Joshua Cohen Will You Still Love Me in the Morning? : Gender Representation and Monstrosity in Alexander Aja s High Tension Joshua Cohen Abstract: Current scholarship on the horror film in relation to gender focuses primarily on the representation of female as a source of monstrosity. Studies on early horror cinema indicate that these films present a kind of doppelganger effect that mirrors patriarchal society s fear of female sexuality and difference. Studies on later horror films, particularly the slasher genre, focus on repressed feminine sexuality as a source of monstrosity. While studies such as Carol Clover s development of the Final Girl have helped portray the heroine of the story as female, her emphasis still focuses on a depiction of feminine sexuality as a source of horror. Although many of the films produced in the horror genre lend themselves particularly well to such analyses, Alexander Aja s 2003 slasher film High Tension presents a variation on the horror film s traditional representation of female sexuality. While Marie the Final Girl is revealed towards the end of the film to be the psychotic killer, a reading of female sexuality as the source of monstrosity fails to perform a thorough analysis of the film s depiction of gender. Instead I argue that High Tension presents an image of monstrosity that transcends the limitations and stereotypes associated with gender. With its conflation of both the killer and Final Girl, High Tension blurs the binary oppositions that exist between individuated masculine and feminine representations. In doing so, the film requires a spectator who observes not only the similarities but also the differences that the film shares with others in the genre. This paper draws on feminist as well as Lacanian and Kristevan psychoanalytic theory to analyze the methods that High Tension utilizes in order to comment on the state of monstrosity in modern society Key Words: Abjection, Feminism, Gender, Horror Film, Kristeva, Lacan, Psychosis 1 Horrific Birth Horror film has been especially welcoming to feminist criticism. Readings such as Linda William s essay When the Woman Looks, locate a source of femininity in the essence of monstrosity. 1 Williams argues that in the classic horror film the terror that the monster evokes is rooted in its difference, a difference that shares the stage with woman s difference from man. In her discussion of the contemporary horror film, Williams argues that
2 Will You Still Love Me in the Morning? : Gender Representation and Monstrosity in Alexander Aja s High Tension femininity is portrayed as a repressed monstrosity within men. She argues that films such as Dressed to Kill and Psycho, which involve male killers, involve a destructive feminine force from within. In Barbara Creed s book The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Julia Kristeva s theory of abjection is used as a framework for a feminist analysis of the horror film. 2 Creed argues that woman is portrayed as monstrous in horror because she evokes feelings of abjection among the characters and spectators of such films. Even in examples where woman is the only character remaining at the finale, feminist critics have argued that the horror film still justifies a criminalization and in some cases evacuation of the feminine. In Carol Clover s seminal essay Her Body, Himself, Clover examines the modern horror/slasher film, while assigning a structure to the genre. 3 Clover argues that even in the slasher film, where the only remaining character at the end is female, this Final Girl is a male surrogate in things oedipal, a homoerotic stand-in, the audience incorporate; to the extent she means girl at all, it is only for the purpose of signifying male lack, and even that meaning is nullified in the final scenes. 4 So even in films where a woman is perceived as victorious, femininity still prohibits the possibility of a non-monstrous existence. The texts discussed above are important not just for their contribution to feminist film criticism and theory, but also for their appointment of a much-needed legitimacy to a genre that occupies an inferior existence in the field of cinema. Unfortunately, the majority of ensuing studies into the horror genre have failed to further the theoretical mechanism implemented by critics such as Williams, Creed and Clover. Instead, many critics have simply conformed feminist theories into something of a model, where they simply insert A into B. Now I am not advocating the disregard of previous influential theories such as the ones I discussed, but rather I am arguing that these theories need to be expanded upon and utilized in order to examine the horror genre in alternative ways. In the following paper, I hope to begin this furthering of the horror genre with my examination of the 2003 film High Tension. 5 While this French contribution to the horror genre shares many of the conformities of its predecessors, it also contains many elements that contradict the classic feminist interpretation. Through an examination of these conformities and contradictions I will demonstrate how a film such as High Tension presents a picture of monstrosity that supersedes the limitations of gender.
