sisters to witches: a feminist horror curriculum

“Nuns already are suspect, unnatural, sisters to witches.” - Lauren Groff, Matrix

Religious horror has a woman problem. Or rather, religion has a woman problem, and horror exploits it.

The convent as haunted house. The possessed girl. The nun as monster. The witch burned at the stake. The pregnant woman whose body isn’t her own. They’re the residue of centuries of religious institutions shaping, confining, punishing, and at times, empowering women.

I’ve always been a fan of horror, though it started more as a “I love being scared” sort of thing, which evolved into a “there’s a lot of women in horror movies, why is that?” thing, into this now full-blown personal curriculum. Over the years, I’ve also noticed how much religion is also a particularly strong theme explored in horror, with deeply feminist roots as well. As such, this 8-week curriculum explores these deeply interconnected subjects through literature, film, and historical analysis.

Is it strangely specific? Yes. Is it an intense, strange, riveting topic? Also yes. While constructing this curriculum, I already knew the core pieces I wanted to explore (The Unworthy, Matrix, The Nun, Immaculate) and the themes associated with them. But as I dug deeper and deeper, I realized just how much of horror is religious and woman-centric, and how much of it is historical and patriarchal in nature. And how much is simply: a fear of women.

Who this is for: Anyone interested in horror, feminist theory, religious history, or the places where all three overlap. You don’t need an academic background, you just need curiosity and maybe some tolerance for discomfort (it is horror, after all).

How to use it: Take it week by week, every other week, or just pick the topics that interest you most. Read and watch what you can, skip what doesn’t call to you. The supplementary texts are optional, of course. The critical essays are worth the effort as they offer the basis in feminist, historical, and art theory (mostly) required to understand the global picture.

Note: I intend to write essays based on each of the weeks. If you’d like to do that as well, please do so (and do let me know!) but that is of course not a requisite. If you’d like to read my essays, make sure to subscribe:)

Note #2: if you want to skip to just the reading list, I have compiled every book, film, essay at the end for easy reference.

Convents, cloisters, and religious sites as spaces of both entrapment and power.

Horror’s portrayal of female bodies and desire, its projection of men’s fantasies and ideals, etc.

The blurred lines between mystical holy experiences and demonic influences (visions, religious physical manifestations).

Female pain as spectacle and divine sacrifice (and resistance/rebellion).

The women who violate religious and societal norms and boundaries.

Religious iconography, architecture, ritual, and clothing adopted as horror’s visual (and emotional) language.

The biggest trap when engaging with art is stopping at “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it” (I do this quite a lot, and also, not everything needs deep analysis) That’s fine, but for research, you do need to go deeper.

Here’s a simple framework you can use to get started:

Before you even start to think about analyzing anything, just observe and describe. What are you seeing, reading, hearing? What’s in the frame? What kind of language/words/structure do you find in the text? What sounds dominate a scene? You can pick a short scene, a passage from a book, anything that spoke to you and just focus on that.

Research! When was this made, and what was happening during that particular time? What artistic trend was it working within or against? Example: a 1983 essay is written during the end of the second-wave feminist movement. A 2015 Puritan horror film arrives during renewed debates about body autonomy. Context matters when analyzing and critiquing art.

Now we think. How is the female body depicted? As sacred, profane, monstrous, powerful? Who has agency? Is religion the source of horror or the refuge from it? What’s not being shown? You don’t have to rely only on external sources either: make up your own stance, you have ideas of your own!

A few questions to ask if you’re still unsure where to start:

• Is religion subtle, or a primary pillar of the story? Does the horror exist because of it?

• Who benefits and who suffers? (hello power dynamics!)

• How does this use the space to portray emotions/story/themes?

• What does this say about female autonomy/choice/consent?

• How does it make you feel in your body? (emotional reactions are still an important part of horror. read Barbara Creed’s The Monstrous Feminine)

You can also use comparison:

Compare the texts and films to each other, throughout the weeks. Track recurring images: veils, blood, enclosed spaces, doorways, hands, water, etc. Notice how the same motif can shift meaning in different contexts, and how the same themes are used over and over again.

Introduction to religious horror and cloistered female spaces

Lauren Groff, The Matrix: Medieval convent life, female power, and religious vision. One of the original foundation texts.

Immaculate (2024): Contemporary convent horror exploring bodily autonomy and religious control.

The Novice (2021): Obsession, discipline, and self-destruction. Not explicitly religious but it still is a great film to explore the themes of female discipline, especially in a closed group. (optional)

Barbara Creed, “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine”: Foundational feminist horror theory. Note: many references to Julia Kristeva’s Stabat Mater (on next week’s reads) so feel free to also include that one here.

Demonic possession as body horror

Carmen Maria Machado, “The Husband Stitch” (short story, in Her Body and Other Parties): Body horror meets religious folklore.

The Exorcist (1973): A classic possession film, of course needed to be included here.

Veronica (2017): Spanish possession horror centered on female adolescence. (optional, but I do like that film a lot)

Carol Clover, “Her Body, Himself”: On gender and identification in horror.

Julia Kristeva, “Stabat Mater”: On Mary and motherhood.

Female suffering as religious experience

Flannery O’Connor, “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” (short story): Southern Gothic religious horror and adolescent femininity.

Excerpts from St. Teresa of Ávila or Julian of Norwich: Historical texts on religious ecstasy and visions. (optional)

Saint Maud (2019): Religious mania, self-destruction, and the desire for transcendence through suffering.

