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#REDIRECT [[Gender in horror films#Psycho-biddy]]
{{Redirect|Hagsploitation|the Feud episode|Hagsploitation (Feud)}}
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{{Rcat shell|
[[Image:Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane trailer.jpg|right|250px|thumb|[[Bette Davis]] and [[Joan Crawford]] in<br>''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?]]'' (1962)]]
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'''Psycho-biddy''' is a film subgenre which combines elements of the [[Horror film|horror]], [[Thriller film|thriller]] and [[woman's film]] genres. It has also been referred to by several different terms, which also include '''Grande Dame Guignol''', '''hagsploitation''' and '''hag horror'''.<ref name=":02">{{cite book|last=Shelley|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Grande_Dame_Guignol_Cinema.html?id=HKYqAQAAIAAJ|title=Grande Dame Guignol Cinema: A History of Hag Horror from "Baby Jane" to "Mother"|date=September 15, 2009|publisher=McFarland and Company, Inc.|isbn=978-0786445691|location=Jefferson, North Carolina and London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-02-01|title=MENOPAUSAL MANIACS: A HAG HORROR WATCHLIST|url=https://www.rue-morgue.com/menopausal-maniacs-a-hag-horror-watchlist/|access-date=2021-05-24|website=Rue Morgue|language=en-US}}</ref>
}}

Per Peter Shelley, the subgenre combines the concepts of the grande dame and "[[Grand Guignol|Grande Guignol]]". Films in this genre conventionally feature a formerly-glamorous older woman who has become mentally unbalanced and terrorizes those around her.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pahle|first=Rebecca|date=2019-11-13|title=A primer for the unexpectedly awesome hagsploitation horror subgenre|url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-primer-for-the-unexpectedly-awesome-hagsploitation-horror-subgenre|access-date=2021-05-24|website=SYFY WIRE|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Keegan|first=Rebecca|title=The birth of ‘hagsploitation'|url=https://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/tribune/article_popover.aspx?guid=6ceb43cd-6e4a-422e-a00c-26664a8e7932|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-24|website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=YesWeekly|title=The crying shame|url=https://www.yesweekly.com/news/the-crying-shame/article_d9feb737-025f-56b4-aabb-4d935716e496.html|access-date=2021-05-24|website=YES! Weekly|language=en}}</ref>

The first wave of the subgenre is considered to have launched in the 1960s with ''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?]]'' and lasted through the mid-1970s. [[Renata Adler]], in her ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' review for the 1968 film ''[[The Anniversary (1968 film)|The Anniversary]]'', referred to the genre as "the Terrifying Older Actress Filicidal Mummy genre."<ref>[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9905E0DE1131E034BC4951DFB5668383679EDE ''New York Times'' review]</ref>

==Definition, themes and influences==
Influences on the psycho-biddy genre include genres such as [[gothic fiction]], [[Grand Guignol]], [[black comedy]], [[psychodrama]], and [[melodrama]]. Per Shelley, common hallmarks of actresses in the subgenre included those who were "no longer considered leading lady material" or had "previously specialized in supporting rolles", and "had not worked for some time".<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|2}}

Shelley has noted that for a film to qualify as falling within the subgenre, it must have the following criteria:

* The film uses grande guignol effects.
* The lead character is an actress who plays "a character with the airs and graces of a grande dame".<ref name=":02" />

==History==
Per scholars such as Peter Shelley, the psycho-biddy subgenre was launched in the 1960s with the 1962 film ''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?]]'', directed by [[Robert Aldrich]] and starring [[Bette Davis]] and [[Joan Crawford]] as [[Baby Jane Hudson]] and [[Blanche Hudson]], respectively. The film bolstered the flagging careers of its stars, as both Davis and Crawford had experienced difficulty finding roles.<ref name=":02" />

