In this lecture, we deep dive into the analysis of key characters in horror cinema, their stories, and the traumas they reflect within five key categories: Possessed, Vengeful, Grief-stricken, Hysterical, and Objectified. By exploring these portrayals, I aim to shed light on how horror films mirror real-life fears and societal anxieties through their female characters. The female presence in horror has generated not only a mass of financial revenue for the genre, but also created a mainstay of horror focus. They are the main protagonist, the victim, the villain, the antagonist and the expendable but within these roles we can clearly classify them into five distinct categories, which can be taught as a whole or separately.
Mo has lectured at Prairie View A&M’s Nightmares from Monkeypaw: A Jordan Peele Symposium, No Return: A Yellowjackets Symposium, and The Whole Damn Swarm: Celebrating 30 Years of Candyman. She’s spoken at Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, Cine-Excess, and Fear2000: The Horror Evolution Will Be Colorized – Black Horror Cinema.
Her work appears in A Quaint and Curious Volume of Gothic Tales, The Encyclopocalypse of Legends and Lore, and 206 Word Stories. Her debut novella Love the Sinner will be released July 5th, followed by Clairviolence: Tales of Tarot and Torment in 2024-2025, and her essay in Vampire States of America in 2025.
As a core member of Nyx Horror Collective, she’s partnered with The Shudder Channel and Stowe Story Labs. She’s also featured in 160 Black Women in Horror by Sumiko Saulson, Kenya Moss-Dyme, and Kai Leakes.
