Typically the man has been portrayed as the killer or dominant figure in horror movies throughout the past few decades, they are usually the ones who victimise the women in all sorts of ways.
Women are molded into a certain part and usually are seen in this light during horror movies, an example of this would be Laurie from the Halloween franchise who is in need of saving throughout the film from the hands of Michael Myers but manages to survive.
The film industry portrays women in different ways, in the past and in the present alot of films make the female the coward, scared, useless female who needs the help of a dominant man. This is not the case in such modern day films such as Resident Evil where Alice has to fight through hordes of zombies, using guns and standing in a sexy threatening stance on the from cover of the film poster. She wears a pretty dress to create the male gaze and holds a gun to pose her dominance to the audience.
Theorists such as Roth talks about how films portray women as "marinal, pathetic figures" as they aged. Helfrod writes about how "mainstream films goers witnessed anti-feminist backlash and politically/psychoanalytically ambiguous contemplation of how women are stereotyped and put into gender roles. Females are stereotyped across many genres in completely different ways which needs to be explored, especially in the horror genre.
In alot of films they have the attractive female running around a dark house half naked with the murderer playing mind games with her to frighten her even more, this keeps the audiences focus and allows for suspense. Alot of scenes actually involve some sexual activity before the murder scene actually takes place, the killer also usually eliminates the dominant figure first which is normally the man and leaves the women defenceless making her run in a cat and mouse situation with the killer. We know the chase will eventually end, normally ending with the killer victorious, but the occasion switch where the victim injures the killer and disrupts the chase. They are normally given the chance to escape but all their exits are either blocked or locked, there is no hope left for them.
Women are molded into a certain part and usually are seen in this light during horror movies, an example of this would be Laurie from the Halloween franchise who is in need of saving throughout the film from the hands of Michael Myers but manages to survive.
The film industry portrays women in different ways, in the past and in the present alot of films make the female the coward, scared, useless female who needs the help of a dominant man. This is not the case in such modern day films such as Resident Evil where Alice has to fight through hordes of zombies, using guns and standing in a sexy threatening stance on the from cover of the film poster. She wears a pretty dress to create the male gaze and holds a gun to pose her dominance to the audience.
Theorists such as Roth talks about how films portray women as "marinal, pathetic figures" as they aged. Helfrod writes about how "mainstream films goers witnessed anti-feminist backlash and politically/psychoanalytically ambiguous contemplation of how women are stereotyped and put into gender roles. Females are stereotyped across many genres in completely different ways which needs to be explored, especially in the horror genre.
In alot of films they have the attractive female running around a dark house half naked with the murderer playing mind games with her to frighten her even more, this keeps the audiences focus and allows for suspense. Alot of scenes actually involve some sexual activity before the murder scene actually takes place, the killer also usually eliminates the dominant figure first which is normally the man and leaves the women defenceless making her run in a cat and mouse situation with the killer. We know the chase will eventually end, normally ending with the killer victorious, but the occasion switch where the victim injures the killer and disrupts the chase. They are normally given the chance to escape but all their exits are either blocked or locked, there is no hope left for them.
Men tend to watch horror films to see the women be objectified and lacking in intelligence in order to survive. The women in these situations are stereotyped as needy women who wont be able to live. They need the help of others in order to survive or to slow down their untimely death.
The main reason that we watch horror movies is to get scared, its not to educate and can entertain some audiences or viewers. The screams, disgusting appearances of the killers, the victims and the gore lure people into cinemas and theatres.
The slasher horror film genre seem to victimise women alot more than any other time of horror, not only though are the women victims in a film they can play the largest part into being the monster of the film and can end up being alot scarier than an axe wielding male. Examples of this are young girls who are used to scare the audience in such films such as 'The shining' where the twin girls are used. Other recent films such as
'The last exorcism' where an innocent girl is impregnated with a devil child but is not known until later in the film. When is strange she is very scary and can really keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Aviva Briefel's theory is that the horror spectators compassion for the killers have to do with a 'gendered system of identification'. This means that the viewers expect to see a male killer whereas a female murderer has underlying issues and a male is likely to be the source of her anger.
The main reason that we watch horror movies is to get scared, its not to educate and can entertain some audiences or viewers. The screams, disgusting appearances of the killers, the victims and the gore lure people into cinemas and theatres.
The slasher horror film genre seem to victimise women alot more than any other time of horror, not only though are the women victims in a film they can play the largest part into being the monster of the film and can end up being alot scarier than an axe wielding male. Examples of this are young girls who are used to scare the audience in such films such as 'The shining' where the twin girls are used. Other recent films such as
'The last exorcism' where an innocent girl is impregnated with a devil child but is not known until later in the film. When is strange she is very scary and can really keep the audience on the edge of their seats.Aviva Briefel's theory is that the horror spectators compassion for the killers have to do with a 'gendered system of identification'. This means that the viewers expect to see a male killer whereas a female murderer has underlying issues and a male is likely to be the source of her anger.
Literature review
The horror movie franchise portrays females as paranoid, sexually, defiant, having abject terror personified, and is very often victimized. There are many studies conducted on the topic of females in horror movies, with the concentration on the term 'final girls' which was coined by Carol Clover in her book 'men, women and chain saws : Gender in the modern horror film'.