The subgenre has been referred to by multiple terms such as "hag horror", "hagsploitation", "psycho-biddy", and "Grande Dame Guignol". Film historian [[Charles Busch]], whose 1999 play ''[[Die, Mommie, Die!]]'' and its 2003 film adaptation were written in tribute to the subgenre, has espoused his preference for the term "Grande Dame Guignol.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|1}}

[[Mad Magazine|''Mad'' magazine]] poked fun at the genre in 1966 with a film musical satire entitled "Hack, Hack Sweet Has-Been - or Whatever Happened to Good Taste?"<ref>''"Hack, Hack Sweet Has-Been - or Whatever Happened to Good Taste?"'' Written by Mort Drucker, Illustrated by Larry Siegel. ''MAD'' Magazine, Issue No. 100, January 1966.</ref>

== Critique and reception ==
The term and genre have received criticism, particularly in regards to claims that psycho-biddy films exploit actresses who have experienced or are vulnerable to [[ageism]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Douglas|first=Susan J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8hefDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PT93&dq=%22hagsploitation%22&hl=en|title=In Our Prime: How Older Women Are Reinventing the Road Ahead|date=2020-03-10|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-65256-7|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":02" /> [[Timothy Shary]] and Nancy McVittie noted the genre in their book ''Fade to Gray: Aging in American Cinema'', stating that the "cycle of films renders the aging women at their core as monstrously "othered" objects."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shary|first=Timothy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AjyGDAAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA83&dq=%22Psycho-biddy%22&hl=en|title=Fade to Gray: Aging in American Cinema|last2=McVittie|first2=Nancy|date=2016-09-06|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-1-4773-1063-2|pages=80–86|language=en}}</ref> ''[[Bustle (magazine)|Bustle]]'' writer Caitlin Gallagher criticized the term "hagsploitation", as she felt that it "shows a certain lack of respect for the actresses who starred in these types of movies", further noting that together with the term "psycho-biddy" the terms "use disparaging terms for older women — "hag" and "biddy" — to not only indicate how unattractive the female characters are in these types of films, but to also show that these characters are psychotic."<ref>{{Cite web|title='Feud' Depicts "Hagsploitation" In All Its Offensive Glory|url=https://www.bustle.com/p/feud-depicts-hagsploitation-in-all-its-offensive-glory-49769|access-date=2021-05-24|website=Bustle|language=en}}</ref>

[[British Film Institute|BFI]]'s Justin Johnson commented on the genre, saying that "“If Crawford and Davis didn’t carve out this niche with Baby Jane and all the films that followed, then a lot of legendary actresses would not have had third career acts".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hobbs|first=Thomas|title=Trog: The strangest horror film of its era|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201116-trog-the-strangest-horror-of-its-era|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-24|website=BBC|language=en}}</ref> Peter Shelley has argued that criticism of the psycho-biddy subgenre is inaccurate, as it implies that the actress is lowering her standards by acting in a horror film by also implying that her earlier work is superior. The criticism also implies that the actress is only portraying a character out of her normal range out of desperation.<ref name=":02" />

== Examples ==
While the subgenre has existed over a broad time period, it is closely tied to the 1960s and the end of the [[Classical Hollywood cinema|Classical Hollywood]] Era.<ref name=":02"/> Thus, while there are many entries into the subgenre which exist outside of this decade (it is preceded by such films as [[Sunset Boulevard (film)|''Sunset Boulevard'']] and [[The Star (1952 film)|''The Star'']], and followed by [[Misery (film)|''Misery'']] and [[Mommie Dearest (film)|''Mommie Dearest'']]), it should be primarily considered within the context of the dying [[studio system]].

