My Hag Era
Margery Mason as "Ancient Booer" in The Princess Bride (1987)
I'm on the cusp of a big birthday- my 40th, to be exact- and now that I'm reaching middle age, society has reminded me that I am now entering my hag era. Personally I think I'm entering my hot witch era instead, but no matter what strides we take towards accepting aging, it's just not what folks expect to happen at this age.
This isn't intended to be a manifesto on anti-aging culture or a history lesson on why people have certain feelings and opinions about the elderly, but as I have inched closer to this special occasion in my life I've definitely been thinking about the role that the "aging and elderly", particularly women, have in the horror industry overall, and *that* is the direction we're taking today.
Before I sat down to write this, I spent some time thinking about my own views of old people and how that's changed over time. The first thing that came to mind was how I always thought I'd be one to age naturally and gracefully. I thought I'd let my beautiful silver hair shine in the moonlight as I rode off on my broomstick... I kid. But honestly though, I always thought I'd just let the graying happen, and the wrinkles, and the sagging, and all the other beautiful things that come along with getting older because as I think we've all heard a time too many- "getting old is a privilege denied to many".
But here's the thing, when those wrinkles start coming in and they're not quite as cute as you thought they'd be, or those grays are a little more dull and wiry and less sparkly and chic, and all the other weird stuff starts happening... it doesn't feel like a privilege. You start to remember all the times you've seen people who look like that in the media- senile, grumpy, discarded, and sometimes outright villainous. Then you second guess, and you go back to dyeing your hair or maybe doing a little botox here or a little filler there...
Dear reader, I may have gone on a little tangent here and started googling retinol options for an hour, but once my little ADHD brain refocused from that new wrinkle on my forehead to thinking about aging *specifically* in terms of horror movies, I tried to list off specific characters or storylines or films themselves that kind of fit the bill. My first thoughts were two of M. Night Shyamalan's more recent works- Old and The Visit, and then older films like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.The list grows vastly longer when you consider movies where aging might not be the plot itself but perhaps they have older characters who are meant to be feared (The Little Mermaid is a prime example. Why is it that Ursula is a big monstrous sea hag with white hair and bags under her eyes? But when she needs to seem sweet and nice, suddenly she's drop-dead gorgeous?)
Ursula and Ursula-as-Vanessa in The Little Mermaid (1989)
I think part of that answer lies in cultural references. Beyond film, we are taught from a young age to fear mummies and monsters and zombies and witches- and the imagery associated with them varies a little bit in execution but it really boils down to death, decay, missing teeth, mottled skin, wrinkles, and wiry gray hair.
So while we're being inundated with reminders to be grateful we're given the opportunity to age, and we're being told to age gracefully and not pump ourselves full of fillers and silicone, we're also being told that those things that occur to us naturally as we age aren't acceptable either, that somehow they make us inherently bad.
As you can imagine, there's plenty of films about that too. For example, the French movie Eyes Without a Face and the much-loved Death Becomes Her both address the idea of obsession with beauty and youth. Even classics like Sunset Boulevard touch on the descent into madness that comes with aging and in some cases being tossed aside for something new and shiny.
I started to think about the spate of recent remakes and reboots and particularly films where the original stars make a return. This led me to thinking about the new Halloween series and boy did that send me down an angry rabbit hole. Here you have one of Hollywood's biggest stars, someone known for aging "gracefully" (insert massive eye roll here), someone universally beloved, particularly for her role in the original Halloween, and instead of letting her embrace her sex appeal and her beautiful silver-haired chicness they decided to make her disheveled and rough. Why? Because again, her character is old now. It's not possible that anyone wants to see a hot Laurie Strode take revenge on her tormentor. (If I roll my eyes any harder they *will* get stuck.)
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie in Halloween (2018) and at the premiere of the film
Spare me the whole continuity of story nonsense, too, because we all know that wasn't exactly a priority when tackling this new trilogy. They could have done anything they wanted and again they chose to take the "old is scary", "old is ugly", "old is beaten down" route. Personally, I would have loved to see a smokin', badass, unbothered Laurie roll up and just crack some skulls to get that masked menace once and for all.
Anyway, these are obviously just a small sampling of films across the genre that approach this topic, and it's clearly a very quick interpretation of the "why" behind it all, but it has been on my mind as of late and I wanted to share my thoughts with you, and I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.
I know it sounds like I'm approaching this milestone day in my life with a bit of grouchy old lady dread, but truthfully I'm not. I've got my best push-up bra on*, some new black-widow-red lipstick, and two big ol' middle fingers to anyone who thinks that us old broads can't bring the heat in movies or in real life. This witch is on fire.
*I'm also wearing sweatpants, let's be clear about that.
