Seminar: Jennifer's Body

From panther women to sentient AI girlfriends, horror cinema continues to provoke the gender anxieties of society with a growing canon of monstrous femmes. 

For every woman portrayed as a victim, there’s another who threatens the very core of a patriarchal system through hunger, vengeance, or by simply having agency. This seminar will explore the ways in which horror weaponizes female bodies to trigger fears and cheers from its audience. 

About Kay Lynch:

Kay Lynch is the founder of Salem Horror Fest and film program director at The Bower by Montserrat College of Arts. Named by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the best genre festivals of the world, she set out to create a safe and welcoming space for people to find truth and catharsis in the dark shadows of cinema. Over the span of her career she has programmed and presented hundreds of films at venues such as American Cinematheque, Peabody Essex Museum, Coolidge Corner Theatre, where she taught the sold out five-week course Arthouse of Horror, and CinemaSalem, where she previously served as creative director. Her commentaries for City of the Dead and The Cell are now available on brand new restorations by Severin and Arrow Films. Deemed “so queer it’s scary” by Advocate Magazine, Lynch is committed to the texts, creators, and trends that best reflect our cultural anxieties.