"It's a Freak!": The Construction of the Monstrous-Feminine in contemporary feminist horror cinema

This thesis explores the construction of the monstrous feminine in contemporary feminist horror cinema through a visual critical discourse analysis (VCDA) of Jennifer's Body (2009), The Love Witch (2016), and The Substance (2024). By analyzing how visual elements like costume, color, lighting, mise-en-scène, reveal discourses of gender, identity, and monstrosity, the study examines how these films subvert horror tropes and dominant representations of femininity. Drawing on feminist film theory, fourth-wave feminist discourse, and theories of abjection, posthumanism, and camp, the analysis is structured around four discoursive sites: (1) the monstrous body and abjection, (2) archetypes of the monstrous feminine, (3) performativity, and (4) feminist revolt. The findings suggest that these films reimagine monstrosity not as a threat to be vanquished, but as a feminist and queer mode of resistance which weaponizes grotesque bodies, exaggerated femininity, and violent rupture to expose and challenge patriarchal norms. By centering female authorship, visual excess, and affective intensity, this thesis contributes to ongoing debates in horror scholarship and confirms the genre's radical potential to critique and reconfigure societal structures.