Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas,
Speaker 1: and monsters in time. Recently on Weird House Cinema, we
Speaker 1: discussed Luccio fulci fantasy film Conquest, a gory and dreamlike
Speaker 1: jaunt full of stone age combat murderous monsters. In Dark Magic,
Speaker 1: the villain of the piece was Okron, a sorceress who
Speaker 1: commands a war band of beast men and masked warriors.
Speaker 1: She has depicted clad only in a golden chain mail bikini,
Speaker 1: and her head is enclosed entirely within a golden helm
Speaker 1: until in the film's climax, when our hero destroys the
Speaker 1: helmet with an arrow of light, revealing a hideous hag's
Speaker 1: face beneath a helm. Now, on one hand, we might
Speaker 1: dismiss the details of the character as pure titilation. In
Speaker 1: a night Sword and Sorcery film, a genre is pointed
Speaker 1: out by Robert A. Rushing in his book, descended from
Speaker 1: Hercules that often pitted a hyper masculine hero against a
Speaker 1: feminine villain, but the juxtaposition of Hag's face, an exaggerated
Speaker 1: monstrous take on aging women, and the body of the
Speaker 1: model playing the role in this film, it brings to
Speaker 1: mind larger trends in folklore, mythology, and more. As we've
Speaker 1: discussed on the show, older depictions of the Greek monster
Speaker 1: Medusa were entirely monstrous, but later traditions and certainly modern
Speaker 1: traditions often depict her with a monstrous head atop an
Speaker 1: otherwise alluring humanoid body. We can also look to the
Speaker 1: tradition of yokai and yuri in Japanese folklore, in which
Speaker 1: such figures are prone to draw men in and then
Speaker 1: frighten them with a shocking reveal. The kuchasaki Ona reveals
Speaker 1: the monstrous mouth between beneath her surgical mask, and the
Speaker 1: Noperabo reveals the complete smooth flesh absence of a face entirely.
Speaker 1: Okron's unmasking either meats or subverts expectations, depending on where
Speaker 1: you're coming from. There's also something to be said for
Speaker 1: a figure that combines imagery of both a youthful woman
Speaker 1: and an old woman, or of the living and the dead.
Speaker 1: Consider the Nordic goddess Hell, who is often depicted as
Speaker 1: half blue, half dead, signifying her connection to the underworld.
Speaker 1: In neopaganism, we have the figure of the triple goddess,
Speaker 1: composed of maiden, mother, and chrone archetypical stages of the
Speaker 1: feminine life cycle. We also encounter various myths and folk
Speaker 1: tales in which an aged witch takes on the likeness
Speaker 1: of a youthful beauty, as well as the reverse, in
Speaker 1: which a goddess in the form of a maiden or
Speaker 1: mother takes on the eyes of a crone or hag.
Speaker 1: In some cases, these dueling forms are linked to the
Speaker 1: cycle of the seasons and the resurrection or rejuvenation of spring.
Speaker 1: Not to say that Okron is directly tied to any
Speaker 1: of these ideas, but the convergence of images cannot help
Speaker 1: but invoke much older modes of symbolism As an aside,
Speaker 1: the young lady or old hag image is a popular
Speaker 1: optical illusion. When viewing the illustration, it may look like
Speaker 1: either an old woman's side profile looking down or a
Speaker 1: younger woman facing away from us. Your brain can see
Speaker 1: either image, but not at the same time. Tune in
Speaker 1: for additional episodes of the Monster Fact each week. As
Speaker 1: always You can email us at contact at stuff to
Speaker 1: Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind
Speaker 1: is the production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts for my
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.