The Black Gaze in Resistance and Power in “The Demon Knight”
This October, Citizen Jane is premiering a host of new content in a new series, This One's For the Ghouls: Women, the "Other" and Horror. Focusing exclusively on the horror genre, this month will contain spine-tingling essays and reviews discussing our Stephens students' favorite horror films. We'll dig deep (six feet deep, in fact) into the roles and portrayals of women in horror, as well as the abject -- the "other" -- and how those elements interact in some of the most well-known (and/or gruesomest) films in the canon. Check back here soon for more!
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight is a horror-comedy feature-length film released in 1995 by HBO for their TV series Tales from the Crypt. The TV series is based on an anthology series of horror comics that were published from 1950 to 1955 and created by William Gaines and Al Feldstein. The film opens with The Crypt Keeper, the puppet host of the film who resembles an old zombie, and is voiced by John Kassir and puppeteered by Van Snowden. The narrative begins with Frank Brayker (played by William Sadler) being chased by the Collector (Billy Zane) to a middle-of-nowhere town in New Mexico. Brayker holes up in an old church-turned boarding house, attempting to evade his pursuer. It is revealed that the Collector is a demon and is after a key Brayker has, one that gives him the power to destroy demons with holy blood. A demon horde is unleashed on Brayker’s refuge, and he and the motley individuals at the church—the owner, an old drunk, a fired postman, a prostitute, a douchebag, and Jada Pinkett Smith who plays Jeryline, a convict on work release—fight to survive against them.
The cheesy name and over-dramatic action are not the only things that drew me to view this film. What is most intriguing are the protagonists of the film. While there are two male Caucasian protagonists (Sadler and Zane), the third protagonist is both Black and female. Having a Black female protagonist who leads the film in the end is rare, and having one who is not pushed into the “black mother” stereotype or “helpless female” is even more significant. While analyzing Jeryline’s character, I will be looking at her through eyes: both how she is being looked at and tracking where and how she is looking. I will be seeing how her gaze represents the fear and power she holds and obtains throughout the course of the film. “Afraid to look, but fascinated by the gaze. There is power in looking” (hooks, 115). While keeping in mind bell hooks’ “The Oppositional Gaze,” I will be looking at Black female spectatorship and Black female gaze in Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, and how the heroine’s gaze is resistance and power.
When we first meet Jeryline (played by Jada Pinkett), she is introduced as a tough, back-talking delinquent while she argues with the boarding house owner over her job of cleaning the stove. Yet she is not denied her femininity: Brayker looks at her in a similar way to how an attractive white female would be ogled over when she first makes her appearance. This role of an independent, strong, and desirable woman is rarely seen for a Black female characters, yet she is not free from the stereotypical objectification of women. (Note: It is later revealed that Brayker gives her that look because he has chosen her to pass the mantle he carries as a knight against the demonic evil in the film onto. However, this knowledge does not take away from the initial sexualized gaze placed upon Jeryline.) Per hooks’ article, the Black female body in cinema is constructed as an absence. The Black female is present to preserve a spectatorship where the desired female to be looked at is a white woman (118). What is unique in regards to Jeryline, is that she is the one receiving the “desirable white woman” gaze, while contrasted against the Caucasian Cordelia (Brenda Bakke) who is both dressed like and is a sex worker, yet overlooked by the gaze.
Despite this repressive gaze, the film uses this device against itself through the character of Jeryline. hooks writes:
“Black female spectators, who refused to identify with white womanhood, who would not take on the phallocentric gaze of desire and possession, created a critical space where the binary opposition Mulvey posits of “woman as image, man as bearer of the look” was continually deconstructed” (122-23).
Throughout the film Jeryline is resistant to the oppressive gaze of “woman as image.” She deconstructs the gaze by her appearance from the beginning with the way she snarls when she speaks, until one of the best scenes where she covers herself entirely in blood. Not only is the scene representative in the narrative as resistance against the demon, who can no longer touch her without burning because of the holy blood, but it is resistant to the gaze, denying the viewer any phallocentric look. She has stripped to a bare minimum of clothes to better cover herself in blood, and while she is in a sexualized outfit, she is doused in sticky blood and looks frightening. She is foiling by her own means a gaze that is looking to exploit the view of her, and taking an image, and making it into her own.
One thing that sets Jeryline apart from other characters in the film is the power that she possesses. Within the narrative she is the one chosen to carry on the mantle of demon knight and protect the key, which gives her power to destroy the demons. This physical power-shift is revealed at the end (sorry for the minor spoiler); however, Jeryline’s power is apparent much sooner with her gaze. From the beginning, after her introduction, Jeryline is unyielding to other’s opinions that she does not agree with yet quiet at times. She acts as an observer. Jeryline conveys through where her gaze is positioned what she sees and what she looks for. Throughout the film her eyes convey where the action is moving to. The cinematography assists her, by using close-ups and holding shots on her to capture her observance. Jeryline builds up a persevering strength in the film despite the demons and humans being brutally destroyed around her. She saves this power until the end. During the finale she is unable to speak because she is holding a weapon in her mouth. Not only is it symbolism of the repressor silencing the repressed, but it also is a tool, to greater exemplify Jeryline’s silent power within where and how she looks. It is resistance to being trapped by the villain of the film, and resistance to being shackled by how she is supposed to look and gaze. Her gaze culminates in her final attack, the ultimate demise of her enemy, and her victory.
The film ends with Jeryline riding off on a bus to continue her journey as protector of the key. Out of the window, she watches another demon who fails to approach the bus due to her placing a protection on it. Her eyes are the last look we see as she gazes from a position of power at the demon that she has decided to conquer. As quoted from hooks in the opening paragraph, “there is a power in looking.” What makes this film impactful is the heroine, and how she garners and defines notions of feminine and masculine spectatorship, resisting her oppressor’s gaze, and commanding power with her own gaze.
Work Cited
Hooks, Bell. “The oppositional gaze.” Black looks: race and representation, South end press, Boston, 1992, 115-31.