Dystopian conservatism and the imagistic interference of horror in Medusa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22475/rebeca.v15n2.1425Keywords:
Social horror, Dystopia, Slasher, Folk horror, Film genresAbstract
The article aims to analyze the feature film Medusa (Anita Rocha da Silveira, 2023) in order to observe the dialogues between the film's dystopian narrative and the recurrence of intertextualities with other horror films and subgenres in the construction of a social discourse referring to the emergence of conservatism in the neo-Pentecostal sectors of Brazilian society. To this end, the concept of dystopian conservatism is defined based on Claeys' (2010) formulations on totalitarianism in post-1984 (George Orwell, 1949)dystopias combined with Nagib's (2006) study on the recurrence and breakdown of the utopian gesture in contemporary Brazilian cinema. Next, gender studies are mobilized to point out and dissect the intertextualities of Anita's film with two horror subgenres, outlining approximations and subversions of their previously established codes and conventions, as well as differentiating these representations in urban spaces and in nature. Firstly, an approximation of the slasher genre in urban spaces is made, based on the problematization of the killer's code, linked to the protagonist Mari and the evangelical female militia “As Preciosas” (The Precious Ones), which establishes the neo-Pentecostal order. Secondly, an approximation is made with folk-horror in nature, based on a comparative analysis between Medusa and The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973) when analyzing the representation of dissident resistance to this order.
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