Does anyone remember the film Return of the Living Dead 3? If not, let me refresh your memory: the plot revolves around a pair of teenage lovers who have been in a motorcycle accident. (Not for nothing, the accident is caused when Julie, the female protagonist, grabs her boyfriend’s crotch while he’s driving; the message delivered is typical of horror films in general: sexuality will kill you.)
To keep Julie alive after the accident, Curt exposes his girlfriend to Trioxin gas. Because of her relative “freshness,” Julie isn’t transformed into a zombie immediately; rather, she exists in an indeterminate, liminal state somewhere between life and unlife.
And that’s where the film gets problematic. To stay “human” Julie must torture her body, cutting and piercing her flesh so that the pain will allow her to retain her human subjectivity and agency. The Foucauldian argument almost makes itself: Julie is required to discipline herself bodily to control her emerging desires for flesh and remain within the proscribed identity of “woman.” I wonder if any feminist film scholars have written anything about this movie…
