The Monstrous Mother

About this list

Motherhood is supposed to be the source of life and safety, which is precisely why horror finds it so fertile for terror. The genre turns the maternal inside out — grief, rage, exhaustion, and instinct twisting into something monstrous — until the figure meant to protect becomes the thing to fear. This is a list for films where motherhood itself becomes the horror, whether the mother is transformed into a monster or her anguish is made terrifyingly flesh.