If You Liked ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,’ You Need to Watch these 4 Films About Monstrous Motherhood
As a woman in her early thirties, motherhood has been on my mind even though I’m unsure if I want it for myself. I’ve always said I could easily be a father, or a glamorous, slightly aloof auntie with a mysterious source of income. I could be a stepmom. I could be a grandmother. But I never saw myself being a mother.
On one hand, I believe motherhood is the hardest, most transformative, and rewarding role a woman can take on, and I want a world that is infinitely more compassionate toward mothers and children. On the other hand, I can’t shake the feeling that motherhood operates as a kind of death, the end of the freedom, autonomy, and pleasure that defines girlhood. Men become fathers and largely stay themselves. Women become mothers and are expected to become someone else entirely. What you wear, what you do, how you move through public space, how you present yourself online, and how you prioritize your time, are all up for discussion and scrutiny. You sacrifice your body, your mind, and often your career and earning potential. Even in the healthiest and most equitable heterosexual partnerships, the bulk of the responsibility still falls on women.
This is why I don’t judge women for speaking openly about how much motherhood can suck, even when it contains undeniable pockets of beauty and joy. This is also why I’m not surprised that motherhood seemed to be the topic of nearly every one of the best-reviewed (or most talked about) movies this past year. In If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Die, My Love!, Hamnet, and even Wuthering Heights, motherhood is portrayed as a slow erasure of self, a rupture in an otherwise healthy relationship, a never-ending nightmare that the protagonists are desperate to wake up from. And even when a protagonist is enjoying motherhood, there is always the potential for immense grief and loss.
If you’ve seen any of the films I just mentioned, and you’re looking for something a little more horrifying in the literal sense, then you’ve come to the right place. Consider referring to this roundup the next time your partner, your mother, or your mother-in-law asks when you’re having kids, or if you’re having baby fever and need to get rid of it fast. You’re welcome.
4. Inside (À L’Intérieur)
Here at Dread Central, we love Inside. We love it so much, in fact, that we featured it in our Feel Bad Fridays series, which you can find here.
Inside is one of the most talked about examples of the French New Extremity movement, and for good reason. It’s a relentless, nerve-shattering home invasion movie that isn’t afraid to put our protagonist, nine months pregnant, depressed, and alone on Christmas Eve, through incredible violence and distress at the hands of another woman.
This is not a sanitized version of pregnancy and motherhood. This is the story of a reluctant mother who is forced to do the unthinkable in order to defend herself and the life of her unborn baby. This is also the story of a woman who wants to be a mother so badly, she’d do anything to make her dream a reality. Inside forces you to think about the ugly parts of pregnancy and motherhood. What would happen if you find yourself doing this alone? Does carrying a baby automatically make you a mother? Or is it a state of mind?
If you have C-section trauma, perhaps stay away from this one.
3. Rosemary’s Baby
I knew a couple who threw a Rosemary’s Baby-themed baby shower, and though I thought it was admittedly chic, I also thought it was a little inappropriate. What do you mean your husband is dressed as a struggling actor who makes a pact with witches to *checks notes* have the Devil rape his wife during a nude orgy in order to conceive the anti-Christ in exchange for a role on Broadway?
Perhaps they were just into the sixties aesthetic, which I totally get. Mia Farrow is gorgeous as Rosemary Woodhouse! But whenever I think about Rosemary’s Baby, I think of how Rosemary’s entire pregnancy is marked by sickness, paranoia, and sadness, even before she realizes what is actually happening to her. Guy isolates her from her friends and trusted medical professionals, neglects her in his pursuit to become a famous actor, and gaslights her consistently.
With this in mind, Rosemary’s Baby has less to do with the horror of pregnancy/motherhood itself, and more to do with the fact that it’s one of the most vulnerable periods in a woman’s life (studies suggest that a woman has a greater chance of being murdered during pregnancy by her partner than dying from complications of the pregnancy itself).
Hm. Maybe we should lighten up.
2. The Brood
Just kidding! Did you actually think there was going to be a movie on this list about motherhood in horror that would be lighthearted and fun? I’m starting to feel like the horror version of the Girl with the List (which is arguably more horrifying than anything featured on this list, but I digress).
The Brood is one of my favorite films of all time, and one of the rare horror movies that confronts generational trauma and cycles of abuse without slipping into melodrama or easy psychology. What’s always fascinated me most, though, is Nola’s autonomy. Her weird external womb is objectively disturbing, but it also allows her to reproduce entirely without male involvement.
Rewatching the film, I kept thinking about how her husband’s visceral disgust at this reveal mirrors the way some people talk about women who choose to have children on their own terms, whether through IVF, surrogacy, or solo parenthood. If a woman can work through her own trauma, own her power, and reproduce on her own, then she has the right to unleash her scary little rage babies on all the men who tried to keep her down.
1. Huesera: The Bone Woman
I can’t even begin to explain how much I love Huesera: The Bone Woman. I kept returning to this movie during my last relationship, when I was seriously considering what it would mean if I decided to have children, especially as a “creative” woman. Though Valeria is initially delighted to find out she’s pregnant, she quickly begins to question if this is what she actually wants, or if she’s conforming to satisfy the expectations society has for her (it’s interesting to note that Valeria used to be a punk with a girlfriend; when we meet her, she’s married to a man, living a comfortable, bourgeois life).
It’s scary to think that the one thing you wanted so badly that you were willing to give up your work is actually not what you wanted at all. It’s even scarier to know that this decision will change your life forever. Valeria knows there’s no going back. And she’s unsure if there’s even a way forward.
While Huesera: The Bone Woman doesn’t do anything all that groundbreaking when it comes to pregnancy horror, it does do something interesting with its ending. I won’t reveal it here, but this is the most hopeful of the movies on this list. Be prepared, you’re going to have to sit through a lot of bone snapping and crunching to get there.
Categorized:Editorials