Pregnancy in movies
June 27th 2008 02:48
I've been quiet on Orble ever since I entered the third trimester of my pregnancy (I'm due in August). But with the exhaustion and lack of time/energy to even watch movies, let alone review them, I thought I'd write about a topic that's close to my heart right now: namely, one of the roles of pregnancy--and by extension, new/young mothers--in genre movies.
Along with the very old and the very young, a pregnant woman can be one of the most vulnerable movie characters. As in real life, she may be in physical and emotional upheaval, and moreover, her child's health and safety depends absolutely on her own situation. Placing the pregnant woman at the centre of a horror, disaster, or scary sci-fi movie increases the movie's ability to disturb.
Note: My discussion below mentions plot points from different movies, but I don't think they are spoilery, i.e., they don't give away too much and/or are common knowledge.
The horror, the horror
What makes us want to see movies with demonic children--is it because of the contradiction between their innocent faces and their evil deeds? Not only are scary children often particularly creepy to viewers, but even pregnancy is often--and perhaps most famously--depicted as a thing of horror.
Parents will always worry that their children won't turn out the way they hope: what if they're sickly? Unhappy? What if they become mean, ungrateful, or cold-hearted adults? Yet such normal parental concerns are nothing compared to what we see in Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Omen (1976). Both movies deal with (though in very different ways) the spawn of Satan taking the place of a human child. Indeed, their very conceptions are horrific (Rosemary is raped by the devil, and Damien is born from an unnatural union.)
Poor Rosemary. Her entire pregnancy is watched and controlled by a coven including her husband, extending even to her neighbours and doctor. Supernatural themes aside, the way that people infiltrate Rosemary's daily life is reminiscent of many new mothers' experiences (even mine, unfortunately). Everything, from the choice of doctors to the suspicious chocolate mousse she's given, is thrust upon Rosemary by those who know better: they're older, they've been there before, and often, they're male. This film, more than the others discussed here, is more about the pregnancy rather than the end result. Yet in the end, the baby elicits Rosemary's softer feelings despite her initial resistance and terror. The final moments of the movie shows Rosemary's face softening into a maternal smile, and it is as chilling as the rest of the film.
Though I only mentioned older movies, it looks like the horror baby trope is here to stay. There's a zombie baby in Dawn of the Dead (1978), which was remade recently. B-movie It's Alive (1976), which shares with Rosemary's Baby the maternal instinct to love even the most evil baby, was also recently remade. Although I haven't seen it, I'm aware of a French movie called À l'intérieur (2007), a slasher/horror movie with a very pregnant woman as the protagonist/victim--although the baby isn't the monster.
Of machines and men
Science fiction movies can explore the horror of pregnancy and childbirth in ways not possible in horror movies. Even men and machines can come into the picture. By nature, science fiction narratives can go beyond the limits of most other stories. If dramas and horror movies address the responsibility that comes with parenthood, science fiction can address a more basic issue--the possibility of different conceptions and births.
In Village of the Damned (1960), women and girls of a certain age all over the world become mysteriously pregnant and end up giving birth on the same day. There are, of course, virgin births. It's soon clear that the babies, who grow up to have preternatural powers, are not human. Midwich, the village in which the movie is set, deals with the children scientifically, but other communities are less cautious: some murder the strange offspring, and others still recognise a superiority in the children, allowing them the best in education.
The most alarming thing about these eerie blond children is not their powers or even their seemingly utter lack of human emotions. It's how the women were so easily impregnated with them, without warning or obvious reason, without any hint of whence they came. We fear, yet still understand why the anti-Christ wishes to be reborn. But at the end of the movie, the Midwich children remain a mystery.
Another sci-fi movie, Demon Seed (1977), plays on the fear of technology and artificial intelligence, using pregnancy and (organic) birth as kind of a final frontier: it's the most fundamental thing we can do that advanced machines and computers can't accomplish. It's unlike Terminator or the Matrix series, where AI simply wants to conquer humanity; in Demon Seed, the Proteus IV AI subjects housewife Susan to invasive tests and impregnates her because it wants to be reborn as a human child.
And then there's Alien, where a baby alien bursts from Kane's torso in what's surely one of cinema's most memorable births and deaths. It's a far cry from Arnold Schwarzenegger being voluntarily pregnant in 1990's sci-fi comedy Junior. Like most of the horror movies and sci-fi movies discussed thus far, where the demonic, monstrous, or replacement child is often the result of rape, Kane is unknowingly impregnated with the baby.
