Midsommar’s Ableism Resurrects the Dark History of Eugenics-Inspired Horror
July 11, 2019
(The Guardian) – Midsommar seems to hark back to the horror film’s eugenicist beginnings. It’s no coincidence that the monstrous tropes of horror’s mainstream began to be configured during the rise of eugenics in the United States. Identified as one of the first horror films, 1917’s The Black Stork depicts a “heroic” doctor who condemns a syphilitic child to die after convincing its parents that the world would be better off without it. A flurry of eugenicist horror films came in its wake, with the genre reaching peak popularity in the 1930s.