Finding Agency: Horror and Resistance in Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Donnie Darko (2001)

Abstract

In Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 Pan’s Labyrinth and Richard Kelley’s 2001 Donnie Darko, the audience is presented with young protagonists that have the ability to see images beyond their reality. I define these images as “alternative perspectives,” and they are a means for the protagonists in each film to gain agency and power. I utilize Sándor Klapcsik’s concept of liminality in narratives alongside Judith Butler’s ideas on resistance and vulnerability to identify the alternative perspectives as providing the protagonists with a liminal space and thus a space to conduct their respective forms of resistance or disobedience. These alternative perspectives also contain elements of horror that are critical to the protagonist’s ability to venture towards empowerment. Alongside traditional horror film conventions, Julia Kristeva’s concept of the abject is a means to identify the horror of experiencing an alternative perspective. Identifying films containing alternative perspectives is a means for analyzing horror with a specific focus on individuality and empowerment, as opposed to the more traditional analysis of horror on a grander socio-cultural scale.