Overall, thoroughly astonishing writing.
I think I concur with most of the reviews on here. Sometimes the book is painfully Eurocentric and the analyses hardly penetrate the ecosystem of material and colonial history in which these films are bred. Usually, that would deduct more than a few points in my eyes, but there’s a flow and rigidity to Creed’s ideas and evaluations which are absolutely captivating, and though the foundation is at times flimsy, it is firm enough to engender serious thought and discussion on the psychoanalytic angles of the horror film. Overall, thoroughly astonishing writing.
May 11, 2017
The first half of this book is amazing, but the second half, despite its inversions of Freud, still has too much Freud. I have a deep, personal, and I believe entirely justified, hatred of Freud, so my eyes glazed over a little there. Which is a shame, because if Creed had just kept doing the stuff she was doing in the first half, deepening it and broadening it, this'd be an easy five star book.
May 8, 2023
I wonder if Freud was ever like, "hm, maybe I've gone too far this time"
probably not
probably not
June 9, 2022
Interesting psychoanalytic interpretation of woman as monster in horror, I really enjoyed the first half of the analysis which included a look into vampires and The Exorcist. However, much of the psychoanalysis was tenuous, especially that which regarded Lacanian frameworks, and Kristeva's idea of the abject was laid down in Creed's book as essentially a lacklustre copy of Kristeva's own notions of horror. I have a copy of Media Matrix by this same author - so I'll have to see how that compares.
(also everyone in the reviews talking about how there's too much Freud....I'm sorry but what were you expecting from a book literally based around a psychoanalytic interpretation of film.....)
(also everyone in the reviews talking about how there's too much Freud....I'm sorry but what were you expecting from a book literally based around a psychoanalytic interpretation of film.....)
August 4, 2020
It's a Freudian nightmare, dude. Like 80% of the conclusions are drawn from Freud, and she doesn't even push back against him until about halfway through, which is astonishing when you consider how batshit his theories are. Also, despite 160 pages telling me how everything is "castration", I'm not convinced! Finally, it's all from the male perspective - like okay I get that when she wrote this, there weren't a lot of female writers/directors in horror, but there's about two lines considering the perspective of a female audience.
January 27, 2023
An interesting freudian rewriting of Freud. I wonder how many vaginas dentatas I will be seeing in horror films from now on.
August 23, 2009
I'll never watch horror films in quite the same way again! At times, not the easiest read,probably as this is my first foray into the realms of film theory,so I did have to do some reading around the topic to get a better grip on the subject matter, (I understood it's premise better having read up on Kristeva) but I'm sure this will prove to be an indespensible text for my dissertation. Now I'm noticing the monstrous-feminine everywhere!
December 17, 2008
It's totally acceptable to judge this book by its cover.
May 29, 2022
Writing my end of semester essay on menstruation and monstrosity is such a girl boss move.
March 18, 2022
bókin sem kveikti áhuga minn á femínískum hrollvekjufræðum - besta bók í heimi!
November 20, 2021
5/5: Vampires, aliens, monstrous wombs, toothed vaginas, and Freud all in one book? Sign me up. Also, fair warning, Plate 15: Woman's hidden genital mouth. A surreal displacement in Maggrite's The Rape scarred me for life and it might scar you too.
First of all, I was curious to see what other people thought of Creed's work so went ahead and read a few reviews before writing mine. I came across a few problem areas that I hadn't really noticed while I was reading. I can see them now that they have been pointed out to me. However, I'm giving this book a 5/5 rating because my initial reaction was positive and enthusiastic. I picked it up for supplementary research but ended up reading it for the jaw-dropping ideas. Plus, I do so love it when academics attempt to do a one-eighty on Freud, especially on his 'the all-mighty penis must be protected at all costs' theories. It cracks me up. The guy might have been a genius in the field but he certainly had some rather boyish ideas about women.
One of the problem areas that caught my attention was the sole focus on the representation of women from the male perspective. I think that most, if not all of the films Creed mentions have been directed by men. At first, I thought that that was the point of the book, to recontextualize Freud's ideas and explain the origins of stereotypes associated with the woman-as-monster trope in film. So I didn't really pay much attention to it. I also thought that there weren't that many female directors in the 90s who could have offered alternative (and, more accurate) representations of women. I was wrong.
I did a quick search on google and discovered there were loads of female directors, especially from the 60s onwards that directed horror. I'm not quite sure how many of them featured the woman-as-monster and whether or not their depictions were more accurate or based on the male perspective but they exist. So that's a bit confusing. It would have been great if Creed could have included a section where she is doing a comparative reading, as in, women in horror through men's eyes versus women in horror through women's eyes. I think that would have made the book a bit more balanced. There are also certain passages where she does come across as obsessively determined to shred every single thing that Freud ever said but, honestly, I found that more funny than annoying.
