Janisse - House of psychotic women: an autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films

HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF FEMALE NEUROSIS IN HORROR AND EXPLOITATION FILMS

First published July 2012

FAB Press Ltd.
2 Farleigh, Ramsden Road,
Godalming, Surrey,
GU7 1QE, England, U.K.
www.fabpress.com

Text copyright Kier-La Janisse 2012.
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
Some reviews have been excerpted or expanded upon from previous work in Cannibal Culture , Spectacular Optical , Fangoria magazine, Rue Morgue magazine, Destroy All Movies: A Complete Guide to Punk on Film and various film festival programme notes.

THE AUTHOR WISHES TO EXPRESS HER THANKS TO:
Adele Hartley, Harvey Fenton, Francis Brewster, Chandra Mayor, Janelle Ionn, Sam McKinlay, David Bertrand, Katie East, Naben Ruthnum, Iain Banks, Ralph Bakshi, Charles Bernstein, Mike Malloy, Federico Caddeo, Matthew Rankin, Frank Labonte, Daniel Bird, Lara Simms, Caelum Vatnsdal, tamara rae biebrich, Cam Bush, Monica Lowe, crys cole, Douglas Buck, Rita Romagnino, Mike Gingold, Paul Corupe, James Burrell, Fabio Vellozo, Nathaniel Thompson, Sean Smithson, David Blyth, Chris Alexander, Blake Etheridge, Shade Rupe, Rodney Perkins, Matthew Kiernan, Pete Tombs, Atom Leborgne, Ariel Esteban Cayer, Valerie Hudson, Dan Yates, Melissa Howard, Karim Hussain, Craig Ledbetter, Mitch Davis, Lars Nilsen, Zack Carlson, Tim & Karrie League, Robin Bougie, Dave Alexander, Stuart Andrews, Simon Laperriere, Melinda Michelak, K.K. Celine, Matthew Garrett, Jonathan Culp, Greg Sonier, Kristen Bell, Brendan Sloane, Charles Smith, Andrew Parkinson, Mike White, Mark Savage, Michael Raso, Sarah Bradley, Stephanie Llewellyn, Alexander Dafoe, Jay Slater, Kelly Hughes, Ariel Gordon, Jordan Janisse, Teresa Cooper, Rob Jones, Michel Janisse, Andrea Morse, Virginia Offen, Ivo Scheloske, Patricia Gardner, Mike Josephson, Clint Enns, Leslie Supnet, Aaron W. Graham, Donato Totaro, Marc Morris, Sean Hogan, Mitch Putnam, and many others without whose support this book would never have been completed.

Written with the generous support of the City of Winnipeg through the Winnipeg Arts Council.

Edited by Harvey Fenton.
Page layout by Harvey Fenton, after an original design idea by Kier-La Janisse.

Front cover illustration, hardback: Artwork originally used in the promotion of Andrzej Zulawskis Possession (1981)
Front cover illustration, paperback: Montage of images from Lets Scare Jessica to Death (1971) with thanks to Silver Ferox (www.silverferoxdesign.com)
Back cover illustrations: Possession (1981), Carrie (1976), Black Swan (2010)
Frontispiece illustration: Asia Argento in Dario Argentos The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
Contents page illustration: The Last Exorcism (2011)

