{"id":8106,"date":"2019-06-04T14:07:33","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T21:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=8106"},"modified":"2019-06-04T16:09:44","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T23:09:44","slug":"brightburn-ginger-snaps-and-pubescent-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/brightburn-ginger-snaps-prepubescent-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Brightburn,’ ‘Ginger Snaps’ And Pubescent Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emalie<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Soderback<\/span>, in her piece\u00a0<\/span>\u201cGhoul, You\u2019ll Be A Woman Soon: Supernatural Puberty and the Horrors of Periods\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0talks about a subgenre she likes to call \u201csupernatural period girl horror.\u201d Young women and their bodies exist as these horrific entities largely because of a very easy connection to the genre: blood. We bleed. A lot. Statistically speaking, we spend nearly\u00a0<\/span>10 years (roughly 3,500 days)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of our lives just menstruating. The picture paints itself. Where films like\u00a0<\/span>Ginger Snaps<\/span><\/i>\u00a0have depicted the physical horrors of puberty, we seldom see the same for boys. Their bodies change, their hormones rage, but there\u2019s nothing viscerally horrific about their metamorphosis. This is likely why we don\u2019t look at the pubescent male as nightmare fuel (at least not in horror movies).\u00a0<\/span>Brightburn<\/span><\/i><\/a>, the latest producing venture from James Gunn, brings the horrors of the pubescent male to the screen in ways Ginger Fitzgerald\u2019s lycanthropic transformation never could, because it\u2019s rooted in reality.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Menstruation has always been considered grotesque. Where blood, guts, and gore can be a mainstay in horror,\u00a0<\/span>women\u2019s periods were somehow monstrous and taboo<\/span><\/a>. For decades, pad and tampon commercials have used\u00a0<\/span>a mysterious blue liquid<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to stand in for actual menstrual blood, an act in itself rooted in a long history of misogyny-induced fear. As if the process of going through puberty weren\u2019t horrific enough for the person experiencing it, young women also have to do battle with the notion that, while they\u2019re discovering their sexuality, they\u2019re simultaneously being considered repugnant, a source of shame or disgust.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this in film for decades, from Carrie White\u2019s torment to Regan\u00a0<\/span>Macneil\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0demonic transformation, and so many more. Barbara Creed in\u00a0<\/span>The Monstrous Feminine<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>described puberty as \u201cthe threshold between girlhood and womanhood, the time when adolescent sexual desires find shape and expression.\u201d In\u00a0<\/span>Ginger Snaps<\/span><\/i>, Ginger Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle) finally hits puberty only to become a sex-crazed \u201cfreak\u201d with an uncontrollable blood lust that puts her entire community at risk. Ginger\u2019s considered especially abnormal, given that she\u2019s only just getting her\u00a0<\/span>period at the age of 16<\/span>. \u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ginger Snaps (2000)<\/p><\/div>\n

Physical changes, Ginger\u2019s in particular, may be considered monstrous, but let\u2019s not forget about the hormonal ones. Aggression, depression, low self-esteem, and unexplained mood swings are just some of the fun symptoms, not to mention heightened sex drives, all of which affect teens, no matter the gender. The taboos of women\u2019s sexuality make it difficult for young girls with any kind of sexual appetite to be considered anything but \u201cfast,\u201d while boys are expected to be angry, aggressive, and sexual. Ginger\u2019s monstrous behavior, as a result, is about more than just her physical changes; her behavior challenges the status quo.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even before she got her first period, she defied convention. Interested in dark and macabre things, she loathed the idea of being nothing more than just another girl. But she is, biologically speaking. Getting her period becomes a mark of conformity, a blemish on her otherwise untarnished record of subversive behavior. Up until this moment, she\u2019s been a willful outcast refusing to conform to the norms of womanhood. On the night she gets bit by the werewolf, Ginger gets her first period, so named \u201cthe Curse,\u201d and starts to conform in the only way society would truly deem unseemly and horrific – by feeding her carnal desires.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The true horror here is of young women defying social mores. Being vocal and active about their sexual appetites, engaging with their rage and frustration, and defying the conventions of socially acceptable girlhood. For Ginger, her voracious hunger, sexual appetite, and inability to\u00a0<\/span>control her aggression are the real threats. So much so that, once her physical transformation is complete, she\u2019s put down. She became too wild, too\u00a0<\/span>untamable<\/span>, and had to be stopped.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We see this in women and young girls all the time – being made to feel ashamed of their desires, of their strength. The\u00a0<\/span>result is often a lack of confidence<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that goes on to inhibit women in the future, sometimes preventing them from realizing their full potential. There\u2019s a huge double standard with boys, however. And that\u2019s where\u00a0<\/span>Brightburn<\/span><\/i>\u00a0comes in.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brightburn<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is an Elseworlds-inspired spin<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on what would happen if Superman landed in Kansas in the early 2000s and grew up to be a sociopath hellbent on world domination. Just before his 12th birthday, Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn), our pubescent anti-Superman, finds the alien pod he came to Earth in. His parents, Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle Breyer (David Denman), hid it from him thus far, presumably to protect him from the truth. Instead, this unleashes his full potential, along with a mission statement: Take the world.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n