Abstract
I analyze how the psychological horror film mother! functions as a symbolic representation of the Anthropocene, which is our current epoch of geological time that marks humanity’s impact on the environment. mother! elicits fear, discomfort, and confusion in audiences as they watch the main character struggle to protect her home from foreign invaders and an apathetic husband. A metaphor for the neglect of mother nature, mother! offers a visual representation of the severe damage that humans have done to nature and how such a violent, abusive relationship is unsustainable. mother! shows the horror and chaos of a world that disregards the suffering of nature to persuade us to avoid following that path. As a reflection of our most pressing societal anxieties and fears, horror films can contribute to and potentially correct our anthropocentric attitudes.
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Notes
- 1.
Following the conventions of the film’s title, I have chosen not to capitalize the character’s name in the text.
- 2.
For example, see Julie Doyle, Mediating Climate Change (Routledge, 2016), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315594583; Esben Bjerggaard Nielsen, “Climate Crisis Made Manifest,” in Topic-Driven Environmental Rhetoric, ed. Derek G. Ross (New York, NY: Routledge, 2017), 87.
- 3.
Clive Hamilton, “The Anthropocene as Rupture,” The Anthropocene Review 3, no. 2 (August 1, 2016): 94, https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019616634741
- 4.
Emma Frances Bloomfield, “Ecocultural Identity in the Creation Care Movement: Analyzing Contemporary Performances of Religious Environmentalism,” in The Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity, ed. Tema Milstein and José Castro-Sotomayor (New York, NY: Routledge, forthcoming).
- 5.
Lawrence J. Prelli and Terri S. Winters, “Rhetorical Features of Green Evangelicalism,” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture 3, no. 2 (2009): 224–43, https://doi.org/10.1080/17524030902928785; Bloomfield, “Ecocultural Identity in the Creation Care Movement: Analyzing Contemporary Performances of Religious Environmentalism;” L. White Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” 1996, 1967, 3–14.
- 6.
For example, see “7 Cringe-Worthy Cases of Tourists Defacing Natural and Cultural Landmarks around the World,” Matador Network, accessed January 19, 2019, http://matadornetwork.com/life/7-cringe-worthy-cases-of-tourists-defacing-natural-and-cultural-landmarks-around-the-world/.
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Bloomfield, E.F. (2020). mother! and the Horror of Environmental Abuse. In: Picariello, D.K. (eds) The Politics of Horror. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42015-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42015-4_14
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