Martyrs (2008): explores suffering as a way to transcendence. extreme content warning: graphic torture and violence. (optional)

Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast

Women as both holy and horrifying

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle: classic gothic domestic horror.

Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger (optional)

The Nun (2018): The demonic nun as corrupted sacred feminine.

The Nun II (2023)(optional)

Benedetta (2021): Controversial historical nun drama (optional) (btw, based on a real nun whose life was amazingly entertaining, Benedetta Carlini, so read up on her at least, if you don’t want to watch that film)

Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary: on the construction of the Marian devotion.

Women who break boundaries

Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy: sin, shame, female community, power and control. (this one is a must!)

Shirley Jackson, “The Daemon Lover” and “The Tooth” (short stories): Psychological horror with religious dimensions.

The Last Exorcism (2010): Found footage exorcism.

Margaret R. Miles, Carnal Knowing: on female desire in religious art.

The persecution of women as real horror

Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch (nonfiction, focus on Part 2): classic historical analysis of witch hunts, as systemic violence against women.

The Witch (2015): Historical New England horror exploring the monstrous feminine.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016): a supernatural horror film exploring the violence done to women’s bodies. (optional)

Diane Purkiss, The Witch in History

The female body as site of horror and holiness

Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea: Body transformation in queer horror.

Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild” (short story): SF/horror exploring bodies, consent, and transformation.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968): Pregnancy as horror, institutions as conspiracies.

Titane (2021) Content warning: graphic violence, sexually explicit, intense body horror. (optional)

Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption (excerpt on medieval bodies).

Where feminist religious horror is going

Leopoldo Gout, Piñata: Mexican religious horror with pre-Columbian elements.

Cassandra Khaw, “A Song for Crocodiles” (short story, in Nothing But Blackened Teeth): Asian religious horror and folklore.

Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017): Mexican horror with religious elements and fairy tale structure.

Pearl (2022): Religious repression and female rage.

Final project, if you want one: Write your own manifesto on feminist religious horror. What do you now believe about the relationship between religion, horror, and female identity? What did these eight weeks reveal?

Share

The texts and films deal with religious trauma and abuse, sexual violence, body horror, mental illness, historical persecution, and graphic violence. Martyrs and Titane in particular are intense. Please approach all of this with self-awareness, and take breaks as needed. Even though this is an 8-week curriculum, you obviously do not need to go through it in eight weeks. Skip over content that hits too close, analyze what feels liberating. Honestly, I am not even sure if I will go through it all: many of these films and books I have had on my lists for a while, and I want to read/watch them, but will I?

1. Lauren Groff, The Matrix — Week 1

2. Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger — Week 4

3. Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle — Week 4

4. Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy — Week 5

5. Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea — Week 7

6. Leopoldo Gout, Piñata — Week 8

1. Carmen Maria Machado, “The Husband Stitch” — Week 2

2. Flannery O’Connor, “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” — Week 3

3. Shirley Jackson, “The Daemon Lover” — Week 5

4. Shirley Jackson, “The Tooth” — Week 5

5. Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild” — Week 7

6. Cassandra Khaw, “A Song for Crocodiles” — Week 8

1. Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch (Part 2) — Week 6

2. Selected mystic writings: Teresa of Ávila or Julian of Norwich — Week 3

1. Immaculate (2024) — Week 1

2. The Exorcist (1973) — Week 2

3. Saint Maud (2019) — Week 3

4. The Nun (2018) — Week 4

5. The Witch (2015) — Week 6

6. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) — Week 7

7. Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) — Week 8

1. The Novice (2021) — Week 1

2. Veronica (2017) — Week 2

3. Martyrs (2008) — Week 3 (extreme content)

4. The Nun II (2023) or Benedetta (2021) — Week 4

5. The Last Exorcism (2010) — Week 5

6. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) — Week 6

7. Titane (2021) — Week 7 (extreme content)

8. Pearl (2022) — Week 8

1. Barbara Creed, “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine” — Week 1

2. Carol Clover, “Her Body, Himself” — Week 2

3. Julia Kristeva, “Stabat Mater” — Week 2

4. Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast (excerpt) — Week 3

5. Margaret R. Miles, Carnal Knowing (excerpt) — Week 5

6. Diane Purkiss, The Witch in History (excerpt) — Week 6

7. Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption (excerpt) — Week 7

8. Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex — Week 4

Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional · Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent · Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House · Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace · Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic · Melissa Broder, The Pisces

Carrie (1976) · A Dark Song (2016) · Raw (2016) · Incantation (2022) · Marianne (2019, series) · Midnight Mass (2021)

Leila Taylor, Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread · Judith C. Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy · Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection · bell hooks, “The Oppositional Gaze” · Jane Caputi, “Films of the Wounded Womb” · Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

Leave a comment

This curriculum (and my own essays/research) revolves mostly around Christianity and Catholicism, as well as Medieval and Renaissance Europe. That is a personal choice, as it is what I am most familiar with. However, the themes, the questions, the feminism/religion/horror aspect can easily be translated across religions, cultures, times, spaces, etc. As this is a “personal” curriculum, please adapt it for your own personal use.

fin.

bree beauregard

thanks for being here. you can also find me on TikTok and Instagram. if you can’t become a paid subscriber right now but would like to support my work, you can buy me a coffee (: