C. M. Rosens

Greetings! Before I get into the main post, just a note on my newsletter/posts going forward.

Since I generally cross-post from my newsletter to my blog, and now that WordPress has a function that enables only subscribers to access certain posts, I’m going to start using that feature for my newsletter. I already didn’t like substack due to its stance on TERFs, but couldn’t afford to move the podcast off to a paid platform. I went on there originally as a stop-gap to save some money, but I really don’t want to be there more than necessary. I’m looking to migrate the podcast back to rss.com in the new year.

It also means less work to copy/paste and reformat things here, so I can just use WordPress for everything, and that will help a lot. So, going forward, some posts will be “newsletter” updates for subscribers only (but free), and other posts, like this one, will be set to public.

This means newsletters can be more interactive, too, like this post. To see what I mean, scroll to the bottom of this post to vote in my poll and decide which tale comes next – first collecting recommendations for retellings/reimaginings, then checking out how it shows up in horror films & horror books!

Beauty and the Beast as a Horror Story

I got really curious about how and where the BATB tale shows up in horror media, so I thought I would have a look. It absolutely lends itself to horror as a story – here’s Tommaso Larghetti’s edited trailer for the 1991 animation (Italian version) to show that it’s really all in the editing and emphasis. (I personally think this is better than the Editing is Everything version, but that’s good too).

Be warned that SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!

First, let’s make some rules, because otherwise where BATB ends and Bluebeard begins can get very murky – not to mention Tam Lin.

For the purposes of this post, let’s agree that a Bluebeard tale is where Person A falls for charming, lovely Person B, but then it turns out Person B has a secret: a terrible, murderous secret, and Person A is next in line to be offed. Person A realises that they must escape Person B at all costs, and become the ‘Final Girl’. Examples of this might include Stephen King’s A Good Marriage (2014) dir. Peter Askin, based on King’s short story by the same title, Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox, and T. Kingfisher’s The Seventh Bride. I think I’ll do more posts on this tale later! (Or sooner, if you vote for it below!)

A Tam Lin tale is where two human lovers are tested by the transformation (usually grotesque and dangerous) of one of them, and the other must hold on to them regardless of what they turn into, in order to save them and restore their humanity. Horror has plenty of failed Tam Lin tales, where the lover cannot hold onto their loved one through the transformation, and cannot save them.

A BATB tale is where Person A meets someone [Person B] whose monstrosity is on full display from the get-go, and yet a relationship forms anyway.

In more detail for BATB we may also see the following elements/themes:

1. Something in the narrative functions as a ‘curse’ for Person B – perhaps not literal, but a reason why they are this way, or a compulsion they have, or something they wrestle with.
2. They may claim that Person A’s love has been transformative for them, or a transformation might actually occur for Person B (and also Person A, whose own views and perception may change through the course of the story).
3. Person B may also be persecuted and hunted by others as a result of their monstrosity (real, or perceived), causing Person A to evaluate their loyalty. Examples of this might include classic Gothic novels like Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, or modern fiction like A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson, and films like The Shape of Water (2017) dir. Guillermo Del Toro, and a host of the retellings and reimaginings in my previous post.

The addition of a ‘Gaston’ character as a foil for the Beast and a choice for Belle to reject in favour of the Beast is a later addition meant to help change the dynamic so it’s not so ‘girl falls for her captor’ centred. BATB retellings may or may not include a love triangle, but this element isn’t essential to the tale.

In Romance, stories must have a Happy Ever After (HEA) or Happy For Now (HFN) ending to qualify as part of the romance genre. In Horror, this doesn’t have to be the case. Horror can use elements of these tales and subvert them to create a number of variations, and the ending does not need to be happy.

With this in mind, a lot of horror blends both BATB and Bluebeard, so it can be hard to tell what counts as which tale. I was pondering if Crimson Peak (2015), Ready or Not (2018), The Invitation (2022), and Ile Owo/House of Money (2022) count as BATB tales, for example, but I’m pretty sure they are all solidly Bluebeard stories (arguably with some strong BATB elements!). So I’ll post about them in the Bluebeard post instead when we get there.

Meanwhile, I think that Slither (2006), The Fly (1986) and Nightbreed (1990) are actually Tam Lin tales. I’ve included them below though, as there is some crossover, and I’m not sure yet if I’ll do Tam Lin on its own.

