getting 'the curse': menstruation in horror cinema

Olivia Grace Middelboe

Earlier this year Michaela Coel’s incredible series I May Destroy You aired. Episode 3’s encounter between Arabella and Biagio featured one of the most honest depictions of a period I have ever seen. A blood clot, a blood-soaked tampon and a used sanitary towel are rarely things we get to see on screen. Menstruation is surrounded by so much taboo, one only has to look at the amount of menstrual products described as ‘sanitary’ to understand the degree to which something so natural is shrouded in shame and clinicism. Horror as a genre is one which seems to be more drawn to depicting menstruation (alongside puberty and adolescence, which are rich themes to explore in horror). Here’s a breakdown of some of the most iconic and recognisable representations of menstruation in horror cinema.

carrie (1976)

The first time I remember seeing menstruation on film was in Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976). What starts as a softcore porn-esque scene of Carrie (Sissy Spacek) soaping her body in a locker room shower turns into a disturbing scene of a frightened, confused young woman being pelted with menstrual products by cruel teenage classmates, chanting ‘plug it up’. Not only is she terrified, she is made somewhat terrifying. Hunched over, reaching towards her classmates screaming, she becomes a monstrous figure of sorts.

Carrie is being raised by her fanatically religious mother Margaret, and faces bullying by her fellow students. Upon telling her mother about getting her first period (which until this point Carrie has received no education about) she is confined to a claustrophobic prayer closet a punishment for her perceived sinfulness.

After she gets her first period Carrie begins to find her power. Her telekinetic abilities begin to manifest themselves. Ultimately, all of Carrie’s bullying and trauma lead to her enacting murderous revenge against her classmates, set in motion by a cruel and violent prank at the prom upon the moment Carrie finally began to feel a sense of acceptance. As Jillnewald writes, ‘Her period becomes the catalyst for Carrie going from an awkward teenage girl to a terrifying, vengeful aberration.’1

Carrie’s final act of revenge is directed at her mother Margaret, who she crucifies with knives in a violent rejection of her mother’s fanaticism, which has been such a key factor in much of Carrie’s trauma. She rejects her mother’s belief that women are sinful and that the changes her body are going through, both natural and supernatural, as evil.

the love witch (2016)

Anna Biller’s The Love Witch introduces us to Elaine, the impeccably dressed eponymous witch, who is searching for a man to love her. In her pursuit, Elaine performs rituals using love spells and sex magic, and embraces the use of her own bodily fluids in her witchcraft. There’s no shame or stigma for her. The film does highlight the taboo surrounding menstruation however, with Elaine herself commenting that most men have never seen a used tampon, and when police officers discover the grave of one of her former lovers, upon discovering her witch bottle containing a used tampon and urine, they are mystified. They cannot identify what they’re looking at.

ginger snaps (2000)

‘I just got the curse’, Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) tells her sister (Emily Perkins) with disgust, getting her first period shortly before a violent werewolf attack. The first time I saw Ginger Snaps (2000), it evoked the pop culture I loved as a teenager, The Craft (1996), Heathers (1988), Buffy (1997-2003), to name a few. John Fawcett’s Canadian horror film was both the starting point and the main inspiration for this article. I mainly wanted an excuse to watch it again.

Ginger Snaps centers on two teenage sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, alienated inhabitants of Canadian suburbia, surrounded by leering teenage boys, bitchy girls and well meaning but clueless adults. ‘Out by sixteen or dead in the scene, but together forever’ is their mantra to each other.

For Ginger, getting her period is her body betraying her. She desperately doesn’t want to become like the other girls she detests: ‘kill yourself to be different and your own body screws you. But if I start simping around tampon dispensers and moaning about PMS, shoot me okay’.

Following her werewolf attack, Ginger experience a series of physical changes to her body, including growing hair in strange places, the appearance of claws and a tail (which she later attempts to sever in order to reverse her transformation). She also experiences a growing hunger, which initially she interprets as one for sex, leading her to engage in a sexual relationship with a boy from her class, for whom previously she’d shown nothing but disdain. She ultimately passes the werewolf curse to him, which seems to take on a sexually transmitted element. It turns out however that this hunger is in fact to ‘tear everything to fucking pieces.’

One of the other key elements to note about this film is the way it depicts the adults perspective on menstruation. She goes with Brigitte to see her school nurse upon growing concerns about the changes she is experiencing, only for the nurse to dismiss her worries as normal. That what she is going through is typical. The werewolf transformation notwithstanding, this is an experience that will be familiar to many people who menstruate, when vocalising concerns around their bodies.

When her mother Pam realises that Ginger has begun her period (something she’s excited about she worries her daughters are developing behind schedule) during a conversation at the dinner table, she is met with disgust from her husband (‘We’re eating’) and disdain from Ginger and Brigitte. As Pam states, ‘it’s nothing to be scared of, it’s the most normal thing in the world’, a perspective that frankly could do with being a lot more widespread.

stephen king's it (1990) & it (2017)

Beverly Marsh, portrayed by both Sophia Lillis in 2017 and Emily Perkins (in her second appearance in this piece) in 1990, is going through her adolescence as a young woman when Pennywise arrives on the scene. She is also going through trauma, facing physical and sexual abuse from her father, as well as (at least in the 2017 version) sexualisation by both boys and men, and bullying for her burgeoning sexuality. Much of her narrative also surrounds her being at the centre of a love triangle involving Bill and Ben.

In two key scenes in both adaptations of King’s book, Beverly is targeted by Pennywise through a sink overflowing with blood, spraying the walls of her bathroom or (in the case of the 2017 version), coating every surface of the room completely. This moment draws upon Beverly’s fear of growing up and going through puberty. Beverly has no choice but to show her father, who cannot see the blood, leaving Beverly alone to deal with the mess.

In the 2017 adaptation, the boys of the Losers Club come round to see Beverly, and unlike her father, they can see the bloodsoaked walls. What follows is a scene in which all of the boys painstakingly assist Beverly in cleaning every speck of blood off every surface. They are there to support her.