Joshua Cohen 3 Prior to examining the film s treatment of gender representation, it is important to provide a brief synopsis of the film s narrative. High Tension begins with a scene of a battered young woman sitting in a room, while the words I won t let anyone come between us anymore are echoed in the background. 6 As the camera pans upward, an attractive yet masculine looking woman who displays the signs of an extremely violent attack is revealed. After the initial scene of the battered woman, the film follows two girls (one of whom appears to be the protagonist of the opening scenes), Marie and Alex. Marie, while very attractive, appears to possess a masculine stature. She has short dirty-blond hair, possesses a well-toned physique and dresses in masculine clothing. Alex appears to be the complete opposite of Marie in both appearance and behavior. She has long black hair, dresses in very feminine clothing and possesses the traditional voluptuous figure associated with the feminine woman. From the girls initial conversations, their behaviors also reveal themselves to be divergent. Marie appears to be shy and disinterested in the advancements of men; on the other hand, Alex is revealed to be very outgoing and exhibits pride in her promiscuity. The film follows these two very opposite women as they travel to Alex s parents farmhouse in the French countryside. After arriving in the evening and retiring to bed, a stranger, dressed in a mechanic s jumpsuit and trucker hat, arrives at the house and immediately (without reason) murders Alex s father. Following this graphic massacre, the mysterious stranger continues to inflict his destructive presence upon Alex s mother, younger brother and dog. After Marie successfully hides from the stranger, Alex is gagged and kidnapped. The remainder of the film follows Marie s attempts to save Alex while avoiding discovery by the killer. This cat and mouse game leads Marie to the woods, where she is discovered by the killer, at which point the two face-off, and Marie victoriously ends the killer s life. In the film s twist, following her success Marie is revealed to the audience to be the killer. The audience is now privy to the information that they were fooled all along and the rescue attempt was ultimately a psychotic delusion of Marie s. After being released by her captor, Alex stabs the confused and psychotic Marie; the audience is then returned to the beginning scene in the police station. 2 It s Your Fault I m Psychotic: Psychosis plays a major role in the narrative development of High Tension. The twist (which seems to be viewed as necessity in modern horror film) occurs when the police chief views the surveillance video in the gas station, which actually reveals Marie to be the killer. This scene discloses to the spectator that the masculine figure of the killer was in fact a creation of Marie s psychotic mind. This element of psychosis in Marie plays an important role in understanding the film s construction of a masculine
4 Will You Still Love Me in the Morning? : Gender Representation and Monstrosity in Alexander Aja s High Tension monstrosity. Before this element is explored, it is important to discuss the nature of psychosis, including its psychical construction. While Freud discussed psychosis briefly throughout his career, the bulk of his theoretical research gravitated towards the condition of neurosis. 7 Psychosis appeared much more commonly in the work of Jacques Lacan. 8 Prior to applying Lacan s theory of psychosis to the film High Tension it is important to provide a brief theoretical background to this condition. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the main operative agent in the formation of psychosis is foreclosure of the paternal metaphor or Name-ofthe-Father. Consequences of this action result in a hole being left in the symbolic order and the subject s failure to fully constitute himself as a symbolically functioning subject. 9 Failure to be properly placed in the symbolic does not mean that the subject lacks an unconscious. Rather, the unconscious is present, but not functioning. 10 The unconscious of the psychotic can be thought of as being constantly present but situated along the imaginary. With a psychotic break, what is not symbolized reappears in the real. 11 In the case of the psychotic, that which fails to be symbolized is the paternal metaphor. This irruption in the real can manifest itself in many forms, but the most common and most applicable to the film we are discussing occurs in the form of delusions. 12 While hallucinations can also be manifested in cases of neurosis, what differentiates psychotic hallucinations from that of neurotic ones is the prevalence of certainty in the psychotic. 13 This element of Marie s certainty in her hallucination is obvious throughout High Tension. This certainty appears at its clearest when Marie exterminates the killer and frees Alex from the truck. While Alex yields a knife at the crazed Marie and orders her keep away, a confused Marie pleads with Alex, displaying a continued certainty in the figure of male killer. 