The 1970s Project

This paper proposes to analyse how British film makers of the 1970s represented fetishised bodies in the context of the horror genre. These films are regarded as second rate and even as part of the 'sexploitation' market of the time. However the intertwining of the erotic and the deformed and the strangely powerful response of both fear and excitement that is initiated by these images reveals a deeper, almost primeval response that begs to be addressed.

The 1970s was a time of great change and upheaval, heralding a transitional period between the revolutionary 60s and the upwardly mobile 80s. Representations of the body and in particular, the monstrous body, expose the most deep rooted fears and anxieties prevalent in the culture of that specific era. The 60s had seen the hairy backed beast, sex, released into the urban areas of society, invading domestic spaces and promoting promiscuity. The 70s warily accepted the beast, but had in no way tamed it. It began to intrude into every aspect of everyday life and the deeply felt concerns about its impact on and erosion of established moral values of the time are expressed through the erotic but transgressive body.

Looking at such films as The Beast Must Die (1974),The Beast in the Cellar (1970), Asylum (1974) and Frightmare (1974), and the treatment of the erotic/deformed/transgressive body, as one that must be suppressed and hidden but is ultimately irrepressible, will be analysed in light of such theorists as Giddens and his theory on sexuality, Linda Williams and her analysis of pornography and the sexual being, Hogan and his writings on sexuality and the body in horror film and Frank on the Sociology of the body.