But don’t worry – there are lots of horror BATB versions out there.

Here are a few.

Beauty and the Beast Horror Versions

Belle (2023) dir. Max Gold, is a Gothic Horror that came out in the US in August 2023, and went straight to VOD platforms apparently, but I still can’t see it anywhere in the UK so I’m waiting for it to reach us.

Filmed in Iceland with some amazing cinematography, this version has Belle as a farm girl desperate to save her ailing papa via a magic rose – but to get it, she has to give herself to a cursed man with a taste for human flesh. I’m dying without this movie. I need it in my eyes.

Wicked Horror has a list of 7 horrific takes on Beauty and the Beast in movies, and I found another post here with some I agree with, particularly the Phantom of the Opera retellings as these are all basically using BATB elements (as was Gaston Leroux in his original Gothic Horror novel, I would argue, some of which include sexual assault and dub-con so be warned as I mention this below). I also threw out more rec requests, and this is a list of some of them!

I have highlighted others that I thought I could go into more detail about, and some of my own favourites, below. Feel free to disagree with my reasoning though, I was just having fun, and if you’ve got more please do add them in the comments!

These include:

1. The Phantom of the Opera (1925) dir. Rupert Julien – I’m going to include all versions of PotO here, to be honest, with particular emphasis on The Phantom of the Opera (1998) dir. Dario Argento – in which the Phantom is not disfigured at all, just raised by rats. Rats that he sometimes puts down his tight trousers and lies back with a smile on his face. No, really, that’s a scene. He also fucks Christine and then rapes her when she realises he’s a killer she can’t change. I would also add in The Phantom of the Opera (1990) dir. Tony Richardson – Charles Dance understood the assignment. This, like all the others and including the musical version and its own film, The Phantom of the Opera (2004) dir. Joel Schumacher, all have the love triangle between Christine, the Phantom, and Raoul. Christine goes for Raoul in all of these, which is the equivalent of Belle going for Gaston, I guess, or splitting the Beast into his 2 parts – Beast and Prince, so she gets the better of the two halves. So it’s still BATB, but this time, the Beast figure in the story does not get the girl, and dies/disappears.
2. King Kong (1933) dir. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack, in which, famously, “beauty killed the beast”. This is definitely echoed in its later remakes, King Kong (1976) dir. John Guillermin, King Kong (2005) dir. Peter Jackson, and Kong: Skull Island (2017) dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts. and probably all the other versions in between.
3. Beauty and the Beast (1946) dir. Jean Cocteau, which is the dreamy, Gothic Horror-esque version that inspired a lot of choices in the 1991 animation. I do love the scene where the Beast is prowling around covered in fresh blood from his kill that is steaming into the air.
4. Beauty and the Beast (1962) dir. Edward L. Cahn on a low budget, where the Beast is literally a werewolf/wolfman, and that’s the curse.
5. Panna a Netvor (1978) dir. Juraj Herz – dark fantasy Gothic Horror version, which I fully love and is one of my favourite adaptations, hands down.
6. Swamp Thing (1982) dir. Wes Craven is pretty much a BATB tale, essentially. I would also argue all versions of The Hulk where he gets a lady friend are kind of BATB plots too in their own way.
7. Beauty and the Beast (1984) dir. Roger Vadim, which cast horror actor Klaus Kinski as the Beast, and is meant to be pretty scary for kids? I didn’t see it as a kid, but I think I would have loved it.
8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) dir. John McNaughton – a dark, bleak twist on BATB, where a woman falls for a serial killer (she knows he’s a murderer from the start). Very dark romance, very grim. CW for sexual assault.
9. Edward Scissorhands (1990) dir. Tim Burton is definitely a Gothic BATB for the weird kids. I loved this when I was a kid/teen then sort of outgrew it, I guess? Vincent Price is a gem, though.
10. Meridian (1990) dir. Charles Band, in which we get a love triangle with cursed twin brothers, and monster-fucking in a gothic Italian castle but with some very uncomfortable dub-con/SA overtones. The twin brothers here very much do symbolise the 2 parts – Beast and Prince – and that’s part of the love triangle.
11. Jenifer (2005) dir. Dario Argento, is a genderbent version in which, from what I can gather, a facially disfigured (and possibly demonic??) woman is rescued by a cop, and ends up literally eating his kids, but the sex is so good he doesn’t mind. The 00s were a wild time.
12. Slither (2006) dir. James Gunn – the love story in the film is argued to have strong BATB elements and could be seen as BATB in reverse, like Cronenberg’s The Fly, as it survives his transformation into a monstrous, mutated version of himself. Possibly not a BATB film and more of a Tam Lin tale (I go into more detail about BATB vs Tam Lin in the section below where I ponder if we can count Cronenberg’s The Fly.)
13. Spike (2008) dir. Robert Beaucage, which is meant to be surreal and Angela Carter-esque, but since this is a US-made, low-budget 00s film, I’m guessing that it’s got its flaws beyond fridging one half of the lesbian couple…
14. Låt Den Rätte Komma In/Let The Right One In (2008) dir. Tomas Alfredson – I can definitely see the argument for this being a genderbent BATB story. This is based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 novel, and in both the novel and Alfredson’s film, Oskar discovers Eli, the girl next door, is a vampire. There’s a good article on Fangoria about the positive way the film approaches the relationship between Oskar and Eli, and Eli’s gender identity vs her vampire identity compared to the novel, from a trans perspective.
15. Warm Bodies (2013) dir. Jonathan Levine – basically YA BATB with zombies.
16. The Shape of Water (2017) dir. Guillermo Del Toro – I’ve already mentioned this one, but it’s on the list of suggestions I found as well so it’s going in the list! Aquatic monster love in 1960s USA.

