Weapons' Aunt Gladys Was Inspired By This Horror Movie Streaming For Free

An eye-popping shocker about a small town reeling from the mysterious disappearance of a class of third graders, "Weapons" is one of the biggest films of the year. Directed by Zach Cregger, critics have praised "Weapons" as a high-concept thriller –- but perhaps no scene in the movie has earned more gasps than the introduction of a little old lady: Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan).

The Academy Award-nominated Madigan is unrecognizable as Gladys, who hides her true, decaying appearance beneath a clownish red wig, enormous glasses, and bright, garish makeup. Gladys claims to be the aunt of Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the only student in Justine Gandy's (Julia Garner) class who hasn't gone missing. Ultimately, Aunt Gladys is revealed as the villain of the film, an aging witch who has parasitically attached herself to Alex's family and supernaturally abducted his classmates in order to rejuvenate herself.

Amy Madigan's unforgettable performance in "Weapons" has already generated awards buzz and plans for an Aunt Gladys-centric prequel, but she owes a debt to another iconic horror movie character: Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) in the 1962 film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Madigan explained that Gladys' extreme makeup was in part a reference to Davis, concluding, "How you make somebody just drained of everything ... Those kind of iconic things really stuck in my mind." But a closer inspection of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" reveals that the characters' similarities are more than skin deep.

Robert Aldritch's "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is a tale of two sisters, Blanche (Joan Crawford) and "Baby Jane" Hudson (Bette Davis). A vaudeville star in her cloying, curly-haired youth, Jane's career floundered in adulthood while Blanche became a successful Hollywood actress. After a car accident leaves Blanche paralyzed, she becomes a prisoner to the resentful Jane, whose delusional plans for a comeback lead to murder.

Davis is legendary in the role of Jane, veering from terrifying to tragic with just a twitch of her heavily-painted face. A gothic nightmare about crushed dreams and the disposability of older women in Hollywood, "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is regarded as one of the best horror films ever made. Its pop culture impact includes an FX miniseries about its tense production, "Feud: Bette and Joan," and it was even parodied on "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars."

While the grotesque extremities of Aunt Gladys and Jane have made them both high-camp icons, there are deeper parallels between "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and "Weapons." Gladys and Jane hold their "family" hostage in their own homes, making them dependent on their jailers for their survival. Both women seem happily oblivious to their bizarre appearances, and are desperate to regain a childlike youth at any cost. But while Jane only wants to reignite her early stardom, Gladys performs a magic ritual on kidnapped children to steal their life force.

Aunt Gladys has become the frightening new face of the "psycho-biddy" subgenre of horror films. "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" inspired a legion of imitators in the 1960s and 70s, movies with curious titles like "What's the Matter with Helen?" "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" and even Davis and Aldritch's follow-up to "Baby Jane," "Hush ... Hush Sweet Charlotte."

Also unflatteringly called "hagsploitation," psycho-biddy films star older actresses (such as Davis and Crawford, who were both in their 50s during the filming of "Baby Jane") as violent, psychologically-unbalanced villains. The subgenre remains controversial; while critics have dismissed psycho-biddy films as misogynist for depicting older women as ugly and monstrous, other audiences have reclaimed them as feminist cult classics for their challenges to traditional gender norms -– and for giving mature actresses juicy roles they can sink their teeth into.

As the wicked witch in "Weapons," Gladys joins a sinister sorority that includes Demi Moore in "The Substance," Sally Hawkins in "Bring Her Back," Toni Collette in "Hereditary," and even Mia Goth (under heavy makeup and prosthetics) in "X." The revival of the psycho-biddy film includes some of the most sensational and acclaimed horror films of the last two decades, and "Weapons" is no exception. Ghoulishly entertaining from her first scene to her last, Aunt Gladys is a delightfully decrepit descendant of "Baby Jane" Hudson.

"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is streaming for free on Kanopy and Tubi.