14 While Lacan s exploration into the nature of psychosis provides a revolutionary understanding of this often mysterious mental condition, it also provides an extremely useful structure for examining the societal implications in Marie s delusion. With the foreclosure of the paternal metaphor, Marie fails to adequately navigate through the Oedipus complex and become properly instated into the symbolic as law. It is safe to argue that in the context of this film the law privileges heterosexual love over its homosexual counterpart. This is demonstrated in Freud s Civilization and Its Discontents, where he argues that heterosexual love and its procreative attributes are the only form of sexual love allowed by civilization. 15 The arrival of the killer in High Tension is shown to occur immediately following Marie s masturbatory orgasm. Prior to this, Marie is seen outside, voyeuristically gazing upon a naked Alex in the shower. This display of peeping tom behavior- coupled with the numerous previous incidents that
Joshua Cohen 5 imply Marie s homosexuality and attraction towards Alex- allows the spectator to safely infer that Marie is fantasizing about Alex while pleasuring herself. Lacan s statement of what is foreclosed from the Symbolic returning in the Real can be understood in the context of the film High Tension as being expressed in the manifestation of Marie s delusional hallucination of the male killer. Therefore, Marie s psychotic break and ensuing havoc can be viewed as a result and response to society s restrictions on what is viewed as unacceptable love and desire. This approach removes victimization from the hands of a single person or single gender. 16 Instead, it places the role of oppressor on the shoulders of society as upheld by both men and women. This discussion of the killer assuming the form of the paternal metaphor returning in the Real may incite some objections. After all, Lacan did assert in Seminar Book 1: the real, or what is perceived as such, is what resists symbolization absolutely. 17 The primary objection to my reading of Marie s psychosis would probably be that if the killer is physically portrayed, then he is symbolized, and therefore he is part of the Symbolic and not the Real. This objection may view my reading as contradictory to Lacan s theory of hallucinatory psychotic delusions, but it is important to remember that the story is told from Marie s perspective. The very first scene takes place in a police station, where a battered and bruised Marie is telling her story of what took place. Therefore, the events are portrayed through Marie s eyes, through Marie s perspective, and through Marie s psyche. The killer is a representation that exists only for Marie. Since she is the one committing the murders, she may actually not even see the killer as a person, but feel him as a controlling presence. All the film does is provide a fantastical medium for expressing her experiences. 3 Finding a Female Voice: The female voice also plays an important role in understanding Marie s societially constructed psychosis. During the scenes in which Marie and the killer are both present, she is silenced. This is first seen while the killer is searching the room in which Marie is hiding. During the search, Marie remains hidden underneath the bed: her hand placed over her mouth in a childlike manner to ensure her silence. Following this scene, while Marie is hiding in the closet the killer murders Alex s mother and also cuts off her hand. Once again, Marie stands in fear with her hand blocking her mouth. 18 While not pertaining to the silencing of the female voice, the killer s removal of the mother s hand is symbolic of castration. Since the mother is a member and symbolic pillar of the heterosexual familial institution, the removal of her hand functions symbolically for Marie s castration of patriarchal society. 19 The third instance of female silencing occurs in the gas station, when Marie hides in silent fear as the killer murders the gas station attendant Jimmy. Following this, Marie is chased into the men s restroom, where she remains
6 Will You Still Love Me in the Morning? : Gender Representation and Monstrosity in Alexander Aja s High Tension silent as the killer urinates. And finally, Marie is once again silenced while she battles the killer who attempts to suffocate her with a plastic bag. Marie s silencing poses an interesting question in relation to gender representation in High Tension. While the obvious answer of woman refused a voice by male society is a convenient one, it is a little too convenient and frankly unproductive in furthering an understanding of the genre s representations of gender. Rather, Julia Kristeva s theory of abjection provides a deeper insight. Kristeva views abjection as both a natural process and a constant threat for the mature. Kristeva describes abjection as a process in which the infant develops borders and constitutes itself as an individuated being. 