Schwarz, CorinneWessel, LayneeWentz Research Scholars2025-05-162025-05-162025-04-22Wessel, Laynee. (2025, April 22). Clive Barker and the Monstrous Patriarch: Gendered power in the modern horror film. Poster session presented at the Oklahoma State University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Stillwater, OK.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14446/346050Gender in the horror film is a particularly nascent subject. Considering the function of horror as an exploration of fear in a mass-appeal medium, the subversions and adhesions in these films are uniquely illustrative of rigidity and performativity of gender. Thus, explicitly queer gender subversions in horror are a tumultuous subject, the function of fear allowing for queer and feminist self expression, but often making a villain of said queer or feminist actor. This project explores the gender expression of Clive Barker’s characters in Hellraiser (1987) and The Hellbound Heart (1986). His work, both heralded and maligned for its portrayal of non-mainstream experiences of pleasure, also portrays a non-mainstream experience of patriarchy. Here the reader sees something of a masculinized feminine, and the patriarchal experience of power. Through the characters of Frank, Julia, and Kirsty, Barker outlines a character type this project names as the “rogue patriarch,” and sets this powerful but irresponsible man against the actions against the women he wishes to control and possess.application/pdfIn the Oklahoma State University Library's institutional repository this paper is made available through the open access principles and the terms of agreement/consent between the author(s) and the publisher. The permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of the article falls under fair use for educational, scholarship, and research purposes. Contact Digital Resources and Discovery Services at lib-dls@okstate.edu or 405-744-9161 for further information.Posterhorror studiesliteraturehorror filmsfilm studiesgender studies