What Happens in the Family Stays in the Family: Incest and It’s Implications

You can already tell from the title of this post that this is another family-friendly (HAH!) article from your’s truly, detailing the grim and gritty reality of both real-life and the fictional sphere of horror. You can imagine how much fun I have writing down lists of terrible and ungodly subjects to talk about at length (and for your forced viewing pleasure, too!) But let’s get serious for a minute, because as unfathomable as this taboo-topic may seem, chances are you unwittingly know someone whose been a victim of it.

Incest, by definition, is any sexual relationship between blood-linked family members. It’s copulation with an individual whose the product of previous related copulation — a recipe for genetic disaster that’s been rightfully cemented in our minds as repulsive and immoral. But what’s important to acknowledge is how such relationships are created through a power-imbalance, and are debilitating in nature to its victims. Cue our dive into cinematic horror, whose incorporation of this disturbing concept can never truly be described as “tasteful”.

Fetishization

Yup. It must be said, some directors are real creeps, and their reputation for art gives them more moral-leniency than others. (Roman Polanski, anyone?) Everyone has their dark-secrets, and for some male directors, their platform is the perfect chance to unwittingly reveal these fixations to the rest of the world for mass-traumatization, creating replicant deviants amongst the audience. To begin this fucked-up little update, let us use a character-study of one-such iconic director, Park Chan-wook.

Stoker (2013) isn’t his first dive into incestual territories, but its certainly the pinnacle of his obsession with it.

Park Chan-Wook, known for such critically acclaimed films as The Handmaiden (2016), Snowpiercer (2013), and Oldboy (2003), has a panache for the psychologically dubious. Stoker (2013) itself focuses on the strained relationship between a widowed mother and her daughter, and the inevitable inclusion of the dead father’s brother, Uncle Charlie. Though Park Chan-Wook can be credited with creating a realistic atmosphere that fosters such a terrible phenomenon (an emotionally distant and volatile mother, a psychologically stunted older man, and a young girl desperate for paternal love), the movie’s prioritization of aesthetics over a realistic portrayal of the trauma incest entails cannot be refuted.

Stoker (2013); Yes, clearly this scene was motivated by the need to depict the gruesome reality of incest and nothing else.

Victim Blaming

Beyond the romanticization of such dynamics, horror movies are equally guilty of placing the blame of its evils on the victims who are subject to it. An example of this is in Crimson Peak (2015), when the male victim — Thomas Sharpe — is revealed towards the end as having been coerced into a sexual relationship with his older sister, Lucille Sharpe, from a young age. Though the film portrays Thomas as the victim (only by the end of the movie), it utilizes the audience’s expectations of gender to portray him as “allowing” it, insinuating he is just as culpable to the relationship’s evils as his sister, which results in the “thematic justice” of his own death at her hands. Clearly, sympathy for male victims of sexual violence is at an all-time low for horror movies. (And that’s not even broaching the topic of sexual violence towards women!)

The incest reveal of Crimson Peak (2015). Throughout the film, Thomas is given a passive role to his overbearing sister, which the film does a poor job of reconciling with when he is immediately killed for rebelling.

Shock-Factor

Beyond its romanticization and invalidation, horror just seems to have a time of utilizing incest as a means of shocking the audience. There’s dozens of movies utilizing the “incestual backwoods cretins” trope for their villains, making the victims of this phenomenon almost demonized and depicted as vile-natured as their upbringing. No wonder real-life victims have a hard time speaking out, when their trauma isn’t sexualized or overlooked, its practically vilified! The first culprit of making those victimized by incest a marker of inherent villainy is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), which opened the floodgates of “cannibalistic incest country family” tropes decades after its premiere.

The Good Ol’ Family of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).

In Conclusion

It’s a difficult subject to acknowledge, let alone speak on, but once again we must examine how horror — the genre of the psychologically chilling and revolting — sculpts distinctive perceptions of marginalized people in our minds. As a genuine source of trauma many have had to face as a formative part of their lives, this topic should be treated with more care and consideration for the sufferers who are no doubt highly conscious of its portrayal in media. The intrinsic and unspeakable pain some feel from this form of sexual violence should be respected, and so incest should not be utilized in a movie’s plot willy-nilly as a means of shock-value, or even worse, a director’s gratification. By acknowledging how we’ve undervalued serious topics like this in media, I hope we can all practice more consideration towards the experiences of others.