The absolute abjection is the corpse. We are repulsed by it and reject it instinctually from our very core as it is the most elementary and extreme pollution and “soulless” to boot. One of the Witch’s greatest crimes is the creation of corpses through taking life, reducing a living body to a corpse. Such a crime is rivaled only by her use of magic to reanimate the corpse.
The witch’s reanimation of the corpse is found in both Suspiria and Black Sunday--more specifically, the reanimation of a corpse belonging to a character both the protagonist and audience trusted. In Black Sunday, when Katja is alone, horrified, feeling utterly helpless trapped in her family’s castle--a place that is now terrifying her to a point almost beyond her limit--…show more content… Old, malevolent, female, witches who pursue, torment, and desire the death of their prey of choice--young, human, women. In Suspriria, they do not just attempt to take girls’ lives, they succeed, and their blood is spilled thrice. I, as most people, have observed and noted but not truly analysed this stock character-esque, recurring Wicked Witch within narratives. A malicious, Occult-affiliated woman who is almost always part of a good/bad, white/black dualism. Within this fairytale trope, she seeks to prolong her life and/or add to her power (or perhaps maintain her disguise of stolen youth) and this feat is usually achieved by generally abominable scheming and stealing the lifeforce of others. The victims double as a device to show the boundaries and also create contrast. Highlighting our Wicked Witch’s evil nature through perspective and giving the involved viewer a natural protagonist to side with, to root for. The benign human females play within their acceptable roles and symbolize natural human goodness. They fight for symbolic order and against the Wicked Witch who threatens its fragility. Wicked Witches oftentimes symbolise a collapse (or blurring) of boundaries, the Other, abjection. But to come alive within a narrative with the rich vividity required of a cliched tale as old as time, she must be coupled with her antithesis. The result is perhaps not black/white, but