Inside of this essay I will be discussing the representation of woman in horror films and how they are portrayed. I am writing this essay to show my understanding of how woman are depicted in horror films and overall I will focus not on just if they are killed or not but infact, how they are ‘viewed’ in movies of this genre. I will do this by giving examples from films I have watched in class and independently. I will also relate to theorists inside of my examples.
The films which I will be analysing are: ‘The Crazies’ which was released in February 2010, ‘Scream’ released in May 1996, Halloween released in October 1978, and My Bloody Valentine which was released in January 2009. I have decided to choose these films as they are brilliant examples to discuss how woman are represented in these types of movies and what happens to them. These really are good films to show the representation of the female gender where in each they show the way females are brutally killed but also how they try and fight back despite their gender to save their life inside of their current situation. The films do relate very well to my theorists. The first theorist who I will go onto to discuss is- Carol Clover. Clover tends to look more at how female characters are portrayed inside of the horror films. She looks specifically at how maybe the female gender acts differently to how it is stereotypically seen by many in horror films. Clover is the critic behind what is known as the ‘Final Girl’ theory and looks at female characters with their role in narrative as being more aggressive fighters than weekless individuals. The ‘Final Girl’ by Carol Clover is seen to represent woman in horror films as Androgynous characters where when in horrific situations are willing to fight back instead of stand down as many people would see them as doing because of their gender. It goes against the stereotypical representation of the female gender and weakness and shows their aggressive attitude to stand up for themselves. It literally does relate to the final girl left in a horror movie willing to fight for her life.
This theory will relate to all of my analysing films. Firstly within The Crazies, again David is seen to have more power and Judy is seen as the victim more and not as powerful. However at times she fights back and shows her Androgynous features. When in the petrol station for example with David, she is alone whilst he goes off. She notices the mentally ill infect individuals coming into the petrol station and therefore hides. After firstly trying to save her life from one and escaping she does the same again where she hides in a room full of dead bodies. This doesn’t expose her to the infected and saves her life in the end and so therefore shows the way she runs and finds methods to save herself than just letting herself get killed. It is very similar with the girl inside of my second analysing film- Scream. Even though in the end she get’s killed she is still shown to fight for her life. When the chair gets thrown through the window she instantly picks up a knife in preparation to fight back. This shows her Androgynous attitude going against stereotypical female gender. She is also the final girl as she is the only girl in the house on her own fighting back. When she notices the killer with the mask through the window and he smashes it, she hits him in the face to fight back. He then chases her outside and stabs her where she still fights back hitting around the head with the phone and attempts to get away. As explained in the end she gets killed though. In Halloween this theory is shown by Michael Myers is hiding and waiting for every kill he commits which portrays the male character as a more dominant prowler and the women as a helpless damsel in distress. The theory is shown to relate more to his last attempt of killing in the film which was upon Laurie. He has already killed various females as well as a male inside of the films where he has leaped upon his victims out of disguise to murder them and none of the females have attempted to fight back. The theory relates extremely well infact with Laurie who Myers tries and kills lastly as she fights back. She is also actually the final girl left out of all in the film as he has killed the rest. When myers tries at kills her at first instance inside of her living room Laurie stabs him with a knitting needle. He falls to the ground in pain and lays still where she thinks she has killed him. She grabs her son and Marion’s daughter where she takes them upstairs. Myers seems to get up and walk upstairs again and tries to attempt to kill her again. She hides the children and places herself in a wardrobe. Myers in the end destroys the wardrobe and Laurie is shown to fight back, this time using a coat hanger. He falls to the ground again where she definitely think she’s killed him this time around and again in the end he gets back up. He comes from behind her and grabs her, where eventually he attempts to strangle her but again she is fierce and fights back. Dr Loomis comes to rescue shooting him to get him away. In my last film- My Bloody Valentine the same theory applies within a particular section which I would like to discuss. In the film, when Sarah and Megan are in the supermarket they are doing late night work when they think someone is there. The lights go off which make them scared even more and when trying to escape they come across the miner. He chases after them both, with sarah firstly where she ends up pinned against a fridge. She grabs some meat out of here and hits him around the head fighting back to save her life and again shows Androgynous attitude and goes against stereotypical female gender and how it is represented. She runs away and with the miner running behind her she trips and falls to the floor. He goes to hit her with the ax until Megan appears from around the corner with a floor mop hitting him to also fight back to save both of their lives.