20 The abject is the jettisoned object [ ] radically excluded and draws me toward the place where meaning collapses. 21 While abjection is required for the subject to become an individual, it is by no means foreclosed. Rather, it lies on the fringes and threatens to return. While Kristeva s theory of abjection has played a prominent role in feminist criticism of the horror film, its use has mainly pertained to a demonstration of how the horror film demonizes the feminine. Instead, I would like to discuss abjection in relation to Marie s silencing and her psychosis. Of the many elements that Kristeva argues cause feelings of abjection, [t]he corpse is the most important in this discussion of Marie. 22 As discussed above, Marie is literally silenced while in the presence of the killer. She watches in horror during the massacres of those around her, but she is without voice. An intrusion of the abject would explain Marie s behavior in these scenes. In addition, the abject relating to a collapse of meaning can be viewed in conjunction with her psychosis. With the return of the paternal metaphor and Marie s resulting psychotic break, the killer s actions can be viewed as an abject creation that is intended to alter a reality in which Marie feels inadequate. After Marie finishes battling the killer, she lets out a scream that resembles the first sound made by a baby as it enters the world. This dramatic scene signifies Marie s attempt to be reborn into a world were she can feel accepted. Therefore, abjection functions in this instance as something of a mechanism for Marie s psychical healing. Also, the abject agent is not the feminine in this instance, but the masculine. 4 Does Evil Have a Gender?: While the themes of psychosis and abjection play an important role in the exploration of Marie s state of imprisonment in society, they still depend on the existence and assumption that Marie exists in a society that is for the most part patriarchally structured. While the reading provided thus far differs from the traditional feminist one, it fails to explore the challenging
Joshua Cohen 7 nature of the film to its fullest. Rather, I would like to devote the remainder of this discussion to the role that High Tension plays regarding the structure of the common contemporary slasher film. As a theoretical model, I will be relying primarily on Carol Clover s essay Her Body, Himself, as its influence in defining the structure of the modern slasher film has been indispensable. 23 In Her Body, Himself, Carol Clover theorizes that the modern slasher film is composed of two oppositional figures, a psychokiller who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until he is subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who has survived. 24 This opposition between female hero (who Clover refers to as the Final Girl) and the male killer presents a situation where male and female are at desperate odds but in which, at the same time, masculinity and femininity are more states of mind than body. 25 In other words, in the slasher film the male killer is usually propelled by psychosexual fury. 26 His battle with the Final Girl entails a shifting of masculine and feminine identities as the narrative unfolds. In the end, the Final Girl assumes phallic power and destroys a now feminized killer. Therefore, even though the slasher film entails the destruction of all that is male, it is actually a story about masculine prevailing over feminine. In a film such as High Tension, this battle between masculinity and femininity as belonging to separate characters becomes problematic because Marie represents both the Final Girl and the lethal killer. She effectively represents a simultaneous existence of both masculine and feminine. After Alex stabs Marie, the killer (who was previously destroyed by the reborn Marie) emerges and once again pursues Alex. In the end Alex stabs Marie (once again), who is now represented as the feminine figure, but still fails to kill her. This conflation of masculine and feminine and the failure of either one to be destroyed not only poses the argument that masculinity and femininity are two halves of the same coin, but also that evil cannot be assigned to a specific gender. Since evil is represented as an attribute of both sexes, High Tension supersedes the limitations and sexist interpretation of assigning monstrosity to a universal category such as gender. Rather, it is important to view evil as a societal creation, pertaining to universalized gender stereotypes. This is evident in Marie s psychotic break (which marked the entrance of evil) being a product of such gender stereotypes and her attempted but failed abject motivated rebirth. 5 Battle of the Sexes Alexander Aja s High Tension presents somewhat of a challenge to the establishment of horror film criticism. While conforming in numerous ways to the classic horror film stereotypes that have fueled feminist criticism, High Tension fails to fully align itself with either a pro or anti feminine
