User:ShadowHound456

Film Link: https://play.library.utoronto.ca/watch/782f392658cb67f640a4bbc293f3ad36.

The Shadow Hound is a half-human half-horse spirit inspired from the “Tikbalang”, of Filipino Folklore (Ratcliff, 261). The Shadow Hound is a timeless creature that exists throughout history and can be found in local/urban folklore It can shape shift into any animal or person but will typically present itself as a half-horse figure. The Shadow Hound is a dark figure that only appears during the night. It is a solitary spirit and can be found wandering through the streets of a major city or running through a forest alone at night. The Shadow Hound is also associated with the wind because it uses the wind to travel and can be summoned by whispering its name three times on a windy night; or it can also just appear in front of someone they come across. It is attracted to pain, anger and sorrow and will follow those who have or are experiencing any of the three. The Shadow Hound will promise its victims to take their pain away. The Shadow Hound will look into their soul, find the source of their troubles, and inflict that trauma on an unsuspecting person. It will then repeat the same cycle with the unsuspecting victim. The Shadow Hound is not a monster, you can control, once one person makes a deal, it will not stop. Those who make an arrangement with the Shadow Hound end up feeling worst each time the monster finds a new victim. The Shadow Hound can only be stopped if each person the Shadow Hound encounters begins to confront and deal with their pain and trauma. Once they have accepted, worked through, and let go of the pain and anger, only then can the Shadow Hound stop its pain tour. The Shadow Hound is reflective of the continuation of colonialism through the cyclical nature of generational trauma. Using the proposed film of this project, “Shadow Hound”, this essay will be analyzing the significance of the Shadow Hound in contemporary society through the theoretical framework of the abject and the “Monster Always Escapes” thesis by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.

The film, “Shadow Hound ”, follows Leyla, a paramedic who is putting off her treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Six months prior to when the film takes place, Leyla was a first responder at a protest turned riot. She was treating a patient on the sidewalk when all of a sudden, a riot broke out. People were running, screaming, and trampling each other as the sound of gunshots and glass breaking were ringing in the background. Thankfully her and her patient managed to get to safety, but the manic behaviour of the rioters left a mark on Leyla. The film starts with her on her balcony one windy evening, remembering the event that took place. Suddenly, the Shadow Hound appears right in front of her and promises to make her problems go away. Leyla had heard of the Shadow Hound and is hesitant to accept its offer but eventually agrees. The Shadow Hound finds an unsuspecting victim, takes Leyla’s trauma, and uses it to create a series of vivid nightmares for the victim. The Shadow Hound then makes a deal with that victim and the cycle continues. Initially Leyla feels great, she is sleeping well and is no longer suffering from nightmares and anxiety. However, as the Shadow Hound continues its journey of perpetuating trauma, Leyla begins to feel anxious, fearful, and much worse than before. Finally, after telling a friend about the Shadow Hound, they do some research about how to stop it. They find that to defeat the Shadow Hound, people must work through their pain and learn to make peace with the past to move on. Leyla, who had been avoiding seeking help with her PTSD finally seeks a professional and starts her path to healing. By the end of the film, Leyla is doing much better and has committed herself to helping others like her.

The Shadow Hound can be examined through the theory of abjection of Julia Kristeva. According to Julia Kristeva, abjection is something that we cast out and are opposed of (Kristeva 1982, 1). For Leyla this would be her memories of the riot as she wants to forget them and cast them aside but is unable to. The Shadow Hound reflects takes our trauma, and casts them out of us. The Shadow Hound, however, is also cast out because it hides in the shadow of the night instead of being out with people in broad daylight. In her essay, Kristeva also adds that: “And yet, from its place of banishment, the abject does not cease challenging its master” (Kristeva 1982, 2). The pain does not really go away and becomes worst as the Shadow Hound continues its process of taking and inflicting pain. The abject is also a sense of a violent breakaway that risks falling back to where it started (Kristeva 1982, 13). The taking of emotions of past trauma is not a smooth process. When someone allows the Shadow Hound into their soul, they are reopening a wound and letting it bleed until they decide to take steps to heal. The Shadow Hound reflects the human response to push trauma away. However, in doing so allows the problem to continue both in ourselves and in others.

