On the podcast, we compare and contrast two recent horror films about women and their stalkers: Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane (2018) and Leigh Wannell’s The Invisible Man (2020).
Michael Snydel from The Film Stage Show joins the entire Seventh Row editorial team: Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe for this episode. We discuss internal versus external horror, genre conventions, Chekhov’s Diazepam, and much more.
In Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018), stalking victim Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) unknowingly signs a form voluntarily committing herself to a psychiatric facility. Once there, the facility traps her in an insurance fraud scheme designed to ensure everyone stays there as long as their insurance will pay. And worse, one of the orderlies appears to be her stalker, David Strine (Joshua Leonard).
Blumhouse’s re-imagined The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell, 2020) follows Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), who escapes from her abusive relationship with optics engineer Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Two weeks later, Adrian seemingly dies by suicide suicide. But shortly after, actions that could only be explained by the presence of an invisible man begin ruining Cecilia’s life.
Show notes and recommended reading
- Read Alex’s essay on Claire Foy’s performance in Unsane.
- For much more on Unsane and other feminist horror, purchase or preview our ebook Beyond Empowertainment: Feminist Horror and the Struggle for Female Agency.
- Listen to The Film Stage Show‘s episode on The Invisible Man.
- Check out all the rest of The Film Stage Show‘s episodes, including one on Portrait of a Lady on Fire, featuring Alex.
