Interview with Dr. Amy Beddows: Survivors and Horror Film Consumption

Dr. Amy Beddows is a practicing counselor at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland. She recently finished a PhD studying Victim Blame in Sexual Violence at London Metropolitan University. As part of her studies, she conducted focus groups with survivors in rape crisis clinics throughout England and Wales. Her research revealed the far-reaching implications of victim-blame, and its valences of alienation and dehumanization far beyond mere “victimhood.” Dr. Beddows has an interest in the role of media representations of gendered violence and how these can be meaningful to survivors of trauma. 

As a result of her work and research, Dr. Beddows has published multiple articles and chapters in edited volumes on the intersection of horror, theology, and women’s trauma, including “Ferocious Marys and Dark Alessas: The Portrayal of Religious Matriarchies in Silent Hill” in Theology and Horror, edited by Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead, and, more recently, “Freddy versus the Myth of Feminine Evil: Nancy and Heather as Redemptrices in A Nightmare on Elm Street” in Theology and Wes Craven, edited by David K. Goodwin. Laura Williamson, a member of Trauma Matters’s editorial board, recently sat down with Dr. Beddows to discuss her work in greater detail.

LAURA WILLIAMSON: I am interested as to how and why you began looking at how survivors use horror and other media genres to discuss their trauma. As both an academic and a practicing counselor, you are uniquely positioned to speak to both disciplines with a theory-meets-practice perspective. Can you tell me a little bit about your work and background and how that informs your research on this unusual intersection?

AMY BEDDOWS: As you already know, I am a practicing Counsellor for a university and I do student counseling sessions. I primarily do cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). I am seeing more and more clients referred to me through student services. It used to be that I primarily had them referred to me over exam stress and general anxiety, but it has recently skewed more toward students who have unaddressed trauma and have experienced victim blame, even from counselors and therapists. Because of what I have seen from working with students, I am doing a grant application to conduct research to explore how survivors use media. I am particularly interested in the kind of media that clients engage with, especially when there is a therapeutic element to what they choose to watch or listen to. I have noticed that many survivors of violence engage with horror films, which is an area of media I myself enjoy. I want to be very clear that I in no way recommend that clinicians use horror or horror media in their practices, but rather, that they be aware of how their clients may already be using it.

I, myself, became aware of this, partially because one thing that also came up frequently was how the students being referred to me would relate to their own experiences through characters from different types of media, including horror films, which helped to prompt me to do more research in that area. 

LAURA: What, specifically, led you to research this intersection?

BEDDOWS: In my own practice, I sometimes ask survivors what they watch, and horror is a film genre that comes up repeatedly. There is something about the symbolic depiction of violence and trauma that really grabs their attention. I think it brings up questions about how you survive and deal with trauma, but most horror also shows the “bad guy” being dispatched, which I think has a cathartic effect for some people. 

I have several theories about why these movies come up frequently. When I talk to clients about what they connect with, they bring up films like The Babadook (2014) or Hereditary (2018), which allows grief to be personified with all its destructive and chaotic qualities, or films from the rape revenge subgenre, like Revenge (2017) or I Spit on Your Grave (1978/2010), which shows the damaging impacts of assault and rape as well as some semblance of justice for survivors. I think, in some ways, movies like this also allow survivors to step back and see their experiences objectively. I recently wrote a piece on Wes Craven in which I explored this issue more directly through the Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) films, which are clearly meant to analogize childhood sexual abuse through the character of Freddy Krueger. 

LAURA: Do you think films like Jennifer’s Body (2009), which I know has developed a cult following as a “female rage” film, are popular simply because they allow for a cathartic revenge fantasy? Or is there something more going on?

BEDDOWS: I think that may be part of it, but there is also more to it. Seeing bad things happen to characters on screen demystifies some of our subjective experiences and allows us to put distance there. I think revenge fantasy is a big part of it, especially for films like Jennifer’s Body. In addition, one cannot discount the social component. Often, when we go through trauma, there are many layers to it, and one of them is a sense of social isolation. However, when people go to see movies, they usually do so in a group, where everyone is jumping, screaming, or laughing together in reaction to what is on screen. These are high-intensity emotions that can be experienced as a shared response with others in a movie theater. 

One thing I think I should note is that while many people who survive trauma may find horror films cathartic, there are also many survivors who may swing to the other side and be unable to stand it. That is why I would never bring it up independently or suggest it to a client as a therapeutic technique, I would only bring the subject up if it was something they independently volunteered. 

LAURA: It sounds like you are saying that while some survivors love horror,  others cannot bear to watch it. Which perspective do you see more often?

