Riot Horror: Rape-Revenge and Reproductive Labor in American Mary

This essay examines the rape-revenge horror film American Mary as an example of the recalibration of the horror genre to the dynamics of our moment. Today, work performed by all genders resembles the historical conditions of so-called "women's work"—low or no wages; no union, contract, or state protection; precarious, affectively demanding, and often in either the service or the reproductive sector. This feminized reproductive work is not ancillary but central to contemporary capitalism, and thus immiseration, exploitation, and rebellion must be understood through an expanded account of contemporary labor. These changes in labor have, in turn, produced thematic and formal shifts in the feminist-themed horror film.