One of my favorite chapters was Woman As Vampire: The Hunger. I am obsessed with all things vampires so this chapter was the one that captivated me the most. Creed had some interesting things to say about the female vampire as a sensual lesbian that I hadn't encountered before, at least not in the academic world, and she really got me hooked. She also referenced Kristeva's essay on Abjection which is a work I have read but have not been able to fully grasp yet. However, Creed's using it in the context of the female vampire somewhat enlightened me. Another captivating chapter was Medusa's Head: The Vagina Dentata and Freudian Theory. That one made me cackle. In retrospect, it's quite unsettling to picture women as castrating/castrated monsters and even more unsettling to think that men in myth and ancient and modern societies (Freud I am looking at you) truly believed that stuff. But if you take a step back and read objectively, it is morbidly hilarious.
To conclude, if you love female-as-monster horror films and want to read in-depth analyses on them then this is the book for you. I guarantee you will never look at a horror film the same way. Also, I feel like I should add a warning; people often react strongly to Freud's theories (and they have every right to, some of them are bonkers) so if you feel that it would affect you negatively to read about them (and trust me, Freud's name is featured on almost every page) then I suggest you skip this book. But if you think you would benefit from reading Creed's reconceptualization then, by all means, give it a shot. It's a fascinating ride!
First of all, I was curious to see what other people thought of Creed's work so went ahead and read a few reviews before writing mine. I came across a few problem areas that I hadn't really noticed while I was reading. I can see them now that they have been pointed out to me. However, I'm giving this book a 5/5 rating because my initial reaction was positive and enthusiastic. I picked it up for supplementary research but ended up reading it for the jaw-dropping ideas. Plus, I do so love it when academics attempt to do a one-eighty on Freud, especially on his 'the all-mighty penis must be protected at all costs' theories. It cracks me up. The guy might have been a genius in the field but he certainly had some rather boyish ideas about women.
One of the problem areas that caught my attention was the sole focus on the representation of women from the male perspective. I think that most, if not all of the films Creed mentions have been directed by men. At first, I thought that that was the point of the book, to recontextualize Freud's ideas and explain the origins of stereotypes associated with the woman-as-monster trope in film. So I didn't really pay much attention to it. I also thought that there weren't that many female directors in the 90s who could have offered alternative (and, more accurate) representations of women. I was wrong.
I did a quick search on google and discovered there were loads of female directors, especially from the 60s onwards that directed horror. I'm not quite sure how many of them featured the woman-as-monster and whether or not their depictions were more accurate or based on the male perspective but they exist. So that's a bit confusing. It would have been great if Creed could have included a section where she is doing a comparative reading, as in, women in horror through men's eyes versus women in horror through women's eyes. I think that would have made the book a bit more balanced. There are also certain passages where she does come across as obsessively determined to shred every single thing that Freud ever said but, honestly, I found that more funny than annoying.
One of my favorite chapters was Woman As Vampire: The Hunger. I am obsessed with all things vampires so this chapter was the one that captivated me the most. Creed had some interesting things to say about the female vampire as a sensual lesbian that I hadn't encountered before, at least not in the academic world, and she really got me hooked. She also referenced Kristeva's essay on Abjection which is a work I have read but have not been able to fully grasp yet. However, Creed's using it in the context of the female vampire somewhat enlightened me. Another captivating chapter was Medusa's Head: The Vagina Dentata and Freudian Theory. That one made me cackle. In retrospect, it's quite unsettling to picture women as castrating/castrated monsters and even more unsettling to think that men in myth and ancient and modern societies (Freud I am looking at you) truly believed that stuff. But if you take a step back and read objectively, it is morbidly hilarious.
To conclude, if you love female-as-monster horror films and want to read in-depth analyses on them then this is the book for you. I guarantee you will never look at a horror film the same way. Also, I feel like I should add a warning; people often react strongly to Freud's theories (and they have every right to, some of them are bonkers) so if you feel that it would affect you negatively to read about them (and trust me, Freud's name is featured on almost every page) then I suggest you skip this book. But if you think you would benefit from reading Creed's reconceptualization then, by all means, give it a shot. It's a fascinating ride!
September 1, 2018
I am going to tear the entire field of psychoanalysis limb-from-limb as though it came upon me atop Mount Cithaeron. How's that for the monstrous-feminine, Creed?
June 5, 2023
“All human societies have a conception of the monstrous-feminine, of what it is about woman that is shocking, terrifying, horrific, abject.”
By all rights I should hate this book with a burning passion. It continuously commits what I like to call "doing that postmodern thing", meaning that it dazzles the reader with all kinds of jargon and quotations from obscure thinkers, and then sprinkles this literary exhibitionism with seemingly mandatory attacks on things like 'capitalism' and 'the institutions of patriarchy'.
