A Mirror to Our Faces: Q+A with Dr. Orquidea Morales

A conversation with Dr. Orquidea Morales about her research exploring myths and horror in contemporary culture

Hi Orquidea! How is it going? Thanks so much for chatting about all things horror. This is up my alley of favorite genres! As someone who loves horror, I say that with the utmost respect and overzealousness because I don’t know where to start. What are you currently viewing, reading, or researching?

Orquidea: I’m so glad to meet a fellow horror fan!!! The last scary movie I watched in theaters was Men, have you watched it? I was slightly disappointed because A24 has made great horror films but this one was just okay.

Poster of the film C.H.U.D

I try to stay up to date on new movies but of course I love classic old movies. For class we watched C.H.U.D, which I had never seen before, and it was amazing! Such a bad/good movie.

Poster of the 2019 film The Curse of La Llorona

And I’m currently researching portrayals of La Llorona in horror films so I had to rewatch The Curse of La Llorona. I am not a fan, at all but it’s a fascinating text to think about representations of Latinos in the U.S. and how some customs are portrayed as exotic and even dangerous.

Still from Mimic

Julie: I haven’t seen Men yet. Is it the same writer/director that did that sci-fi show devs? I adore Jessie Buckley. Wow, ok. I just Googled CHUD. How could I have not known about this movie before! My standard for a good horror movie are the creatures. If the creatures convince me enough that they are believable with enough terror and gore, that’s all I need to enjoy a horror movie. CHUD reminds me of the Guillermo Del Toro film Mimic. Have you seen it? The similar storyline takes place in New York sewers. I’m not a fan of the recent La Llorona movie either. Admittedly, I did get scared watching it with Kino Clubhouse members. I’m more interested in folklore stories.

I’m curious to ask how did you first get serious about horror to pursue academically and creatively? What was the story? The impetus that gave you a purpose that horror was a channel to speak about minority representation?

Orquidea: Mimic is one of my favorite del Toro movies! I hate bugs and that one just got to me. The only thing I didn’t like was how visually dark it is. Some scenes I couldn’t tell what was going on.

I’ve watched horror my entire life but I didn’t really think it could be part of my profession until I was working on my masters. I was taking a class where we talked about La Llorona, and the professor encouraged me to write about the representation of La Llorona in films.

Book cover of Dr. Robin Means Coleman’s Horror Noire

It’s so fascinating to think through the relationship between race/gender/sexuality/class and what we consider horrific. Dr. Robin Means Coleman, for example, writes about how Blackness and Black people have been central to horror films in the US from the beginning of filmmaking. Films are how we process our fears, our desires, things like that. So in some horror films made my white people, BIPOC communities are the embodiment of the Other, of all our fears but also of dark desires that we can’t express in polite society.

For example, going back to The Curse of La Llorona, who are the villains in the film? The Latinas, La Llorona is a bad mom, Patricia is also a bad mom that puts the white and mixed race family in danger. The curandero is helpful but still portrayed as outside of the norms of what is acceptable.

Julie: Yeah, I couldn’t follow what was going on at some points in Mimic. I kinda see why the movie had low to no lighting. But I still wish there was at least one scene where the bug creatures were shown in their full-detailed form! I’m obsessed with movie special effects/ make-up/ prosthetics if you couldn’t already tell, haha.

Orquidea: I totally agree! Especially because del toro uses old school special effects so for me, that’s always more fascinating than cgi so I would’ve liked better lighting so I could enjoy the details.

Julie: The strong dichotomy between horror’s relationship to identity is ever unfolding. That’s why I find horror to be the raddest because of how multi-layered the genre is; speaking about the past, present, and future all at once. Also, horror movies are a cathartic experience not only for the audience, but for the creators too.

Poster of the Night of the Living Dead

Orquidea: Yes! I love George Romero movies and part of the reason is because you can see Romero working out his distrust and sometimes disdain for the government and military in it. Growing up during Vietnam I can imagine he had a lot to say about those topics and he chose horror to do if.

Julie: Dr. Robin Means Coleman is bad***! Her book Horror Noire touches so much upon the complex relationship of the genre to Black representation. It’s interesting in non-western cinemas, horror is a channel to speak more about cultural and historical differences, cultural specificity, and cross-cultural influences including folklore and myths. I detest how Hollywood others Asian people in horror movies as a threat. At the same time when that happens, there is a power play of BIPOC representation. In the Curse of La Llorona, the caseworker Anna-Tate is portrayed as the hero because she is called in as official help to Patricia and her family. Yet her cluelessness and white savior complex puts Patricia’s family in more danger. Yes, the curandero is still portrayed as abnormal but he is the one that ultimately helps Patricia, her family, Anna-Tate, and her kids get out of danger.

Orquidea: I think part of the reason we were so fascinated with Asian horror, J horror for a while, then Korean more recently, is because as a culture, we already have so many questions and see Asian and Asian American cultures as “exotic.” And I don’t mean to say everyone in the US is racist but we do grow up in a very racist society so we are definitely ignorant about other cultures, races, and nationalities.

I wonder, what are ways that horror subverts Otherness, and then reclaimed by BIPOC filmmakers?

Poster of Get Out

Orquidea: For me, it’s about using the language of horror, the tropes and expectations people have of the genre, and flipping it to center the voices of BIPOC and other marginalized creators. That’s why Get Out was so successful. On one register it’s just a great horror film, it flips a lot of conventions. At the same time, it acknowledges and respects audiences of color. Particularly Black audiences. In interviews Peele said he knew his movie was successful if Black people connected with it. If it didn’t click for them then it meant he had failed. The Purge series has also been really good at putting a mirror to our faces and showing us the dangers of fascism and racism. The more recent one, forever purge is all about racial politics on the southern border and our obsession with weapons.

Julie: Yep. Like what is worse – the way Hollywood or Disney appropriates BIPOC cultures….Get Out flipped the script on the horror genre entirely. It was interesting watching the movie in theaters with other moviegoers because none of our reactions were at the same scenes. When me and my friend jumped out of our seats, everyone else was unfazed. The screams, covering the eyes, the “Omg!,” and “No! No! Don’t go in!” weren’t synced together, haha.

We could go even further to say that Get Out changed Black cinema and representation, I think. I find it respectable for Peele to say, and continuously reiterate that the movie was intended for Black audiences. Especially operating within the mainstream movie industry, there are always compromises to creative vision, authenticity, representation, and what is appropriate or not, et cetera. The primary target audience is conservative, white people. By the way, isn’t Peele a stand-up comedian? I want to know how does a MC comedy writer make the best horror film of all time?

Orquidea: I think you can see his dark humor in the film! He and Keegan Michael Key were together on Mad TV and then had the sketch show Key & Peele on Comedy Central. If you watch it, they had a lot of skits related to film and pop culture. Like there’s one skit where there’s a zombie outbreak but all the zombies are white and don’t attack Black people. Even as zombies they’re racist! So this post apocalyptic world turns into paradise for Black people.

Julie: I’ve watched one of the Purge series. I haven’t seen the newest one. It sounds like complete and utter anarchy. But the permitted violence and danger in the movie’s fascist society is not so different as what’s going on now in America.

Orquidea: Yeah! They’re really starting to feel like documentaries which makes it a bit hard to watch!

Julie: Most definitely there is dark humor in Get Out. Thank goodness for Chris’s bestie Rod who brings in the buffer of chuckles to balance out the darkness in the film!

I’m trying to decide which genre: fiction or nonfiction is the most effective form to talk about social critique and commentary, especially for viewers to reflect on themselves?

Orquidea: Fiction! Well both have benefits obviously but fiction allows for more flexibility in how things are shown, reaches a much larger and different audience some of which would not watch nonfiction films. Plus, fiction allows some protection for creators. For example, Jayro Bustamante, a filmmaker from Guatemala has said in multiple interviews that the reason his film La Llorona is framed as horror is in part because the genre allows him to critique the government without risking his life. Although he was in danger, a lot of the filming was done in the French embassy in Guatemala. But because it’s fiction, there was some distance from the real dictatorships and genocide in Guatemala. He also said that in his research they found that horror and superhero films were the two most popular genre in Guatemala. So I’m order to reach the audience he wanted to reach, he used horror.

Horror fans always have a personal connection to the genre! Let me ask you, what interests you about horror?

Poster of Dr. Giggles

Orquidea: Horror is very personal for me. I grew up watching horror films, usually dubbed into Spanish. One of my aunts used to babysit me and she loved those films. The first one I remember terrifying me is Dr. Giggles. If you watch it now it’s so dumb but his laugh creeped me out so much! I also love horror because my family has always been comfortable talking about ghosts, creatures, and even death. We’re morbid! But we were always trying to scare each other, saying we saw ghosts in the house. We were that way in part because my aunt was also like a witch, and this was in Mexico, she would read tarot cards, do cleanses, and things like that. So her job was dealing with the paranormal! I think that’s why I’ve always been interested in how we all think about the supernatural and death in such different ways depending on race, gender, class, nationality all those things. But we all talk about these topics in horror films.

Orquidea Morales, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona and creator host of Monstras, a podcast that explores the world of Latin American and Latinx folklore, horror, and monsters.

Follow Orquidea @manamana11

#Horror #Latinx #folklore #myth #Suspense