The Shadow Hound highlights the boundary breaking of the abject. In his article, Robert Philipps argues that the abject is something that is both used to enforce categorization but break boundaries as well (Philipps 2014, 20). In his article he uses the example of transgendered bodies and how they defy the confines of sex and gender especially when they are in transition (Philipps 2014, 20). Transgendered folks break the boundaries of the binary gendered structures of society. The Shadow Hound also challenges boundaries as it changes the victim into the aggressor. Someone who was once a victim was not indirectly becoming the aggressor through the Shadow Hound. The Shadow Hound also defies categorization through its nature. It is a half-human half horse spirit and but it can shape shift. The Shadow Hound challenges established categorizations, which opens up a world of possibility.

The Shadow Hound is also reflective of the anti-colonial discussions highlighted by Rijuta Mehta in Chapter Six of Abjection Incorporated: Mediating the Politics of Pleasure and Violence. Rijuta Mehta describes the anticolonial abjection as a “phoenix rising from the ashes” (Mehta 2020, 141). The phoenix is a newly independent colony that has been reborn out of the ashes of colonialism. In a similar way, the Shadow Hound gives people a chance at a new start, to rise from the ashes of their struggles. Mehta then discusses the anticolonial discourse in the Hind Swaraj of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi argues that colonized folks have the tendency to replace their colonizers rather than change the society (Mehta 2020, 141). This is similar to the point Kristeva makes in her essay, about how the abject is in danger of falling back from the thing it is separating itself from. The victims of the Shadow Hound fall back into their struggles despite being told they would get better. Gandhi sees anticolonial abjection as the practise of working against our own self-interests in order to truly undo the project of mastery (Mehta 2020, 141-142). In order to stop the Shadow Hound, Leyla had to overcome her hesitancy of seeking therapy and help for her PTSD. If Leyla had not, the Shadow Hound would have continued and people who were once the victim were now the aggressors.

The Shadow Hound can be explained by “The Monster Always Escapes Theory” in Monster Culture (Seven Thesis) (Cohen 2020, 38). In this thesis, Cohen discusses how monsters in one story may be defeated or vanish but then reappear in another story. His examples include the ogre that appears numerous times in the tales of King Arthur and the alien that returns through its progeny to attack Sigourney Weaver in the movie franchise “Aliens” (Cohen 2020, 38). In the proposed film, “Shadow Hound”, Leyla and others after her believe that the monster inside them is gone. In reality the Shadow Hound simply the monster inside them continues to grow. The concept of the monster always escaping can also be used to highlight colonialism and generational trauma. Even in a post-colonial society, the impact of colonialism can still be felt through systemic racism, physical and mental health issues, etc. The Shadow Hound highlights how killing the physical monster is not enough because the monster can endure through its victims. The monster must be stopped outwardly and inwardly. The Shadow Hound is reflective of the continuation of colonialism through the cyclical nature of generational trauma. Using the proposed film of this project, “Shadow Hound”, this essay analyzes the significance of the Shadow Hound in contemporary society through the theoretical framework of the abject and the “Monster Always Escapes” thesis by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. The Shadow Hound reflects the desire to cast out the undesirable; it promises to take away your problems but the monster itself is also cast out from society. However, the Shadow Hound forces its victims to confront their pain as the more they choose to ignore it the worst it will get. The Shadow Hound also defies categorization, it is a hybrid monster that turns victims into aggressors. It also reflects the danger of colonized individuals to replace their colonizers instead of forging a new and better society. Finally, the cyclical passing of pain nature of the Shadow Hound reflects the perpetual impact of colonialism. Even if a society is post-colonial, those who were targeted by the colonizers still feel its aftereffects through generational trauma. The Shadow Hound is relevant in society today through its contributions to conversations of decolonization. While it is important to hold the colonizers accountable and the systems that uphold colonialism, it is also important to address the conflict within to prevent more generational trauma and extensions of colonialism from reoccurring.