The majority of men seem to believe that women are capable of some degree of evil at some time or the other. In reference to what Freud wrote when he said, “Probably no male being is spared the terrifying shock of threatened castration as the sight of the female genitals.” (“Fetishism” by Sigmund Freud, 1927) shows that there is a reference to sex in all things and that there is also a constant battle between the sexes. The idea centers on the female capability of evil quite unparalleled to that of men. Throughout films, especially horror movies of the 1950's and 1960's the monster was almost always a male dominant role with a few exceptions. When the role of the monster is female, there is almost always a male hero who destroys it utterly and usually with very little remorse. The idea of female monstrosity is not a recent development of the film industry alone. The idea was around since the creation of written texts. There was always the monstrous female e.g. in Greek mythology there was the jealous queen of the gods Hera who treated mankind with scorn. In the Norse tales, there is the story of Beowulf who had to face Grendel's mother who was a monster of horrific proportions.
Barbara Creed in her essay (Horror and the Monstrous Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection. Horror and Abjection. P39) said “In reality to horror film it is relevant to note that several of the most popular horrific figures are 'bodies without souls',” referring to the dead or the undead as the case might be. This can be also used among the living and those believed dead and this is especially true in the film, The House on Haunted Hill (1958, William Castle). The object of the horror is the female and she is utterly without remorse for her actions. She even fakes her own death to scare another character of the film as a 'soulless' monstrosity.
In The House on Haunted Hill, we have Frederick Loren (Vincent Price), his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) and five strangers who enter a supposedly haunted house. They are all invited by Frederick in honor of his (fourth) wife Annabelle to spend the night there and if they survive they win $10,000.
From the beginning we see that things are not as they seem and there is no happy marriage between Annabelle and Fredrick. She claims to fear for her life but will not divorce him because she wants two things from him; his life and his entire fortune. She has already tried to poison him at least once. This was brilliant action done by Price and Ohmart who play off of each other in a wonderful glacial dislike.
This wonderful film has a rather good plot. Annabelle is plotting to kill Frederick again and the plot of the story reveals all as it progresses. She uses her femininity to warn Nora (a guest) saying; “You're in danger. We all are.” Things accelerate further downhill when Annabelle is found hanging over the staircase and the group believes she was murdered and the chief suspect is her husband Frederick. Nora was also chased out of her room when she saw a ghostly apparition of Annabelle hanging outside of her window. Dr Trent (another guest) revives the dead body of Annabelle and the plot is revealed. They are lovers and between the two of them, they had planned the evening's activities with the sole purpose of killing Fredrick. Meanwhile, Nora goes downstairs into the basement of the house and Frederick goes down and is shot by her accidentally. She runs out and Trent appears and tries to drag Frederick over and dump his body in the vat of acid right there in the basement.
When Annabelle goes to meet Trent, she is met instead by the supposedly dead skeleton of Frederick coming out of the acid. Apparently, Trent was the victim of the vat and Frederick was using a contraption to control the skeleton to scare Annabelle. He throws his voice which resounds in the quiet room saying, “You finally got it all, didn't you? Everything I had, including my life. But, you're not going to live to enjoy it murderess!” after which she falls into the acid.
In the end we see it was a game of murder as Frederick intones as he was looking at the bubbling acid eating away at Annabelle who just fell in. He said, “You weren't aware that while you were playing your little game of murder - I was playing too.”
In this film there is indeed monstrosity present and it is both male and female. In the male aspect if comprises of Dr Trent and Frederick but the female aspect of monstrosity that Annabelle portrays, overwhelms them both. She was the ultimate monstrous creation of the film. The manner in which she manipulates different characters sowing distrust and the steps she is willing to take to kill her husband shows her monstrosity.
