Bakhtin writes that “all [forms] of grotesque realism degrade, bring down to earth, turn their subject into flesh” (20). In other words, Bakhtin describes this process of the grotesque as a degradation and reduction of a person to mere flesh and body parts. This reminded me of the characters of the Slitheen in Doctor Who, who are known for creating skin suits of human beings which they wear to disguise their alien forms. While the grotesque of the Slitheen’s forehead zips and skin suits could be frightening and terror-inducing, they are often played for laughs, and the Slitheen are seen throughout the show as comic characters; their longing to escape their human form, their frequent gas as a result of being trapped in the human body – these all serve to highlight the baser sides of the human body and plays into Bakhtin’s conception of the grotesque.
Furthermore, the Slitheen continue even more into the realm of their grotesque when we are shown a scene of their “demise”- namely, they explode into goo. This further reminded me of what Bakhtin says about degradation: “it has not only a destructive, negative aspect, but also a regenerating one” (21). This can be understood in the Slitheen as the degradation of the human body into skin suits is ‘regenerative’ its allowing them to live as humans, while the degradation of their alien forms into goo is ‘destructive’. As such, the Slitheen, at all stages of their life and death, act as an example of Bakhtin’s visualisation of the grotesque.
However, they also brought to mind the interplay of horror and humour in the grotesque- there is often a fine line that is trodden between the frightening and the funny. In the case of the Slitheen, the grotesque act of murdering people to wear their bodies as skin suits could be a terrifying one (and is a concept that has been used in horror films); yet, in the case of the Slitheen, the comedy of the grotesque is brought out through uncontrollable gas and exploding goo. However, I would be interested to see Bakhtin explore in more depth how the grotesque and its images tow the line between horror and humour (which is something we have discussed in class before how closely aligned horror and humour can be at times!)