Is there anything scarier than a naked old woman?
Over the past few years, you may have noticed this idea emerging as a running joke among horror fans, critiquing films that depict old women as repulsive monsters. It’s not a new concept. Scary old ladies have been fictionalized in some form or another for well over 700 years (when a Hansel-and-Gretel-like story first made its rounds in the Baltic region). Movies too have long exploited the idea, most notably in the 1960s and ‘70s, when a subgenre known as hagsploitation (aka “psycho biddy” horror) breathed new life into the careers of several classic Hollywood stars. Actresses like Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Shelley Winters were no longer being offered conventional leading roles. Instead, horror directors began casting them as villains (and occasionally victims), in stories about toxic family relationships and campy crimes of passion. Playing unstable spinsters and abusive crones, they starred in a run of schlocky thrillers like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and The Nanny.
