STEPHANIE A. GRAVES

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: The Southern Gothic area of the Popular Culture / American Culture Association in the South (PCAS/ ACAS) invites proposals for individual presentations, roundtable discussions, or full panels of 3-4 papers at the 2024 PCAS/ ACAS Annual Conference, to be held October 17 - 19, 2024 in Greenville, SC.

Of the several themes that run throughout Ti West’s body of horror films, one concern that he returns to time and time again is that of aging—particularly when women do it. Amidst knifings, pitchfork stabbings, gunshots, axe murders, and death by gator, the real horror in X and Pearl is the horror of old age, the decay of the body, and the fear of squandered youth, especially for the women at the center of the narratives. In these films, West explores how youth and beauty—and the attendant desirability resulting from them—contrasts with the placid yet intractable march of time.