8 Will You Still Love Me in the Morning? : Gender Representation and Monstrosity in Alexander Aja s High Tension position. This lack of conformity poses somewhat of a problem for the critic interested in allocating monstrosity into a neatly defined category such as masculine or feminine. Rather, High Tension requires a spectator whom assumes that gender is a subject that transcends the limitations of binary oppositions. In doing so, High Tension rewards the spectator with a thought provoking analysis of the evils that exist in culture as a whole. Towards the end of Powers of Horror, Julia Kristeva describes feminism as the last of the power-seeking ideologies. 27 While a gender reading such as the one just discussed may initially appear as detrimental to that power, it actually opens feminism up to the possibilities of increased enthusiasm and further scholarly advancement. In doing so, this perceived power-depleting approach actually helps to ensure the importance of gender criticism. Notes 1 L Williams, When the Woman Looks, in The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film, K. Grant (Ed), U of Texas P, Austin, 1996, pp. 15-34. 2 B Creed, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Routledge, London, 1993. 3 C Clover, Her Body, Himself, in Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, Princeton UP, Princeton, 1992, pp. 21-64. 4 Ibid., p. 53. 5 A Aja, High Tension, Lions Gate, 2003. 6 Aja, op. cit. 7 See: S Freud, Psychoanalytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, J. Strachey (Ed and trans.), Vol. 12, Hogarth, London, 1961, pp. 9-82; S. Freud, Neurosis and Psychosis, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, J. Strachey (Ed and trans.), Vol. 19, Hogarth, London, 1961, pp. 148-153; S. Freud, The Loss of Reality in Neurosis and Psychosis, ibid. 148-153. 8 Lacan s work with psychosis played a recurring role throughout his career. For this paper, I will focus on his most dedicated and structural examination of the condition as seen in the third year of his seminar. 9 L Chiesa, Subjectivity and Otherness: A Philosophical Reading of Lacan, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2007, p. 108.
Joshua Cohen 9 10 J Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book III: The Psychoses 1955-1956, J-A Miller (Ed), R. Grigg (trans.) W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1993, p. 143. 11 Ibid., p. 86. 12 Ibid., p. 86. 13 Ibid., p. 75. 14 Aja, op. cit. 15 S Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, J. Strachey (Ed and trans.), W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1961, pp. 53-61. 16 The approach of psychosis being the result of the victimization by a single (male) oppressor was thoroughly explored by James Conlon in his essay on the film Fatal Attraction in the text The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film; also, Cynthia Conlon explored this theme in her chapter on Roman Polanski s Repulsion in her book The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror. 17 J Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book I: Freud s Papers on Technique 1953-1954, J-A Miller (Ed), J. Forrester (trans.) W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1991, p. 66. 18 It is worth noting that hiding in the closet functions as a metaphor for concealing one s homosexuality. 19 Castration in this example also functions as a symbolic removal of power. 20 N McAfee, Julia Kristeva, Routledge, New York, 2004, p. 46. 21 J Kristeva, Powers of Horror and Essay on Abjection, L-S Roudiez (trans.), Columbia UP, New York, p. 2. 22 Ibid., p. 4. 23 Clover, op. cit. 24 Ibid., p. 21. 25 Ibid., p. 22. 26 Ibid., p. 27. 27 Kristeva, op. cit., p.208. Bibliography Aja, A., High Tension. Lions Gate, 2003. Chiesa, L., Subjectivity and Otherness. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2007. Clover, C., Her Body, Himself. in Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton UP, Princeton, 1992, pp. 21-64. Creed, B., The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. Rougledge, London, 1993.
10 Will You Still Love Me in the Morning? : Gender Representation and Monstrosity in Alexander Aja s High Tension Freud, S., Civilization and Its Discontents. James Strachey (Ed. and trans.), W.W. Norton, New York, 1961. Kristeva, J., Powers of Horror An Essay on Abjection. Leon S. Roudiez (trans.), Columbia UP, New York, 1982. Lacan, J., The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book I Freud s Papers on Technique 1953-1954. Jacques-Alain Miller (Ed.), John Forrester (trans.), W.W. Norton, New York, 1991. - - -. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book III The Psychoses 1955-1956. Jacques-Alain Miller (Ed.), Russell Grigg (trans.), W.W. Norton, New York, 1993. McAfee, N., Julia Kristeva. Routledge, New York, 2004. Williams, L., When the Woman Looks. in The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Barry Keith Grant (Ed.), U of Texas P, Austin, 1996, pp. 15-34.