But I absolutely adore this book and drank it in by going through it slowly, often reading parts out loud to myself to make the text come alive and never went further than one chapter a day so as to commit as much of it to memory as possible.
Granted, it's best taken with a grain of salt. But that's only fitting, because it is especially the horror genre that depends on the viewer's suspension of disbelief and willingness to fill in the blanks.
Because why is it that the horror movie terrifies us? A straight-forward and obvious answer would be the hideous creatures, the teeth and knives, the endless spilling of blood, and so forth.
But is this enough?
Creed takes a look at the scary movie through the lens of psychoanalysis and arrives at the idea of the monstrous-feminine: that horrific and terrifying face of woman which manifests itself, from the depths of Hell that is our unconscious, in contemporary horror films in such riveting personas as the archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother, and castrator. Going through established classics such as Alien, The Exorcist, Psycho, and others, she carefully dissects what is going on. And the results may surprise you. After all, anyone who has seen The Exorcist will remember the possessed girl's head revolving 360 degrees, as well as all the levitation, the puking, not to mention the unspeakable act with the crucifix... But who remembers the familial strife going on in the background, and who gave a second thought to what was occupying the priest's mind before confronting the demon? It is precisely these details which Creed analyses to expose hidden questions, anxieties, and complexes which set the stage for the blood 'n gore. More than about scary monsters, the horror movie is also about matters such as questions of origins, familial strife, anxiety about reproduction, and the differences between the sexes.
The book does lean rather heavily on prior work made by Julia Kristeva with her theory of the abject, and Sigmund Freud with his theory of... whatever ungodly thing it is that kids apparently think about their parents' genitals. Creed's own contribution is to flip Freud on its head by suggesting that the castration complex isn't so much about woman as castrated, but rather woman as (potential) castrator.
Now there is a little positivist in me that wants to dismiss the book all-together, thinking of it as nothing more than a vanity project from an over-educated lover of the horror flick who endlessly scrutinizes every frame of gory movie and invent hidden layers of meaning to appease like-minded academics, (or to turn a marxist phrase on its head: it's opiate for intellectuals). But then again, though psychoanalysis is lacking in scientific rigor, it's simply not right to dismiss it outright. After all, the sexual undertones in for example Alien is entirely self-admitted, as screenwriter O'Bannon described his intentions with the (on themself terrifying) words: "One thing that people are all disturbed about is sex... I said 'That's how I'm going to attack the audience; I'm going to attack them sexually. And I'm not going to go after the women in the audience, I'm going to attack the men. I am going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs. Homosexual oral rape, birth. The thing lays its eggs down your throat, the whole number."
I think Creed has something profound to tell us with this book. Bad horror may be a guy in a rubber suit chasing horny teens with a knife, but good horror speaks to us because it appeals so some dark aspect of our psyche that we are unwilling or unable to directly confront. Thankfully we have people like Barbara Creed to shine a small light on precisely those places we'd rather not go.
By all rights I should hate this book with a burning passion. It continuously commits what I like to call "doing that postmodern thing", meaning that it dazzles the reader with all kinds of jargon and quotations from obscure thinkers, and then sprinkles this literary exhibitionism with seemingly mandatory attacks on things like 'capitalism' and 'the institutions of patriarchy'.
But I absolutely adore this book and drank it in by going through it slowly, often reading parts out loud to myself to make the text come alive and never went further than one chapter a day so as to commit as much of it to memory as possible.
Granted, it's best taken with a grain of salt. But that's only fitting, because it is especially the horror genre that depends on the viewer's suspension of disbelief and willingness to fill in the blanks.
Because why is it that the horror movie terrifies us? A straight-forward and obvious answer would be the hideous creatures, the teeth and knives, the endless spilling of blood, and so forth.
But is this enough?
Creed takes a look at the scary movie through the lens of psychoanalysis and arrives at the idea of the monstrous-feminine: that horrific and terrifying face of woman which manifests itself, from the depths of Hell that is our unconscious, in contemporary horror films in such riveting personas as the archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother, and castrator. Going through established classics such as Alien, The Exorcist, Psycho, and others, she carefully dissects what is going on. And the results may surprise you. After all, anyone who has seen The Exorcist will remember the possessed girl's head revolving 360 degrees, as well as all the levitation, the puking, not to mention the unspeakable act with the crucifix... But who remembers the familial strife going on in the background, and who gave a second thought to what was occupying the priest's mind before confronting the demon? It is precisely these details which Creed analyses to expose hidden questions, anxieties, and complexes which set the stage for the blood 'n gore. More than about scary monsters, the horror movie is also about matters such as questions of origins, familial strife, anxiety about reproduction, and the differences between the sexes.
The book does lean rather heavily on prior work made by Julia Kristeva with her theory of the abject, and Sigmund Freud with his theory of... whatever ungodly thing it is that kids apparently think about their parents' genitals. Creed's own contribution is to flip Freud on its head by suggesting that the castration complex isn't so much about woman as castrated, but rather woman as (potential) castrator.