Apocalyptic birth
Disaster movies and apocalyptic movies often depict families trying to find each other, stay together, and above all, stay alive. Off the top of my head, I can think of War of the Worlds, Last Night, The Day After Tomorrow, Last Night, and T2, which all depict families (with or without children) that fit the description above--and sometimes they even try to fight the end of the world. More often than not, they play out their own dramas against the backdrop of the larger catastrophe. However, one of the more interesting apocalyptic movies of late, Children of Men (2006), has the pregnant woman as the ultimate symbol of hope.
A pregnant woman in an earthquake movie might symbolise the inevitability of the 'happy' ending--they wouldn't kill a pregnant woman or her baby, right?--but in Children of Men, Kee, the world's first pregnant woman in twenty years, is always in peril. She and her protector Theo trust no one, from the government to the various groups who would use her as a political gambit. The long journey to a refugee camp is fraught with violence and other dangers, especially because Kee must give birth along the way. (The actual birth is probably the only scene that seems like a conventional disaster/post-apocalyptic movie, with Theo drinking and sterilising with alcohol before delivering the child in highly questionable conditions.)
Kee and her baby's survival has profound and far-reaching ramifications. The ending of the movie suggests that Kee and the baby are saved, but it's not a question of a 'happy' ending for the mother and child. The significance of pregnancy is actually never more clear than when Theo first glimpses Kee's naked belly: his revulsion turns into something like awe. Indeed, Kee, Theo, and the baby's progress through a refugee slum, amidst gunfire and bombings, is the passage of a miracle. Hands reach out to touch the child, and a lone cry silences the gunfire--at least momentarily.
So how do we get from horror babies to the hope of the future? There's room for both of these interpretations, and more. It's true that sometimes, despite parents' best intentions and efforts, children just turn out rotten. Moreover, pregnancy, with its attendant issues of women's bodies, health, scientific/medical intervention, etc., will always be an important and controversial topic; the recent popularity (or infamy) of movies about unplanned pregnancy attests to that. Whatever happens in the real world, children and childbearing in movies should be interesting to observe, both as a mirror and a comment on reality.
Final notes
A genre that I didn't cover, because I'm not familiar with it, is the pregnancy comedy or comedy-drama. I haven't seen Juno or Knocked Up, or others of that ilk. Any comments on these genres (or anything at all) are welcome! And I do hope to regain my normal energy levels and blog more soon.
As well, if you are interested, check out a review of Children of Men at thoughtsonfilm.com.
Along with the very old and the very young, a pregnant woman can be one of the most vulnerable movie characters. As in real life, she may be in physical and emotional upheaval, and moreover, her child's health and safety depends absolutely on her own situation. Placing the pregnant woman at the centre of a horror, disaster, or scary sci-fi movie increases the movie's ability to disturb.
Note: My discussion below mentions plot points from different movies, but I don't think they are spoilery, i.e., they don't give away too much and/or are common knowledge.
The horror, the horror
What makes us want to see movies with demonic children--is it because of the contradiction between their innocent faces and their evil deeds? Not only are scary children often particularly creepy to viewers, but even pregnancy is often--and perhaps most famously--depicted as a thing of horror.
Parents will always worry that their children won't turn out the way they hope: what if they're sickly? Unhappy? What if they become mean, ungrateful, or cold-hearted adults? Yet such normal parental concerns are nothing compared to what we see in Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Omen (1976). Both movies deal with (though in very different ways) the spawn of Satan taking the place of a human child. Indeed, their very conceptions are horrific (Rosemary is raped by the devil, and Damien is born from an unnatural union.)
Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby
Poor Rosemary. Her entire pregnancy is watched and controlled by a coven including her husband, extending even to her neighbours and doctor. Supernatural themes aside, the way that people infiltrate Rosemary's daily life is reminiscent of many new mothers' experiences (even mine, unfortunately). Everything, from the choice of doctors to the suspicious chocolate mousse she's given, is thrust upon Rosemary by those who know better: they're older, they've been there before, and often, they're male. This film, more than the others discussed here, is more about the pregnancy rather than the end result. Yet in the end, the baby elicits Rosemary's softer feelings despite her initial resistance and terror. The final moments of the movie shows Rosemary's face softening into a maternal smile, and it is as chilling as the rest of the film.
Though I only mentioned older movies, it looks like the horror baby trope is here to stay. There's a zombie baby in Dawn of the Dead (1978), which was remade recently. B-movie It's Alive (1976), which shares with Rosemary's Baby the maternal instinct to love even the most evil baby, was also recently remade. Although I haven't seen it, I'm aware of a French movie called À l'intérieur (2007), a slasher/horror movie with a very pregnant woman as the protagonist/victim--although the baby isn't the monster.
Of machines and men
Science fiction movies can explore the horror of pregnancy and childbirth in ways not possible in horror movies. Even men and machines can come into the picture. By nature, science fiction narratives can go beyond the limits of most other stories. If dramas and horror movies address the responsibility that comes with parenthood, science fiction can address a more basic issue--the possibility of different conceptions and births.
