Then there’s another side. The horror genre has made much of the role of the mother, and what happens when this normally protective figure has dark intentions. The ‘possession’ of young widowed mother Amelia in recent hit The Babadook tears at a particularly crucial bond, as her son Samuel is forced to fend for himself against a mother unravelling due to the stresses of parenthood. The mother-daughter bond is a particular stressor for both interpretations of Stephen King’s Carrie. A deeply troubled and religious woman, her abusive relationship with her daughter contributes greatly to the carnage that is to come. Of course, Hitchcock created the most terrifying ‘mother’ in cinema history, in the iconic Psycho. While we don’t see much of her in the 1960 film, her presence is felt everywhere as the murderous Norman Bates is revealed to have taken on her personality after years of abuse. She is very much the cause of her son’s behaviour and a nightmarish vision of the maternal relationship gone awry.