Political Polarization and Demonic Possession
How American Culture is Haunted by its Own Fascination with Good and Evil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33043/DLR.7.0.%25pAbstract
American culture, framed in its most widely understood definition, is a culmination of the traditions, ideals, and behaviors of the people who live here. Naturally, the movies which are produced as a result of said culture would be direct representations of the social and politcal environments at any given time. The horror genre, specifically films which are representations of demonic possession, depict metaphors for the often disregarded yet incredibly influential factor of the American politcal environment called political polarization. This concept, which is understood as the divergence of political attitudes to ideological extremes, presents itself strongly within representations of demonic possession through metaphorical natural opposites such as good and evil, traditionalism and modernism, and conventional and unconventional defnitions of femininity. The inflitration of political polarization into a typically unpolitical genre such as horror suggest that it not only culturally haunts the politics of America but every other facet consumed by American citizens, including and especially pop culture.