* ''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?]]'' ([[Robert Aldrich]], 1962)<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-01-18|title=‘Hagsploitation’: horror’s obsession with older women returns|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/18/hagsploitation-horrors-obsession-with-older-women-returns|access-date=2021-05-24|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>
* ''[[Strait-Jacket]]'' ([[William Castle]], 1964)
* ''[[Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte]]'' ([[Robert Aldrich]], 1964)<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-10-21|title=10 Grand Hagsploitation Horror Movies|url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/best-hagsploitation-horror-movies/|access-date=2021-05-24|website=Film School Rejects|language=en-US}}</ref>
* ''[[Fanatic (1965 film)|Fanatic]]'' (a.k.a. ''Die! Die! My Darling!'') ([[Silvio Narizzano]], 1965)
* ''[[What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?]]'' ([[Lee H. Katzin]], 1969)<ref>{{Cite web|last=Nastasi|first=Alison|title=The Scariest Psycho Biddies in Cinema|url=https://www.flavorwire.com/335871/the-scariest-psycho-biddies-in-cinema|access-date=2021-05-24|website=Flavorwire|language=en}}</ref>
* ''[[What's the Matter with Helen?]]'' ([[Curtis Harrington]], 1971)
* ''[[Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?]]'' ([[Curtis Harrington]], 1971)<ref name=":02"/>

== Further reading ==

* {{Cite book|last=Fisiak|first=Tomasz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyRQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=Hag+Horror+Heroines:+Kitsch/Camp+Goddesses,+Tyrannical+Females,+Queer+Icons.%E2%80%9D+Redefining+Kitsch+and+Camp+in+Literature+and+Culture&source=bl&ots=m6eJsAoUOF&sig=ACfU3U1iGiiK8cIuPASgjAVD_ctKjTUsFA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjikfvxn-LwAhUbbs0KHXYyD2oQ6AEwA3oECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=Hag%20Horror%20Heroines:%20Kitsch/Camp%20Goddesses,%20Tyrannical%20Females,%20Queer%20Icons.%E2%80%9D%20Redefining%20Kitsch%20and%20Camp%20in%20Literature%20and%20Culture&f=false|title=Redefining Kitsch and Camp in Literature and Culture|date=2014-09-26|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-6779-5|language=en|chapter=Hag Horror Heroines: Kitsch/Camp Goddesses, Tyrannical Females, Queer Icons.}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Fisiak |first1=Tomasz |title=Stranger Than Fiction: Gothic Intertextuality in Shakespears Sister’s Music Videos |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=916929 |date=2020 |journal=Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture |issue=10 |pages=194–208}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Fisiak|first=Tomasz|date=2019-11-01|title=What Ever Happened to My Peace of Mind? Hag Horror as Narrative of Trauma|url=https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.18778/2083-2931.09.19|journal=Text Matters|language=en|volume=9|issue=9|pages=316–327|doi=10.18778/2083-2931.09.19|issn=2084-574X}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Kotwasińska|first=Agnieszka|date=2018|title=Un/re/production of Old Age in The Taking of Deborah Logan|url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/soma.2018.0249|journal=Somatechnics|language=en|volume=8|issue=2|pages=178–194|doi=10.3366/soma.2018.0249|issn=2044-0138}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Pullen,|first=C.|date=2018|title=Feud, ‘hagsploitation’ and female work in Hollywood film|url=https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/conference/311739|journal=Screen Studies Conference Manual}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Michelle|date=Spring 2021|title=Look At Her: The Subversive Spectacle of Grande Dame Guignol Cinema|url=https://repository.belmont.edu/english_theses/2/|journal=English Theses, Belmont University}}
* {{Cite web|last=Zoladz|first=Lindsay|date=2017-03-16|title="Psycho Biddies," Then and Now|url=https://www.theringer.com/2017/3/16/16039576/fx-feud-ryan-murphy-whatever-happened-to-baby-jane-bette-davis-c30502817cdc|access-date=2021-05-24|website=The Ringer|language=en}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Horror film}}
{{Women in Media}}
{{Film genres}}

[[Category:Film genres]]
[[Category:Horror films by genre]]
[[Category:Depictions of women in film]]

Latest revision as of 04:05, 17 November 2023

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