Making our Monsters: Forced Disabling in American and Canadian Horror Films

My dissertation challenges the common perception that horror cinema merely vilifies disability, strictly by perpetuating harmful stereotypes of disabled individuals as monstrous. I contend that while horror films have consistently used characters’ physical, intellectual, and psychological disabilities to evoke fear and revulsion, revisiting the genre through the lens of disability studies reveals that portrayals of disability are not universally exploitative, but rather point to more complex historical intersections. The dissertation introduces and defines the concept of “forced disabling,” a phenomenon where individuals are deliberately disabled (mentally, emotionally, or physically) for the benefit of others, as distinct from disabilities that arise naturally or through accidents. The dissertation examines how the genre uses disability as a form of Othering and draws on trauma studies, Indigenous studies, and race and gender studies to uncover how this trope intersects with historical systems of oppression and targeted racial discrimination. These include, in particular, the legacies of anti-Black racism through practices such as exploitative medical experimentation, police brutality, and forced sterilization, as well as anti-Indigenous racism through tactics like cultural erasure, enforced dependency, and physical and psychological violence within settler-colonial frameworks. By comparing films directed by white male filmmakers with those by women and people of color, the study traces evolving trends in disability representation across time and cultures. Chapters include analyses of ways that concepts of race and gender inform the forced disabling of white protagonists in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) and Misery (Rob Reiner, 1990) the ways female directors explore bodily autonomy through “body horror” in films such as American Mary (the Soska sisters, 2012) and Boxing Helena (Jennifer Lynch, 1993), and the way the historical institutions of slavery and Indigenous genocide manifest as forced disabling in the films of Black filmmakers including Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017), and Indigenous filmmakers including Jeff Barnaby’s (Mi’kmaq) Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013). My dissertation offers a comprehensive understanding of how forced disabling operates within horror and highlights its cultural significance and sheds light on how filmmakers from diverse backgrounds engage with themes of trauma and disability, all of which provides a more inclusive perspective within the genre. Ultimately, my research demonstrates that, rather than universally denigrating disability, horror uses it to reflect and critique deeply rooted societal injustices. Through a blend of disability studies, trauma theory, and intersectionality, my research reveals the multilayered ways in which horror uses disability to reflect and critique historical and societal injustices.

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