JB: Reading Source 1 - Gender Representation

When, and in what way were women repositioned within the horror genre?

Marylin Burns as Sally Hardesty in
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974). © Bryanston Pictures

During the 1970s, American horror cinema changed significantly as many directors responded to politics at the time (such as the Vietnam war and the growing Feminist movement) and incorporated these newly found views of women into their productions.
Previously, women were represented as weak characters, who could only be saved by a dominant masculine hero when faced with a threat - reinforcing the negative stereotype of women at this time. Films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) and Halloween (Carpenter, 1978) began to reposition the role of female characters within the genre as ‘the horrors at home’ became a more popular sub-genre of horror - allowing women to no longer be weak and incapable of self defence, but now not only able to protect themselves, but actively seek the threat and tackle it.

Scream (Craven, 1996). © Dimension Films

What are the conventions of the 'stalk and slash' subgenre of horror?

Almost all American studio ‘stalk and slash’ films follow the same premises and basic plot: a group of mixed-sex teenagers travelling to a location far away from their homes to indulge in drink, drugs and sex. After this, an unknown (and often masked) killer slowly murders each character one by one, and in order to survive the remaining teenagers must overcome the killer themselves - at which point their identity and motivations are revealed to us as the audience.

Who originally watched these films and why?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984).  © New Line Cinema.

The core audience for these films were teenage boys and young men with two key visual elements attracting them to the film - graphic depictions of assault and murder, as well as sustained female nudity. As a result of this, Slasher films had to find more gory ways to kill their cast - now moving to graphic scenes of arrows being pushed through throats or eyes being popped out of their sockets.

This not only sustained audience interest, but also increased popularity of special make-up effect technicians and their particular work as if they were celebrities.
Two of perhaps the most famous icons of horror referred to were Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th series (1980-2009) and Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984) - both seemingly indestructible characters who would be viewed as horror icons for years to come.
Despite the graphic content of the films, these originate from the same basic idea. Whitehead states that “the killer is punishing the group either for trespassing upon its territory or is avenging an earlier wrong perpetrated by that group or a group that they symbolically represent.”

This is linked to America’s puritan (English Reformed Protestant) past which emphasised ‘the sanctity of home and family, and the taming of the wilderness’ - meaning that the murders committed are extreme punishment for disobeying social norms, teenagers violate the moral codes of their parents whilst free from the strict and watchful eyes of their parents.

What is the concept of 'the final girl'?  Summarise and give examples

Constructed by Carol J. Clover and prevented in her influential essay ‘Her Body, Himself’ (published 1987), ‘The Final Girl’ is a term used to describe the soul female survivor of numerous slasher films.

The final girl is seen to be:

• Smarter and more conscientious than their peers
• Intelligent, level-headed and watchful
• Morally ‘pure’ - not engaging in drug-taking, drinking or sexual liaison
• The first to recognise the inherent threat of danger and the lack of morals that her peers have.

As a result of this, The Final Girl is subtly pictured to be a potentially weak character who is threatened by their friends’ ‘adult’ activities, yet when the killer begins their acts of violence, the character steadily becomes the only one who is able to overcome the threat.

Once the killer is trapped and confronted, the final girl will often be seen to brutally use her weapon to impale the male killer, removing the masculinity of the characters through the removal of their limbs or heads. By killing the threat, the final girl fulfils the narrative’s desire for normality to be returned - and we as the audience see the shift from a weak/passive aggressive female into a strong/aggressive male.

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