Females are shown as venerable, highly sexualized and not intelligent. When on the rare occasion a female is playing the role of a murderer it is normally the male that has drove them to this. Women are objectified and controlled by the male driven society, women play a huge part in the male desire becoming the erotic spectacle.
The horror movie franchise portrays females as paranoid, sexually, defiant, having abject terror personified, and is very often victimized. There are many studies conducted on the topic of females in horror movies, with the concentration on the term 'final girls' which was coined by Carol Clover in her book 'men, women and chain saws : Gender in the modern horror film'.
Females are shown as venerable, highly sexualized and not intelligent. When on the rare occasion a female is playing the role of a murderer it is normally the male that has drove them to this. Women are objectified and controlled by the male driven society, women play a huge part in the male desire becoming the erotic spectacle.
The men hold most of the power in situations which leads the women to to be forced to do as their told or risk losing their lives. The male gaze keeps the women secondary to the men.
Mary Blewett revealed that the 'classic female victim is hopelessly naive and passive' and in need of saving by the male. Even the final girls in films need to be saved sometimes, such as the end of a movie where a passer by picks up the female e.g. The Texas chainsaw massacre.
Paranoia is a characteristic of the women in horror, she is the one looking behind her back when she walks down a dark alley, questioning authority, and labelled an outcast. This paranoia constantly makes them cautious of their surroundings. Most, if not all females that are present in sequels survive because of questioning authority.
This trait in a horror film can be used as a survival skill and enables her to escape death, for the whole film or for the time being.
Females are portrayed negatively using sex in horror films and can sometimes be deadly. Their sexual nature or appearance can lead a man on or cause him to be aggressive leading to bad results.
Another characteristic of the female in horror is terror, the terror that a female feels after finding out who the villain is and to ultimately find out that they are going to be a victim is exposed in horror movies.
The females that are seen to have survived in horror films are usually the tom boy type who have a bit of masculinity and can fend for themselves. These masculine like females are not seen with boys or involving in sexual activity and are normally the good students, whereas the stupid blonde haired women stereotype will be killed off due to their stupidity.
Method
This study explores the various ways women are portrayed in specific female stereotypical roles in horror movies.
There have been previous studies conducted that looked at sex and violence in horror movies, with emphasis on how males and females are shown during sex scenes. Following the analysis of 1990's slasher films by Sapolsky, Molitor, and Luque, this study selects fifthteen movies, rather than the ten selected in their previous study, in the horror genre and critically views them, with the help of coders. The results showed that 'females were shown in fear significantly longer than were males'.
Slasher films have been seen to focus on the distress of women, targeting violence and sexual violence towards them.
A final study that was looked at was conducted by Linz and Donnerstein (1994) and it looked at “30 slasher films released in 1980, 1985, and 1989.” The findings indicated that “slasher films present violence in a sexual context that uniquely targets women” (Linz and Donnerstein 1994). Of all the previously mentioned studies, none of them primarily focus on the portrayal of the female character herself in horror movies. The researchers do not go into details about how the character is constructed, how she associates with others, and how her survival or death is determined. This study focuses on those ideas and looks into the female in horror films.
A content analysis of fifteen horror movies from 1986 to 2006 will be selected. These movies will be selected from the top grossing full-length feature films of each year in the horror genre. From the top three choices of each year, a panel of ten judges will select the fifteen final films which will be analyzed. They will make their decision based upon the viewing of “in-depth synopses of each film” and which films are categorized into the horror genre, with an emphasis on slasher films (Weaver III 1991). The sample will include sequels to previously produced and released movies. The data will be analyzed by hand and categorized according to the different ways that females are coded as being portrayed. Conclusions will be made according to the results and it will be discussed as to the possible reasons why and how females are stereotyped in horror movies. By taking a variety of different movies from the horror genre, the study can shed light on the common stereotypical roles that women play in these films. Over the course of the twenty year period that this study covers, it will show how the portrayal of female characters has evolved, or rather, slightly changed if at all.
The unit of analysis for this investigation is the female character, which can be defined as a girl or woman who plays a part or role, as in film. For each female character that is present in the selected horror movie, a coder will record how she is portrayed while in the scene. The coding scheme for this study will place each female character into one or more of these categories: (a) sexual (engaging in sexual activities or behaviors), (b) violent (defending herself by inflicting pain upon another), (c) innocent (does not provoke violence unto herself), (d) aggressor (becomes violent for a reason other than self-defense), (e) victim (she is brutalized, tortured, or killed) and/or (f) other (which will be written as needed). The coders will collect this data and it will be analyzed after the viewing and coding of the fifteen selected horror movies.Discussion
This study has its strengths. It can bring the audience’s attention to the underlying characterization of women in horror movies. The audience can begin to develop the skills to critically view all movies. The study can give people a better understanding as to why and how female characters are developed and portrayed in a certain light, in many cases. Females in the horror genre of films haven’t been thoroughly explored and this study can venture into new ways of looking at the genre as a whole.
There are limitations to the study. By selecting only fifteen horror movies to view and code, it bears results that can be less than accurate. The method of selecting these movies can cause invalidity because top-grossing movies may not be the main culprits of negative portrayals of female characters. In order to get a full understanding of a particular topic, a large sample should be used. This is not the case in the study because of possible time constraints and overlapping data. Overall, the study can be beneficial, if done according to specific specifications.
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