While reading Barbara Creed’s “Woman as Possessed Monster” from The Monstrous Feminine I could not help but draw parallels between Creed’s examples from The Exorcist and the Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back.” Creed actually drew me to make this comparison when she pointed out that part of the horror of The Exorcist stems from Regan’s possession creating an other out of an otherwise known character. Though The Exorcist deals with the possession of a young girl by a demonic entity, “Be Right Back” showcases a different kind of “possession” through Ash’s online persona inhabiting the body of a robot modeled to look exactly like him.
To Creed, “the possessed or invaded being is a figure of abjection in that the boundary between self and other has been transgressed” (32). In The Exorcist, the abjection is seen through a female body, as Creed claims it is most often (32). However, in “Be Right Back,” the abjection is seen through the workings of the male body. This can be seen simply in Regan and Ash’s “bodily excretions,” something Creed claims, “must be treated as abject” (38). In The Exorcist, Regan’s possession leads her to urinate publicly and projectile vomit, something that places a distinction between the self—the true Regan, who would not commit these actions—and the other—the demon controlling Regan. In “Be Right Back,” the creators take the opposite approach. Ash’s robotic form need not ever have bodily excretions, and this lack of bodily excretions illustrates the possession and thus abjection. By manipulating the bodily excretions of Regan and Ash, the viewer is forced to recognize the fact that these characters have become an other, and thus something to fear.
Regan and Ash’s “otherness” can also be seen in the sexuality brought on by their possession. While Regan’s possession plays on an incestuous mother-daughter relationship, all of Regan’s sexuality is brought to the viewer’s attention by the fact that she is possessed by a demon, which causes her to shout obscenities and her desire to act on her sexual impulses. Regan’s otherness is created by her manifestation of sexual desire, but Ash was a sexual being before his possession. His possession, gives increased autonomy and skill with regards to sex, something real Ash lacked, thus classifying him as an other or possessed being.
Works Cited
Creed, Barbara. “Woman as Possessed Monster: The Exorcist” The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge, 1993. 31-42. Print.
Image Citation
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