Here comes the antichrist: The female body as the site of exploitation and accidental resistance in the first omen

Abstract

This short essay offers a critical review of Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen, focusing specifically on the centrality of the female body in the film’s narrative action and, more specifically, how the female body emerges both as a site of exploitation and resistance in the film. The most revolting aspect of horror in this “horror film,” as I demonstrate in the essay, is centred on the violence, control, and exploitation of the female body. It explores how the female characters in the novel such as Margaret and Scianna are repeatedly abused and raped within the space of the orphanage at the convent and, subsequently, their struggle for maintaining autonomy over their bodies and sexual agencies embody a resistance not only to religious appropriation of female corporeality but also, within the space of the film, the central conspiracy to facilitate the coming of the “Antichrist.