.

The ‘Death Mother’: Horror’s most unnerving villain

  • Written by Kerry Hegarty, Associate Professor of Film Studies, Miami University
The ‘Death Mother’: Horror’s most unnerving villainToni Collette, right, and Milly Shapiro in 'Hereditary' (2018).IMDB

Horror films draw us into a world where our deepest anxieties are laid bare. They illuminate the darker recesses of the human psyche – ones that we often prefer to ignore.

And some of the most unsettling things we can imagine, it seems, are not zombies or aliens or demons, but...

Read more: The ‘Death Mother’: Horror’s most unnerving villain

Metropolitan republishes selected articles from The Conversation USA with permission

Visit The Conversation to see more