Visibly Different Villains
Throughout history, monsters have been crafted to represent those that don’t fit into societal standards. It’s one of the reasons so many of us in marginalized groups are drawn to horror. This is a double-edged sword, though. If monsters are the only characters we can see ourselves in, they suggest that there’s something wrong with us. That there’s something inherently evil about you because of things you cannot control.
Storytelling has a long history of villainizing disfigurements and disabilities. Captain Hook, Lyutsifer Safin, Lord Voldemort, Darth Vader, The Joker, and countless others perpetuate the idea that people with disabilities or disfigurements are malicious. Our beauty standards have almost always been rooted in white, ableist norms telling us how we should and shouldn’t look (skinny, toned, tall, small nose, etc). They give us a clear definition of what we are supposed to consider beautiful. When stories make their heroes adhere to these standards but not their villains they tell us that we should fear those that don’t fit that mold.
Friday the 13th does this with Jason, who has hydrocephalus. The Phantom of the Opera does it by disfiguring the Phantom’s face. Roald Dahl’s The Witches gives its antagonists disfigured hands. Halloween Kills even did this by giving Michael’s mask burn wounds. Horror certainly isn’t the only genre to follow this trope, but it does have a particularly large number of disfigured villains. Oftentimes their disfigurements are punishments for their wrongdoings, like Freddy Krueger being burned because he was a murderer. These narratives suggest that people with disfigurements have “sinned” and are being penalized for it. It seems strange that a genre heavily shaped by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a tale about societal oppression (though it does have many problems in its depiction), would frequently villainize disfigurements. It’s as if we’ve missed the point entirely.
There are horror films that are changing this narrative, though. Films like Jennifer’s Body and American Psycho challenge our traditional views of beauty and evil. Their antagonists appear perfect and are played by gorgeous able-bodied actors. This showcases that villains can look like anything, disfigured or not. Trick ‘R Treat discusses the way kids with disabilities are treated by our society, and actually features disabled actors. This has not stopped the trend of disfigured villains, however. Recent films like Malignant and Fear Street both featured villains with physical disfigurements.
I am not at all saying that I think these films need to be canceled, or that these filmmakers did this intentionally. I am saying, however, that this is a large issue that we need to recognize. If the only mainstream representation we see for burn victims are characters like Freddy Krueger, people are going to continue to be prejudiced against them. The discrimination people with disabilities or disfigurements face will only grow stronger if we don’t address the harmful depictions of them in our media. There can still be villains with disfigurements, but their appearance shouldn’t be a metaphor for their depravity. They would also hopefully be played by actors with those disfigurements. Perhaps now is the time to put this trope to bed, and finally start featuring complex protagonists with visible differences/disabilities for a change.
If you’d like to learn more, Jen Campbell has some amazing videos on the representation of visible differences. The “I Am Not Your Villain” campaign has great resources on the importance of visible difference representation in film, and how we can move away from the stereotypical portrayals of it.