I’m sure there are a lot more – I’ve already done a post with my favourite film versions,which includes Panna a Netvor.

But what about other horror films? Where else does it show up as a theme?

Beauty and the Beast Horrormance Highlights

The film that springs immediately to mind as an example of this is Beast (2017) dir. Michael Pearce. It’s psychological horror, and this masks the themes a little, but they play out under the surface.

The abusive, suffocating relationship that an isolated woman in a small island community has with her mother is horror enough, but there is a serial killer stalking the island’s teenage girls, and it could well be the attractive guy she has just met. In fact, everybody tells her it’s him. There’s even some evidence that it’s him. But she decides that she doesn’t want this to be true, lies for him, and plans to run away with him. Except… well. Guess what. He confesses to her, confirms that everything he’s accused of is true (and he thought she knew that), and says that her love has been transformational for him. She does not respond well.

This is definitely intended to be a contemporary Beauty and the Beast tale – the clue is in the title – and she was never in any danger from him (unlike the Bluebeard narrative). He’s an outcast, like her, and treated badly by the community as a result, which is what endears him to her in the first place. It has a much darker ending, but it is also pretty empowering for her, I guess, and I really liked it.

But it doesn’t end there. What about when the protagonist falls in love with an actual monster? That’s more what we’re talking about, right?

My favourite genderbent version of this is Spring (2014) dir. Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson.

It’s fairly obvious it’s a wish-fulfillment fantasy film (whomst among thee wouldn’t want an immortal primordial monster lady to give it all up for them while visiting the remains of her family in Pompeii under the shadow of Vesuvius????) but I did enjoy it.

It was one of my #100HorrorFilmsIn92Days watches and very worth it. I don’t think it quite made it to my top 10 but it’s definitely in my re-watch list.

There are also some great body horror films where this trope could be said to come into play, but subverted. What about when the love interest transforms into a Beast – what then for their lovers?

The is where we could maybe argue for David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) and a lot of werewolf and vampire romances being essentially Beauty and the Beast plots – The Fly being one in reverse, like Slither.

But The Fly is more than a BATB inversion – it was interpreted as a doomed romance for the AIDS generation, two star-crossed lovers “torn apart by a voracious, unstoppable disease”, but Cronenberg himself interpreted it as a metaphor for aging, “a compression of any love affair that goes to the end of one of the lover’s life.”

[Source: https://cinema.wisc.edu/blog/2023/10/23/cronenbergs-fly-tragic-love-story-and-gorefest#:~:text=For%20as%20much%20as%20the,film%20its%20exposed%20beating%20heart.]

BATB is in itself a tale of two lovers separated by the physical form of one of them, who can only become a true mate for the other by the power of transformation, so The Fly can certainly be said to be the reverse of that. Whether it really counts is up to you, I think. I wonder if it isn’t more of a Tam Lin type of plot, and if Slither would therefore fall into this category too, where the lover holds on to their loved one while transformations rob them of their humanity. At the end of Tam Lin, having successfully held on, the lover is reunited with Tam Lin in his human form. But in horror, sometimes you have to know when to walk away (or shoot whatever your loved one has become).