BEDDOWS: I am not sure. I think the slight majority probably cannot stand to watch it, but I do not have anything but anecdotal experience to support that conclusion. Horror is often popularly viewed as a male-dominated area with misogynistic undertones. That being said, as I mentioned earlier, it is likely that more than half of the people who consume horror media are women, and, depending on how you measure it, a very large percentage of women have experienced some form of gender-based violence, which means a lot of women survivors keep watching it.

Some horror films can be very misogynistic. In many horror movies, women are hunted and victimized. For instance, I am aware that some survivors find The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007) too disturbing to watch, but I also know of survivors who found the movie incredibly cathartic. Movies like The Invisible Man (2020), Gerald’s Game (2017), Midsommar (2019), or The Poughkeepsie Tapes are sometimes described by abuse survivors as almost demythologizing the horrific things their husbands and boyfriends had done to them by taking away the idea of their abusers being looming monsters and recharacterizing them, instead, as ordinary men. 

I think it is important to understand that this does not just affect women. Oftentimes, I hear men identify with a lot of women in these horror films, such as Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street, because these women depict the feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability these men may have felt when they themselves were abused. I think horror filmmakers have picked up on this because in the second Freddy Krueger film, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), instead of the prototypical “Scream Queen” protagonist, there was a male “Scream King.” 

I also see this show up with regard to the television series The Haunting of Hill House (2018 series). I had one male client say that one of the female characters, Theodora Crain, really clicked with him because she helped him to feel that it was ‘okay’ to be angry about what had happened to him. Another example is Dani Ardor from the movie Midsommar (2019) because we see emotional abuse in her relationship with her boyfriend, which, again, interestingly, several male clients have said they found relatable. 

LAURA: Do any of your clients and their connections to horror media transpose to other genres, like action or drama? What about people dealing with everyday stresses? For instance, I remember once, when I was at a very frustrating and stressful moment in my career, I was surprised at how much I found the action film Nobody (2021) cathartic. What would be your thoughts on these other genres and their applications?

BEDDOWS: Oh, absolutely, these connections transfer over to other genres a lot. It is interesting that you mention Nobody because I have heard that film mentioned by clients before. I know some people struggle to connect with action as a genre, but with films like Nobody, you see a main character who is downtrodden, relatable, and normal but also has this extraordinary ability and who eventually stands up for himself in a very powerful way. Superhero films also get mentioned a lot, that is probably what I hear about the most. A lot of superhero films have interesting explorations of heroes struggling with mental health, like the Iron Man 3 (2013) film, where Tony Stark struggles with panic attacks, or the television show, Jessica Jones (2015 series), where the protagonist has severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I think these depictions are really popular with clients because they show that you can be really strong in some parts of your life and then really struggle in other parts of your life.

LAURA: Based on the frequency with which clients seem to bring these genres up, do you ever incorporate discussions about films into your practice?

BEDDOWS: It is interesting that you bring that up. I have spoken to clients about content in media, and, if I know they already like a particular genre, I will ask questions about it. I am less likely to do that with horror for the reasons I already mentioned, but I have clients who love true-crime podcasts, and I sometimes converse with them on these subjects. As I already mentioned, I would not recommend using horror, or any other genre, as a trauma processing tool in a clinical setting. Instead, I simply think that people need to be aware of this phenomenon and be willing to listen to survivors if they want to discuss their experiences in those terms. 

LAURA: Given all that you have seen with survivors connecting horror, as well as media generally, to their own experiences, do you think we should fund research into how media is used by survivors?

BEDDOWS: Absolutely. Especially because film can be such a powerful educational tool for both identifying and destigmatizing trauma. There were recently two very big television series that I think did this very well. Netflix’s Baby Reindeer (2024 series) was one, and I May Destroy You (2020 series), was another. I believe they were both written/created by survivors of abuse. They both tell good stories about the realities of abuse that need to be heard. In the two weeks after Baby Reindeer was released–a series which focused on a male survivor who had been stalked by a female perpetrator–major helplines for men who experienced sexual violence here in the UK just blew up. I feel like that show, which definitely strayed into psychological horror, gave men a voice and a sense of empowerment to report being abused. I have also had several male clients mention this series in session and share what a powerful effect it had on them. Similarly, with I May Destroy You, it provided a more mainstream voice to Black women speaking out about sexual violence, as well as critiquing criminal justice responses in the UK. 

These shows can give shorthand to people who call into helplines or reach out for support because, when they start describing their experiences using these shows as reference, the people taking the call already have an idea of what they are talking about. In other words, these shows have a real-world impact on survivors speaking out and feeling validated. These genres give survivors a voice, and we, as counselors and therapists, have a responsibility to listen.