Longing and Lust, ‘Red Light’ on a ‘Dark Continent’

Abstract

This chapter presents a variegated depiction of female sexuality seen from their own point of view, beginning with Carollee Schneeman’s Meat Joy (1964). Woolf’s metaphors for the female sex and lesbian desire is brought to the scene in interracial encounters in She Must Be Seeing Things (Sheila McLaughlin 1987), The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye 1997) and Pariah (Dee Rees 2011). The stereotypical figure of the lustful and man-eating witch is reworked in The Love Witch (Anna Biller 2016) and Jennifer’s Body (Karen Kusama 2009). In Raw (Julia Ducournaou 2016) female sexuality is addressed in a ferocious and intense way. After the explicit poetics of horror of the films of the middle section, this chapter looks at three other films that have a more-implied horror embedded within their narration. In I’m Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni 2017) witchcraft is seen from a totally different non-western perspective, whereas in In the Cut (Jane Campion 2003) we see a combination of poetry, sexuality and a different type of final girl. In the equally poetic Longing for the Rain (Lina Yang, 2013), a contemporary Beijing housewife makes love with a ghost that might not be so benign and slowly takes over her life.