Why Are Male Horror Directors So Afraid of Naked Old Women?

There’s something awful lurking in the basement in Barbarian, the buzzy 2022 horror movie which recently began streaming on HBO Max. You know it from the moment Georgina Campbell hovers at the top of the stairs, hesitant to descend into the creepy lower level of her Airbnb rental, but also in desperate need of more toilet paper. There is absolutely, positively, beyond a reasonable doubt going to be a horrible, evil, nightmarish thing hiding in the darkness down there. (Now’s a good time to warn you, dear reader, that there are about to be SPOILERS. Consider yourself warned!) And when Campbell inevitably goes down there—this is a horror movie, after all—the dreadful monstrosity finally reveals itself, in all of its gruesome glory. It’s… it’s… a naked old woman!
To be fair, this naked old woman isn’t simply just old and naked. She’s a dirty, feral, extremely violent naked old woman. But she is also, crucially, utterly unsexy. It’s meant to terrify the viewer how much they do not want to have sex with this woman. It’s not the blood on her face or the dirt in her hair that is meant to repulse us the most. It’s the veiny breasts that swing back and forth as she runs. Barbarian writer/director Zach Cregger is hardly the first filmmaker to play the “naked old women are terrifying!” card. It’s practically a staple of the genre. Veterans like Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, and M. Night Shyamalan have all attempted to frighten audiences with the so-called disturbing image of a senior woman sans clothes. But perhaps it’s time we asked: Why, exactly, do these horror directors find this image so scary?
The examples are plentiful. The Shining, memorably, had the woman in Room 237. At first, she’s a young, sexy babe who rises from the bathtub, naked (breasts still perky!), and wraps Jack Nicholson in an embrace. He eagerly returns her kiss… until he looks in the mirror and realizes he’s making out with a decaying, revolting, saggy-boobed old lady. The Visit, Shyamalan’s found-footage horror movie about visiting elderly family members, finds grandma wandering the halls in her birthday suit, creepily scratching the walls. In Midsommar, old naked women stand among the young naked women, indicating that the cult orgy is meant to be disturbing, not arousing. A major character in Ti West’s X is a wrinkled, old woman who’s interested in sex, which is clearly very disturbing, because of how wrinkled and old she is. And I lost count of the number of times I sat in a movie theater, listening to audiences gasp in disgust, as we watched that naked old woman scuttle across the screen in the trailer for IT: Chapter Two. (And when I saw the full, R-rated scene a few months later, you better believe those boobs were flapping wildly!)

And then, of course, there’s Barbarian. One of the most horrifying sequences—at least, according to the way the scores pulses into a cacophonous crescendo—is when the old lady known as “The Mother” thrusts one of her breasts into the face of Justin Long, forcing him to breastfeed. Ironic, because Long’s character loves sex, loves women, and loves boobies—loves them so much that he raped one of his coworkers. But not wrinkled, flabby boobies, obviously. That’s disgusting. No, it’s more than disgusting—it’s the stuff of horror movies.

Look, I get it—aging is a scary, universal fear. If we live long enough, our bodies will inevitably deteriorate. All of the plastic surgery and skincare products in the world can’t stop it. Throw in the societal taboo of nudity for a little extra shock value, and you’ve got yourself a horror movie monster. Ugly old women—hags, witches, etc—have been a staple of scary stories for centuries, sure. And yet, there’s something about old, naked women specifically that seems to terrify many modern male horror directors in a way I simply can’t relate to. And the fear doesn’t seem to translate to female horror directors, either. Mary Harron’s American Psycho is scared of muscled sociopaths, not little old ladies. Jennifer Kent’s Babadook didn’t need swaying breasts to inspire thrills.
So what is it about an old, naked woman that is so scary to these men? Is it the fear that, someday, god forbid, there won’t be anyone with perky breasts who wants to have sex with you? If that’s the case, I suggest these guys dig a little deeper into their psyche. Personally, I’ve made my peace with the fact that someday—if I’m lucky—my body will sag, wrinkle, and soften. The bodies of people I love will also sag, wrinkle, and soften. And you know what? There’s nothing horrifying about that.