I love looking at successful movies and analyzing their genre and how they used it to amplify their message and the director/writer's voice. And there's a recent trend in horror that has been really fun. The common denominator in some of the scariest and best films over the last five years, Barbarian, Weapons, The Substance, and many more, has been the "Psycho Biddie."Today, we're diving headfirst into a horror subgenre that's deeply unsettling, and we'll define it, go over the tropes, and look at some historic examples. Let's dive in. Psycho Biddie DefinitionA "Psycho Biddie" film is a subgenre of psychological thriller and horror that came out of the 1960s and early 1970s. It's also called the "Grande Dame Guignol" or "hagsploitation." It commonly refers to movies or TV shows that feature once-glamorous, aging actresses in terrifying and often tragically campy roles. These stories typically revolve around a mentally unstable older woman whose descent into madness leads to violence.Psycho Biddie TropesAs I said in the opener, this character and genre have become super popular in today's Hollywood. The reason why so that they're good stories to talk about so many themes like aging, relevance, feminism, and just to scare the crap out of people. If you're embarking on writing or directing one of these kinds of films, you should be familiar with the tropes, so you can subvert expectations and find your own voice through all the details. Character TropesThe Unhinged Former Star: The absolute centerpiece of the genre. She...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday