流利阅读 2019.4.11 Why so many of the protagonists in horror films are mothers

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Why so many of the protagonists in horror films are mothers
为什么恐怖电影主角多是母亲

Horror flicks, for all their sensationalist tendencies, have long interrogated expectations of motherhood. Pregnancy is shown not as a blessed state but as a dangerous, gory trauma. Childbirth is frightening, and the resulting offspring often even more so. The assumption that women ought to become sweet, caring homemakers has been undermined by casting them as villains.
恐怖片，尽管有其耸人听闻的倾向，长期以来却不断拷问着人们对于做母亲的憧憬。在恐怖片里，怀孕并不是一种幸福的状态，而是一种危险的、血淋淋的创伤。分娩令人恐惧，由此诞生的后代往往更加可怕。（恐怖片）将女性塑造成反派，这弱化了女性本应是甜美、体贴的家庭主妇的世俗之见。

In recent years film-makers have returned to these ideas and put several mothers at the centre of stories.
近年来，电影制作人们又重新开始表达这些看法，将几位母亲设置为故事的中心人物。

The characters are often ambivalent about their responsibilities and the expectations placed on them. Both “The Babadook” (2014) and “Hereditary” (2018) include scenes in which the mother says the unsayable: they wish their children were dead, or had not been born.
这些角色们通常对她们所肩负的责任及被赋予的期许感到矛盾。《鬼书》（2014）和《遗传厄运》（2018）中都出现了母亲说出不该讲的心里话的场景：她们希望自己的孩子死掉，或者压根没出生。

Other films have cast women as formidable heroes. Evelyn (Emily Blunt), the survivalist mother in “A Quiet Place” (2018), helps to protect her family against monsters that hunt using sound. She gives birth noiselessly and without help, and takes charge when her husband dies.
另外一些电影将女性塑造成令人敬畏的英雄。《寂静之地》(2018)中的伊芙琳（艾米莉·布朗特饰）是一位生存主义母亲，她协助保护自己的家人摆脱一群靠听声音捕猎的怪物们的攻击。她在毫无帮助的情况下噤声分娩，并在丈夫被杀死后承担起保护家人的责任。

Horror is most unsettling when it invites audiences to imagine danger in safe places, particularly the home, and so mothers make ideal protagonists. At the same time, these figures allow film-makers to undermine assumptions that women are vulnerable (especially when pregnant), weak and fearful, as well as the idea that motherhood is always a rewarding experience. This makes for complex and nuanced characters.
当观众被引导着去想象发生在安全地点，特别是发生在家里的危险时，恐怖片是最吓人的，而这时母亲们则成为绝佳的主角之选。与此同时，通过这些人物形象，电影制作人得以弱化（人们惯常）对女性的臆测和对做母亲的看法：女性是脆弱的（尤其当怀孕时）、无力的且恐惧的；生儿育女总是一个意义非凡的经历。一个个复杂而微妙的荧幕角色也由此诞生了。

—— Economist：Why so many of the protagonists in horror films are mothers