The Spirit Compels Her: Possession and the Demonization of Women

Programmed by Yasmina Tawil

For millenia, possession has been weaponized by the powerful and powerless alike as an excuse to demonize women who desire independence, autonomy, and freedom. Battles with epilepsy, aversions to marriage, or any seemingly heterodox behavior can conveniently transform into fodder for sinister intervention. From the phantasmagoric to the devastatingly corporal, these films linger in the shadows of women and girls who push boundaries, finding themselves accused of—or truly in the clutches of—possession by demons, witchcraft, or other spirits.