Writer Kier-La Janisse at Imagine symposium on women and madness

The symposium on disturbed women in horror films held at the Imagine Festival this Sunday afternoon was actually quite a reassuring gathering. You don't have to be disturbed yourself to have a fascination with horror. At least you could infer that from the composition of the studied panel that had delved into the subject. Even though Kier-La Janisse, the Canadian author of the book House of Psychotic Women questioned that conclusion later anyway.

Symposium, by the way, is a somewhat big word for this panel discussion hung on the above-mentioned book, preceded by an introduction by the author herself. An unusually personal introduction that boiled down to the fact that writing this alternative horror bible has been a form of therapy. In the first chapter of the book, she herself states that she did not want to lean too much towards Freud. That in itself is refreshing in this context.

Her starting point is her own experience with this film genre, which, incidentally, should be understood broadly. From Italian giallo films like Slaughter Hotel to Twin Peaks and Michael Haneke's La pianiste. In the latter, a poisoned mother-daughter relationship plays an important role. Thus, Janisse saw in many horror films the role patterns and troubled relationships she knew in less extreme form from her own environment.

She herself was adopted, with a divorced, Mia Farrow-like mother who was on the booze and an older, runaway stepsister she adored. She used to feel neglected, but writing the book had given her more empathy for her mother, she revealed.

The panel, which included media teacher Maryn Wilkinson, Schokkend Nieuws editor Hedwig van Driel, professor of psychiatry Damiaan Denys and professor of film studies Patricia Pisters, was there to broaden the perspective. Many neurotic women in genre films not only conform to stereotypes prevalent in society but at the same time rebel against them. Victimhood and heroism are sometimes difficult to disentangle, as demonstrated by a self-mutilation scene shown in Cutting Moments. Still, a moment that caused discomfort in the room.

Playing with stereotypes, Janisse herself also did with the comment 'All women are crazy'. A man shouldn't claim that, she understands. Of course, it could be that she attracted it. In any case, she had noticed that many of the women she got to know better have neurotic traits. She herself prefers to think of it as a kind of superpower. For instance, her own manic tendencies have enabled her to write the book and run a festival.

Some of the films that Imagine selected with Janisse will be screened in the coming days. One of them is the promising American Mary. A medical student with a side job as an underground surgeon decides to apply her newly acquired cutting knowledge after a rape.