Representaion of women in horror films

Representaion of women in horror films

I will be investigating onto the representation of women surrounding them in horror films. Women are typically seen as the weaker character of the cast when it comes to horror, only to be killed off first too. But without the stereotype of all women being useless we have the women who are included to become the 'Final Girl' and the 'Male Gaze' women. However the women included in the films are usually a young women around the age of 18-25, to portray an idea of naivety and loneliness. 

Within the films there is usually a female character built for 'Male Gaze'.Laura Mulvey first adopted this theory in 1975 as she believed the audience had to view the characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.  Male gaze is where a womens body is exploited in a sexual way to sell the products, thus attracting the males into watching the film due to watching the women involved, hence the name male gaze.  With the gaze it shows women more as objects than people, nothing more than something nice to look at. It is also represented will in the long body shots used, panning up and down, concentrating on the womans slim figure, curves and big bust. 

A classic examples of 'Male Gaze' is the clip included above. It sums up how they are used to sell women and sell them to the audience to attract more viewers.

On the complete opposite of the male gaze, we have the 'Final Girl' theory. The theory was created in 1992 by Carol Clover where it flips the use of a final girl theory and turns it to a masculine women point of view, compared to the glamorous female character which stereotypically gets injured or killed first, they tend to be the strong willed character and dress very masculine and not tending to show any flesh off. With the final girls theory the viewer starts the film by sharing the perspective of the killer, but eventually shifts over to the final girl side to watch her survive. A typical film including a final girl survival attempt is in the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where the character named Sally Hardesty survives the onslaught that the main horror character throws her way. She starts by travelling across rural Texas with some friends and discover a family of bloodthirsty cannibals living nearby. Eventually the cast is plucked off one by one, until the final girl, Sally, is left. The end of the film is a full 30 minute epic battle between Sally and the family where she eventually does escape. Breaking through several windows and sprinting from houses and hitching lifts shows a women in light that is never shown in horror films surrounding women before. Although throughout the film she is screaming and shouting her way out of trouble with the characters, she eventually makes her way onto a main road and escapes from the ongoing battle, surviving from a whole demented family fighting for her blood, making her one of the best final girl characters around.

Here is the final clip of Sally escaping from the family house, breaking out from the stereotypical girl model and becoming the final strong willed girl character that is rarely portrayed in horror films.  

Another female character in a horror film is Kelly Brook, who starred in Piranha 3D as the character 'Danni Arslow'. the 2010 comedy horror surrounded partying teens hitting off to spring break where her and her friends head off too. She is portraying a long haired brunette and brown eyed figure, but who also has a busty and curvy figure, backing up the 'Male Gaze' theory. However she is one of the final characters to be killed in the film, showing parts of the 'Final Girl' theory too, her death was caused by trying to cross a rope over the water, but Piranhas started to latch onto her hair and drag her down, eventually jumping on her back and face only to eat away at her eyes, ultimately to fall into the depths of the lake. 

One more female character that I discovered was Nancy Archer, Played by Allison Hayes in the film 'Attack of the 50 Foot Woman'. She portrays a wealthy but troubled woman. Seen driving on a road when a a glowing ball in her vision causes her to veer off the road, when getting out to investigate she is greeted by a giant alien. Terrified, she runs back to town but unfortunately no one believes her story of a supernatural creature greeting her. She then tells her husband of the story and he pretends to believe and plays a good husband role and helps look for the creature, doubtful of there being any findings. Searching in the woods for the creature they eventually find the alien to his surprise, who fires a pistol but has no effect, fleeing and leaving Nancy with the creature. 

Nancy is later found on her pool roof and minutes later, has grown into the 50ft giant that the movie is surrounded by. It isn't very often that the main horror character is a woman, not following the conventional steps of a horror template, and having her attack the city too. They try to keep her in a coma to prevent any attacking but when awoken, she unleashes an attack on her unfaithful fleeing husband for leaving her and having an affair.It is very unusual in a horror film for the women to be searching to attack a male, yet again not following the script. It shows a woman as the main horror character rather than having them being chased to be either killed first or being chased last, it puts a twist on the usual women horror era. 

Overall the representation of women has its stereotypical defenceless and helpless women that appear in some horror movies but it also shows the brave woman standing up for herself and fighting back included too. The three characters that I have looked at all show different qualities that horror conventions show and the reasons why are all different too. Either for sex appeal, to survive or to kill is what I have noticed. Women are being seen as equal characters in more up to date modern films, seen to be able to control their lives and fend for their own rather than having a dominant male having to fight their battles, shown in several films too.