Now there is a little positivist in me that wants to dismiss the book all-together, thinking of it as nothing more than a vanity project from an over-educated lover of the horror flick who endlessly scrutinizes every frame of gory movie and invent hidden layers of meaning to appease like-minded academics, (or to turn a marxist phrase on its head: it's opiate for intellectuals). But then again, though psychoanalysis is lacking in scientific rigor, it's simply not right to dismiss it outright. After all, the sexual undertones in for example Alien is entirely self-admitted, as screenwriter O'Bannon described his intentions with the (on themself terrifying) words: "One thing that people are all disturbed about is sex... I said 'That's how I'm going to attack the audience; I'm going to attack them sexually. And I'm not going to go after the women in the audience, I'm going to attack the men. I am going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs. Homosexual oral rape, birth. The thing lays its eggs down your throat, the whole number."
I think Creed has something profound to tell us with this book. Bad horror may be a guy in a rubber suit chasing horny teens with a knife, but good horror speaks to us because it appeals so some dark aspect of our psyche that we are unwilling or unable to directly confront. Thankfully we have people like Barbara Creed to shine a small light on precisely those places we'd rather not go.
June 19, 2025
creed propone una teoria innovativa della rappresentazione della donna nei film horror: la femminilità viene codificata come mostruosa quando trasgredisce i confini simbolici imposti dal patriarcato - maternità, sessualità, corporeità. diciamo che per alcune cose si percepisce sia un po' datato (anni '90) però questo libro ha comunque aperto la strada a una nuova lettura femminista del cinema horror e rimane un testo fondamentale per gli studi di genere, film e psicoanalisi.
May 1, 2023
this genuinely helped me so much with my dissertation i loved reading/referring to this. honestly thinking about getting my own copy.
edit: nevermind it is £34.99 brand new, hopefully i can find a cheap second hand copy somewhere 💀💀
edit: nevermind it is £34.99 brand new, hopefully i can find a cheap second hand copy somewhere 💀💀
March 31, 2021
freud activates my fight or flight response.
nonetheless, i vibe with the analysis + research.
nonetheless, i vibe with the analysis + research.
May 24, 2024
Bästa kurslitteraturen jag läst!
February 11, 2025
Fascinating exploration of woman as monstrous. Rests heavily on Freudian theory but presents the idea that woman is feared because she is castrating, not castrated.
May 29, 2025
what.a.ride.
Read
June 21, 2022once again aus spite geaddet weil ich viel (aber nicht alles) davon für die uni gelesen hab und andere ähnliche texte. fand es aber actually sehr sehr interessant und zugänglich! zumindest die passagen die ich gelesen hab waren informativ unterhaltsam etc. aber wie andere reviews auch sagen….. no more freud pweeeease pwease stawp it 🥺🥺 no more kastrationsphobie und penisneid pweeeease feminists move on
June 7, 2024
I hope that the revisited edition goes into how modern trans theory relates to the ideas brought up in this book, because throughout it my one complaint was that all of the ideas could be much more interesting and complete with the inclusion of trans theory.
August 27, 2025
omgggg nooooo don't let the challenge of ur femininity to the patriarchy become abject ur so sexy aha
June 28, 2020
She really went off on this one.
December 19, 2023
My favorite hobby is applying Creed's theories to anything and everything.
October 25, 2024
fuck Freud tho
December 5, 2022
Impresionante estudio sobre lo monstruoso-femenino. Aunque en las partes de psicología se torna un poco denso, el análisis de las películas es sumamente luminoso. Lectura obligatoria para las y los amantes del género. (Ahora correré a buscar el recién publicado Return of the Monstrous-Feminine: Feminist New Wave Cinema.)
July 4, 2021
Probably great theory for some people, but it didn´t do it for me. I feel almost sorry about how salty I sound in the coming paragraph:
I bought the book in the hopes of reading something interesting, after a professor provided me and my fellow students with the introduction. What I got instead is pages filled with the same concepts explained over and over with different examples to explain them on.
It more or less reads like "Freud this Freud that, and oh, men are generally afraid of woman in position of power."
(Thank me later for the all-encompassing short-version of this book.)
It took me ages to complete this book. By completing I mean deciding to skip the last 100 pages entirely -- especially after the "Hans" chapter.
I bought the book in the hopes of reading something interesting, after a professor provided me and my fellow students with the introduction. What I got instead is pages filled with the same concepts explained over and over with different examples to explain them on.
It more or less reads like "Freud this Freud that, and oh, men are generally afraid of woman in position of power."
(Thank me later for the all-encompassing short-version of this book.)
It took me ages to complete this book. By completing I mean deciding to skip the last 100 pages entirely -- especially after the "Hans" chapter.
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