This shouldn’t have to be said, but I will state it just in case there are people reading this who still haven’t gotten the message: horror can be about more than just scaring or disgusting the readers. Yes, there are plenty of movies and books that are more like endurance tests than enjoyable fiction, there are people that enjoy them, and I’m not here to pass judgment on them. But horror stories can show a creator’s understanding of storytelling devices, especially themes. The James Wan film Malignant and Kristi DeMeester’s novel Such a Pretty Smile have their shocking moments, but they also have the underpinnings of a very popular theme in fiction: family.
People who haven’t watched Malignant might have heard of it, whether by it being a work by Saw and Conjuring director James Wan or by having its completely bonkers premise spoiled for them. I will do my best to avoid that here. All readers really need to know about the premise is that a woman named Madison who witnesses a series of murders because she is somehow seeing the killer’s memories. Knowing so much about these murders and her connection to the victims naturally have her high on the suspect list even as she, and the audience, tries to discover whether or not she’s going mad. There’s the standard James Wan moments of shadowy corners and faces in the dark, but it goes wonderfully off the rails by the third act. Despite this, Wan does understand what ultimately helps this woman stand up against this ultimate evil. It is the family that she may not have been born into but loves her all the same. Leave it to Wan to hide some sentimentality into his gonzo, out-there horror movie.
Such a Pretty Smile isn’t as out there as Malignant, but it understands how the family dynamic gives its heroines strength. The story stars in 2004 when a serial killer called the Cur, known for the rather doglike way he savages the bodies, starts up yet another murder spree involving young girls in New Orleans. Caroline, a young artist dealing with the deteriorating health of her father, is having bad dreams and may even be sleepwalking. She also hears strange howling in the night. In the present, Caroline’s daughter Lila is trying to cope with typical teen issues like crushes and parents not understanding, but she also hears the howling and she’s also getting strange urges. Such a Pretty Smile doesn’t need to dial up the crazy because DeMeester understands the emotional underpinnings of its dual narratives, which switches back and forth between mother and daughter and sets up the parallel between the two and allows both drawing on the strength and love from the other. Both tales have men who act as villains and do some truly heinous things, but they also feature women who become stronger through coming together and finding other strong women to lean on.
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