Here is a thoughtful article on the romantic tragedy at the heart of The Fly, by Gena Radcliffe, and below is the trailer for you to enjoy.

Another film I think does count is Outcast (2010) dir. Colm McCarthy, which I read as a Beowulf reimagining set on an Edinburgh council estate. It’s also got references to Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake (the book given to Fergal by his mother in the film), and there are some strong parallels with that plot, too, and the decisions Fergal (the Titus figure) is being expected to make.

In this film, a Scottish witch clan led by Laird (James Cosmo) is tracking down a monster and his mother Mary (Kate Dickie) via a ruthless Irishman, Cathal (James Nesbitt), who is in this for the power he will receive in the process. The idea seems to be that these clans still thrive on ancient and vaguely defined magic systems, and are specifically ‘Celtic’ in nature. Cathal is the ‘Beowulf’ figure (hero of the Geats) coming to the aid of Laird’s clan (equivalent of Hrothgar, King of the Danes), to save them from the monster that has been engendered by an unsanctioned union.

Cathal/Beowulf is fighting Fergal/Grendel’s mother (Mary) to get at Fergal/Grendel in the first place, but the creature design is suitably slimy and monstrous, as hinted at in the poster above. There is a battle of wills between Cathal and Mary where they both strip naked by candlelight, miles away from each other, and fight each others’ blood magic in their respective rooms, eyes closed and sweating profusely, which I absolutely loved for lots of reasons – plot, foreshadowing, backstory, etc. Plus, it’s an amazing low-budget way of getting around CGI magic battles, which this film absolutely didn’t need.

This has a Beauty and the Beast subplot between Fergal and Petronella, a girl from the estate he moves into when seeking sanctuary from his pursuers, but the romance is once again doomed by the fact they’re in the wrong genre. Plus, once it’s clear we’re also in a Beowulf reimagining, it’s not going to be a happy ending for the Grendel figure, is it. The enchantress, and reason for the curse (although in this case she didn’t mean to be), is Mary his mother, and she keeps him locked away from the world and constantly on the run, isolated and lonely. Her magic also protects him from the outside world and the hunters coming for him.

Petronella isn’t forced into contact with him like Beauty is in the tale – he literally moves into the flat next door, so it’s more a forced/accidental proximity type situation, and the teen romance unfolds like a paranormal/werewolf romance, with the same beats.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this, and the urban, gritty magic of using dead birds as compasses, and skin magic (tattoos that bestow powers on the person who is inked) and using the skin and blood of a corpse from the morgue as a more specific form of locating the mother and son in a kind of necromancy ritual.

This one might be contentious for the BATB themes, but the trailer is below.

I would contend that Clive Barker is a good choice to look for some Beauty and the Beast plots. Hellraiser (1987) and Nightbreed (1990), both of which he wrote and directed, have BATB elements to them.

In Hellraiser, Julia’s love/lust/very complicated horny feelings for Frank is the reason she helps him (the Beast figure, in full raw and dripping monstrosity) lift his curse, which he has put on himself through his selfish pursuits of pleasure. The box is the cursed rose, a ticking timebomb now that it’s been reopened and the Cenobites are seeking him. Except… things do not go Frank and Julia’s way.

In Nightbreed, Lori loves Boone so much she’d do anything for him, which includes sticking by him when he’s in full Beast mode. Again, this one is more Tam Lin than BATB though, I think, but it’s certainly got a lot of BATB elements in it. This also has the Monster Hunt trope present in the influential 1991 version of BATB, and the terrible consequences of prejudice against the monsters hidden in Midian from the world.

I think a lot of Barker has these elements, or things recognisable as Beauty and the Beast elements, so I think he will appear on a the list of Beauty and the Beast in Horror (the final post in this mini-series).

Lastly, I think I’d put Gothic slowburn horror The Lodgers (2017) dir. Brian O’Malley as a genderbent BATB tale. The protagonist Rachel occupies both Beauty and Beast position in the narrative, and veteran of WWI, Sean, is the one who finds himself endangered by her, her crumbling estates, and its dark, cursed secrets.