Stills and illustrations in this book are copyright the respective copyright holders and are reproduced in the spirit of publicity, with due acknowledgement to the following organisations and individuals: Alpha Films, American International Pictures, Anahuac S.A., Anolis Entertainment, Arte Cinema de Mexico, S.A., Audubon Films Inc., Avco Embassy Pictures, Avis Ascot, BCP, Border Film Productions (London) Ltd., Capitol International, Catfish Studios, C.C.C. Film Gmbh, Chris Releasing Corp., Cine 2000, Cinecrest Films Inc., Cinema International Corporation, Cinematografica S.A., Cinerama Releasing, City Lights Pictures, CJLJ Film, Classic Film Industries, Cockney Rebels Specials, Code Red, Columbia-EMI-Warner Distributors, Columbia Pictures, Columbia Tristar, Comflik Associates, Commonwealth United, Compton, Condor Films, Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dark Vision Pictures, Dyna-Mite! Entertainment, Dzen Film, EI Entertainment, E.Sanchez Ramade, E Tube Entertainment, Fastigium Films, Fetter Productions, Fortissimofilms, Gloria Film, Golden Harvest, Goldwyn Entertainment Company, Harbor Productions Inc., Headway Films Inc., Hispamex Films, S.A., IIF, Imagination Worldwide, Independent-International, Izaro Films, Jennings Lang, Julie DAmour-Lger, Lionsgate, LMG, Lopert Films Inc., Malpaso Company, Maron Films Ltd., MCI, Medusa Film, Mercurio Films S.A., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Miracle Films, Navaron Films, Network Releasing, New Line Cinema, Niles International, Odyssey, Palomar Pictures International Inc., Paramount Pictures, Polfilm, Portland Film Corporation, Producciones Filmicas Maynat, S.A., Profilmes, S.A., Ram, Rank Organisation, Raro Video, Realart, Reluctant Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Roadshow Distributors, Rochelle Films Inc., Salient Media, Scimitar Films, Scotia International Films Inc., Seda Spettacoli Rome, Selznick International, Seven Arts, Stormlight Films, Strike Entertainment, Studiocanal, Thorn EMI, Tigon, Titanus Films, Tobis Filmkunst, Twentieth Century-Fox, Unisphere, United Artists, United Film Distribution Co., United International Pictures, United Producers, Universal Pictures, VCL, Warner Bros., Warner-Columbia, William Mishkin Motion Pictures, Inc., Wingnut Films, World Film Services Ltd.

This Volume copyright FAB Press 2012

World Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

hardback: ISBN 978 1 903254 68 4
paperback: ISBN 978 1 903254 69 1
ebook:ISBN 978 1 903254 82 0

FOR ADELE, JANELLE and CHANDRA and JUDITH ANNE MORSE

Some names have been changed to protect privacy.

Isabelle Adjani in Andrzej Zulawskis Possession (1981).

INTRODUCTION:
HAVE YOU GOT A MAGNIFICENT PROBLEM?

[ Red Desert ] shows with almost clinical precision how, to the deeply neurotic mind, everything in life is levelled to the problem: not only love in its various forms but family responsibility, work, friendship, even simple mechanical tasks like driving a car. The details are perfectly rendered, the metonyms hauntingly real and physical No less palpable are [Giulianas] longings to have everyone and everything she has loved around her to form a wall against the terror Yet Antonioni also shows that behind all the fears there are sharply aggressive feelings. What makes Giuliana more apprehensive than anything is how close she feels to violence.
Seymour Chatman, Antonioni, or the Surface of the World

I wanted to find the fool who invented closure and shove a big closure plaque up his ass.
James Ellroy, My Dark Places

It all started with Possession . Zulawskis film, formally speaking, is perfection its deep blue hues, its labyrinthine locations, the hypnotic cinematography of Bruno Nuytten. But thats not what drew me to return to it again and again. There was something terrible in that film, a desperation I recognized in myself, in my inability to communicate effectively, and the frustration that would lead to despair, anger and hysteria.

My relationship with this film caused me to look at what kinds of warnings or in some cases reinforcements I was getting out of other films in which disturbed or neurotic women figured greatly. Over the past ten years I started keeping a log of these films, accompanied by rambling, incoherent notes and occasionally wet pages. I have drawers full of these scribblings; theyre spilling out of manila envelopes in my closet, and theyre all pieces of a puzzle that I have to figure out how to put together. But my starting point was a question, and that question presented itself easily: I wanted to know why I was crazy and what happens when you feed crazy with more crazy.