Monster Chasing with Lysh

Before you start pointing pitchforks at me, you must know I don’t believe my headline and the film we’re looking at today doesn’t either. Women aging has been presented as this monstrous thing that we need to run from, and we’re going to see what Hayao Miyazaki’s 2004 film Howl’s Moving Castle adds to the conversation. As always, please note this post will include spoilers.

Howl’s Moving Castle, which is based on Diana Wynne Jones’ novel of the same name, presents numerous transformations throughout its runtime. At one point, the titular character, Howl, is shown transforming into a pile of goop due to vanity. At different parts of the film, he is also shown in different transformation stages of a bird-like monster. For Howl, the worst thing he can be is unattractive but also controlled by his governmental state. For context, Howl is a wizard who is “serving” both countries in a war, though he isn’t in support of either side.

For the other wizards who fight in the war, we also see them already transformed into goo-like monsters due to being consumed by their magic. Howl’s monster transformation is due to the same reason – overuse of his magic. The literal monsters in the movie are highlighted by the military wizards and Howl himself. Howl’s vanity almost kills him, and his overuse of magic almost permanently transforms him into a monster. For men, the worst thing that can happen to them is a physical undoing of their reality – physically stripping their identity from them. But what about the women in the movie? What is the worst thing that can happen to them?

In Howl’s Moving Castle, the worst thing that can happen to a woman is being old. There are two different instances in the film where women get transformed into old women. The first instance is at the beginning of the film, where our female protagonist, Sophie Hatter, is transformed into an older version of herself by the Witch of the Waste as punishment for having Howl’s attraction. The second instance is in the middle of the film, when the Witch of the Waste gets her magic revoked from Madame Suliman (who is also older) which reverts the Witch to her real age.

Both transformations are done out of punishment which gives the impression that for women, growing old is punishment. We can argue that the Witch’s punishment is her reaping for what she sowed, but it’s important to note that besides growing older and having no magic, nothing else happens to her.

The reason I’m comparing Howl’s monster transformation and Sophie and the Witch’s transformations is because the movie actively mirrors them. Like mentioned, Madame Suliman initiates the Witch’s transformation, but she also tries initiating Howl’s monster transformation in a confrontation between the two; men are allowed to be these monstrous ugly things, but women don’t get that grace. Women can be cunning, jealous, and controlling, but they can’t be old.

The comparison made me think about whether or not we, as a general North American society, see old women as monstrous. The film presents us with three different senior women and they all have a range of qualities about them, but their most significant identifier is that they are old.

I’d like to believe that no, we don’t see old women as monstrous, but with the many horror movies that have come out in 2024 and in 2025 that focus on women aging or old women in general (see, The Substance and Weapons), I’m not sure that’s the case. This isn’t ragging on either of those movies either, I enjoyed Weapons and heard great things about The Substance. I’m just unsure whether they dismantle the discourse around aging women or if they reinforce it (this is outside of director intention, of course. Also, for further exploration of the above films, I encourage you to watch Girl on Film’s YouTube video on the topic).

I love evil, monstrous women in media, I really do! But part of me is conflicted about the representation I see when it comes to old women in movies because sometimes the scariest thing about them is just that… they’re old.

I hope you enjoyed the post! I know it’s a shift from literal monsters, but I wanted to experiment a little! Howl’s Moving Castle is a movie I’ve loved for a long time and I’ve always thought the mirroring of Monster Howl and Grandma Sophie was interesting.

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Thank you for reading, and remember to stay curious.

See you later,

Lysh

Featured Image Credit: Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)