The second theorist who I will now go onto discuss is Laura Mulvey. Mulvey worked around the theory of what was known as ‘the male gaze’ from her famous written essay-‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’. She suggested that much of commercial cinema puts the spectator into the overall position of a male, where particular camera strategies and movements make the man look upon the woman as a particular object inside of the film. The audience is literally seen to be put into the eyes of a male. I will now attempt to link this theory to my four analysing films. Firstly in the film- The Crazies I would say that Judy can be looked upon by males highly. When she is taken by the army she is tied down with other ill people on a bed. The army go away from the base and the mentally ill, viral infected individuals come into the base and infected room where Judy lays. An infected man with a large gardening fork is going around and killing people in the room. Camera movements are very low and slow when looking upon Judy struggling in terror where she lay and this makes the male gaze at her as an object and as if the spectator is in control. With the film- Scream, the camera tends to follow the final girl all around the house wherever she goes. It comes across as someone is watching her who is not there. It puts the audience into the eyes of the male watching her as she is also being watched from a male outside as well as inside which would be ourselves. The audience look upon her as an object again on her own and are spying on her in some kind of way like the murderer is outside. In Halloween at the very start there is a first person camera movement which is very important and links well to this theory. At the very start spectators are put into the eyes of Michael Myers who is the killer. This slow, unsteady camera movement of himself of course puts the audience instantly into the eyes of a male. As he kills his sister he also looks upon her as an object and with the audience being placed into his eyes it makes them and males look at her as an object overall too. With my final film My Bloody Valentine I will talk about the supermarket scene again. Megan and Sarah are on their own and the miner is quietly spying upon his victims like in Scream. The camera follows both girls around the supermarket as they try and find if someone is there and the spectators are placed into the eyes of a male seeing them as lonely objects trying to seek assurance when we all know what is happening. The male miner like explained tries to capture them where in the end he does.
Inside of the 70’s and 80’s there was a lot of feminist film theory. It was based from the woman’s liberation Movement which was a political movement born in the 1960’s from Second-Wave Feminism. The movement was based around equal rights for woman. Back many years ago marriages were arranged and woman were seen to be obedient to their husband. They were seen to bring up children and not work outside of the house cooking and cleaning every day ready for when the man of the house returns from his hard days work. The movement was to stop this and to allow woman what they would like to do in life going out and earning money themselves, as well as having equal rights and the same status as men. Within the 70’s and 80’s the feminist film theory worked around many filmmakers and studios dominating the industry and punishing woman inside of film. Many producers and studios would place repeated images and screen time of woman in the films in a way which wouldn’t represent their gender very well. They would show the woman in distress fighting for their lives and also getting killed.
Someone else I am going to discuss is Jeremy Tunstall. Tunstall argues that on screen woman stick to four main roles. These are: busy hose wives, contented mothers, eager consumers and also sex objects. He argues that they are used for just these roles and strictly nothing else at all. In The Crazies, Judy can maybe be seen as a future contended mother as she is pregnant and will soon be a mother. She can maybe also be shown as a housewife in the film where despite being a doctor she does try in many ways to play this role also. A good example is when they arrive home after escaping being quarantined the first thing which she intends to do is get in the laundry. In halloween woman are seen as more contended mothers as Laurie and also Marion have children and care for them highly. Overall the media represents male as the more fierce, stronger and overpowering gender. It is mainly shown through the way in which men outnumber woman on screen by the ratio of 2:1. Due to this men are mostly shown in their stereotypical role of having a job/career whilst the female gender/woman stay at home. Today in the media overall they are lot more aware and carful of the screen time given to both sex’s and make it more equal.
Overall I would say that I agree with Carol Clovers theory of ‘the final girl’ more out of my two theorys from my theorists. With Clovers theory I can apply it to all of my analysing films very well. It is such a true theory and in many horror films it shows woman fighting back for their lives instead of backing down like expected just because of the gender. With Laura Mulvey’s theory even though I related them to my films I found it harder to do this. I would say that Mulvey's theory doesn’t really apply in as many horror films as Clovers does and so I agree with Carol Clovers highly well over Mulvey's theory.
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