This is a ghost story, and a tale addressing the Irish relationship with its Anglo-Irish colonial past, and Rachel and Edward are symbols of this decaying elite. Sean occupies the “Belle” position of social outcast in his village due to the fact he fought for the British in World War I, and has returned from the Front, traumatised and disabled. He falls for Rachel, but the curse upon her family proves to be his undoing.

Rachel flips between Beauty and Beast in this narrative, as her own Beast is her twin brother, and the creepy voices of the Lodgers the twins seek to appease. Her transformation comes in the realisation only she can break the cycle, and the curse, and that this freedom cannot be given to her by an outsider. She cannot be rescued, she can only harm and destroy – she must rescue herself (and by doing so, free the villagers of her presence and curse) by breaking the cycle and leaving the estate altogether.

While there is a romantic subplot between Rachel and Sean, this is not really a romance, and it doesn’t end well. Not all BATB horror films have a romantic plot thread, though!

Beauty and the Beast: Not Always a Romance

One of the films that stands out to me as a BATB relationship (but not a romance) is the Finnish coming-of-age horror, Pahanhautoja/Hatching (2022) dir. Hanna Bergholm. This relationship is not just between Tinja and Ali – it’s within Tinja herself, and this is the externalised metaphor of struggling to emerge from her metaphorical shell and into the rebellious phase where she becomes something else.

The depiction of the central relationship is so interesting and nuanced, and this is one of those films where the lines between beauty and the beast are blurred effectively. I really enjoyed this one, and it was one of my most memorable watches for 2023’s #100HorrorMoviesin92Days.

This has everything including a death/resurrection at the end, and the surreal, complete and slow transformation of the Beast figure throughout the film, and the theme of love is transplanted from romantic love to familial and parental love, and also the theme of self-love.

I think this works really well.

Arguably, if we’re going down this road, Black Swan (2010) dir. Darren Aronofsky counts too. The parental relationship is twisted and abusive, so the home life of the protagonist throws her into the arms of The Beast in the way Belle’s father does in the tale.

In this instance, the Beast is the ballet itself, and the role of the Black Swan which the protagonist is desperate to dance.

Unfortunately, the protagonist’s deep devotion to her art cannot save her from the curses of obsession, jealousy and blind ambition.

This has body horror, obsession and Gothic drama, and the transformation of the protagonist into the darker side of herself is movement from Beauty to Beast to both at once. There is even the climactic scene, where the curse of obsession has fully taken hold and the protagonist’s transformation is transcendent and complete.

This could be read as a BATB subversion, as the lack of love in her life for anything other than ballet, which is in itself a warped and cruel kind of love by the end, dooms her. This love is not just a lack of romantic love, but also parental/familial love, and platonic love. She is very isolated and alone throughout the film, and with nobody to pull her out of her spiral and ground her, or give her the self-love and self-esteem she desperately needs (more than just to perform a role), the BATB curse – if you cannot love [someone] and be loved [by them] in return – results in the dramatic tragedy of the film’s climax.

Finally, I think I’ll also count Slapface (2021) dir. Jeremiah Kipp, as this one also puts the site of horror as the family situation in the protagonist’s home. Like Black Swan, it’s the whole horrendous home situation and lack of support there, primarily the undermining of self-esteem and stability, that leads the young boy protagonist to befriend his Beast – this time, a monstrous witch-demon who lives in the woods.

The young boy, trying to fit in and impress the girls in his class (who bully him), is being raised by his alcoholic older brother. Both are traumatised by the deaths of their parents, and the older brother has little to no support for his own mental health and addiction issues. The single ray of hope is his girlfriend, but that doesn’t go so well when she has a run-in with the monster that the little boy has befriended in the woods. In fact, the monster becomes the boy’s undoing, as its nature cannot be transformed – rather it is the embodiment and twisted mirror image of the rage the boy feels for his whole situation.

This isn’t a perfect film and it has its issues, but it tries, and I appreciated what it was trying to do. Some bits it nails, and they are the bits that were a proper gut-punch, like the kid trying to have a serious emotional conversation with his only parental figure, the older brother, who is sitting in the cold bath with his clothes on, drunk. There are so many bits of it that still haunt me. It’s a good double-bill with Hatching if you want to dive into a depression spiral and never come out.

That’s a Wrap!

In my next post I’ll be thinking about how Beauty and the Beast shows up in horror books (novels, novellas, shorts) and classic Gothic novels, but after that I’ll check out another fairy tale. You can choose by voting in the poll below!