In this spine-tingling episode, we watch the 1962 psychological thriller "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and dive deep into the hagsploitation film subgenre it spawned. When Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford found themselves discarded by studios as they aged, they turned to horror – creating a film that both exploited and empowered ageing women in cinema.
We explore how society's fear of ageing women transforms them into monstrous figures on screen. From Baby Jane's disturbing childlike makeup on an elderly face to the twisted sister dynamic, this film confronts our cultural anxieties about women who dare to age visibly.
The episode also unpacks the infamous feud between Davis and Crawford, Hollywood's persistent ageism, and why these "psycho-biddy" films found devoted audiences in queer communities. We trace hagsploitation's evolution from the 1960s to contemporary examples like "X" and "The Substance," revealing how little has changed in Hollywood's treatment of women over the age of 50.
Join us as we brush the cobwebs off this terrifying tale, shedding light on what makes ageing women both feared and fascinating in horror cinema.
Key moments
- 02:40 – "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" plot overview
- 07:35 – The birth of hagsploitation
- 10:52 – Hollywood's war on ageing women
- 14:39 – The double-edged sword of hagsploitation
- 19:51 – Abjection and the monstrous-feminine
- 30:28 – Screen queens and drag queens
- 32:40 – Bette vs. Joan
- 34:50 – Hagsploitation makes a comeback
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