In Village of the Damned (1960), women and girls of a certain age all over the world become mysteriously pregnant and end up giving birth on the same day. There are, of course, virgin births. It's soon clear that the babies, who grow up to have preternatural powers, are not human. Midwich, the village in which the movie is set, deals with the children scientifically, but other communities are less cautious: some murder the strange offspring, and others still recognise a superiority in the children, allowing them the best in education.
The most alarming thing about these eerie blond children is not their powers or even their seemingly utter lack of human emotions. It's how the women were so easily impregnated with them, without warning or obvious reason, without any hint of whence they came. We fear, yet still understand why the anti-Christ wishes to be reborn. But at the end of the movie, the Midwich children remain a mystery.
Another sci-fi movie, Demon Seed (1977), plays on the fear of technology and artificial intelligence, using pregnancy and (organic) birth as kind of a final frontier: it's the most fundamental thing we can do that advanced machines and computers can't accomplish. It's unlike Terminator or the Matrix series, where AI simply wants to conquer humanity; in Demon Seed, the Proteus IV AI subjects housewife Susan to invasive tests and impregnates her because it wants to be reborn as a human child.
John Hurt as Kane
And then there's Alien, where a baby alien bursts from Kane's torso in what's surely one of cinema's most memorable births and deaths. It's a far cry from Arnold Schwarzenegger being voluntarily pregnant in 1990's sci-fi comedy Junior. Like most of the horror movies and sci-fi movies discussed thus far, where the demonic, monstrous, or replacement child is often the result of rape, Kane is unknowingly impregnated with the baby.
Apocalyptic birth
Disaster movies and apocalyptic movies often depict families trying to find each other, stay together, and above all, stay alive. Off the top of my head, I can think of War of the Worlds, Last Night, The Day After Tomorrow, Last Night, and T2, which all depict families (with or without children) that fit the description above--and sometimes they even try to fight the end of the world. More often than not, they play out their own dramas against the backdrop of the larger catastrophe. However, one of the more interesting apocalyptic movies of late, Children of Men (2006), has the pregnant woman as the ultimate symbol of hope.
A pregnant woman in an earthquake movie might symbolise the inevitability of the 'happy' ending--they wouldn't kill a pregnant woman or her baby, right?--but in Children of Men, Kee, the world's first pregnant woman in twenty years, is always in peril. She and her protector Theo trust no one, from the government to the various groups who would use her as a political gambit. The long journey to a refugee camp is fraught with violence and other dangers, especially because Kee must give birth along the way. (The actual birth is probably the only scene that seems like a conventional disaster/post-apocalyptic movie, with Theo drinking and sterilising with alcohol before delivering the child in highly questionable conditions.)
Theo, Kee, and the baby
Kee and her baby's survival has profound and far-reaching ramifications. The ending of the movie suggests that Kee and the baby are saved, but it's not a question of a 'happy' ending for the mother and child. The significance of pregnancy is actually never more clear than when Theo first glimpses Kee's naked belly: his revulsion turns into something like awe. Indeed, Kee, Theo, and the baby's progress through a refugee slum, amidst gunfire and bombings, is the passage of a miracle. Hands reach out to touch the child, and a lone cry silences the gunfire--at least momentarily.
So how do we get from horror babies to the hope of the future? There's room for both of these interpretations, and more. It's true that sometimes, despite parents' best intentions and efforts, children just turn out rotten. Moreover, pregnancy, with its attendant issues of women's bodies, health, scientific/medical intervention, etc., will always be an important and controversial topic; the recent popularity (or infamy) of movies about unplanned pregnancy attests to that. Whatever happens in the real world, children and childbearing in movies should be interesting to observe, both as a mirror and a comment on reality.
Final notes
A genre that I didn't cover, because I'm not familiar with it, is the pregnancy comedy or comedy-drama. I haven't seen Juno or Knocked Up, or others of that ilk. Any comments on these genres (or anything at all) are welcome! And I do hope to regain my normal energy levels and blog more soon.
As well, if you are interested, check out a review of Children of Men at thoughtsonfilm.com.
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Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
"Knocked Up" has been criticized for being misogynistic, but I think it's accidentally so... the director and screenwriters were men and were definitely hard-pressed to write a decent part for a woman.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
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Artist Quirk
great article!
fantastic ability to think outside the square!
Comment by Irene
Women In Cinema
Grammar Matters
As for Juno, it does seem earnest and kind of sweet. I'd give it a chance.
Morgan, ha...John Hurt's was one of the first 'pregnancies' I ever saw in a movie! So it seems natural that I'd remember it