Group 1 - Foundation Production: HB: The Representation of Women in Horror

Women’s repositioning within the horror genre

Typically in horror films the female protagonist would often be the ‘weaker’ character who is terrorised by the antagonist

Within the film women would be unable to defend their own lives so that task would be down to the male ‘hero’

This took a turn in the late 1970’s as many directors e.g. John Carpenter and Wes Craven, made the decision to respond to politics at that time including the feminist movement, Vietnam War and race riots.

In films such as Halloween (Carpenter, 1978) and The Last House on the Left (Craven, 1972) are good examples of some of the earliest films to challenge the female character’s position in the film

They became more independent managing to defend themselves, many even being brave enough to go in search of the danger themselves which is happening more frequently in films today.

Stalk and Slash

Conventions:

In Mark Whitehead’s book ‘Slasher Films’ he describes the Stalk and Slash subgenre as an American product which is intensely formulaic.

The majority of these films all follow the same general plot which consists of a group of both male and female teenagers travelling to a remote location.

Once there, they begin to get murdered one by one by a killer who is unknown to both them and the audience, usually wearing a mask, until normally only one of them remains.

The final teenager with then have to confront the antagonist alone in order to survive, after the killer has been successfully murdered their identity and incentive is revealed.

Typical audience:

Research shows that the core audience for these films is predominantly teenage boys and young men

They watch these films for both the scenes of female nudity and also the gory depiction of murder and assault.

This caused makers of slasher films to be continuously in search of new horrific ways in which they could kill off characters in order to make their films more interesting and different.

Significance:

It is argued that these films hold a significance, the slasher subgenre had with it the creation of two of the most iconic characters within horror, Freddie Kruger from The Nightmare on Elm Street series and Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13^th series.

Furthermore, these films regularly show a group of teenagers being punished for some form of earlier wrong doing which they may have done

An example of this is trespassing on the killers land.

This, therefore, gives these films a deeper message to its audience which encourages them to remain well behaved without them realising it.

The Final Girl

The concept of The Final Girl was created by Carol J. Clover, who explains the final girl to be the only female survivor within that slasher film.

Clover describes her as the smarter, more level headed, morally pure and watchful one

Therefore, she is the first person to notice any threat of danger that there may be.

The final girl initially lives up to the typical way that woman are presented in films, as mentioned earlier

However, as the film progresses so does this character growing stronger and more mature.

It is usually the final girl who is faced with the task of killing the antagonist, often with a brutal weapon, which is why it is also stated that this character also gains some masculine characteristics by the end of the film.