For years women were, almost without exception,
represented as weak, vulnerable characters, which would later be saved by the
male hero. This changed in the late 1970s, when directors like George A. Romero and Wes Craven were influenced by
social and political attitudes, including civil unrest and the growing feminist
movement, and so began to change the attitude that the American horror genre
held. This led to the addition of a new sort of female character who would not
only be proficient in defending herself, but would also seek out and terminate
the threat.
Stalk and Slash
Stalk and Slash style horror films were
exceedingly popular in America, are made in studios and have a formulaic
design. The vast majority of films of this kind follow a basic plot:
A group of teenagers, male and female, travel to
a remote place (could be the woods, could be a house) and make use of drugs and
alcohol, and are often promiscuous. Once they have indulged, they are murdered
by an unknown antagonist, one by one. As the ending approaches, there is only
one teen left, who is forced to confront the murderer alone and destroy the
threat. Once dead, the killer’s identity and reasons behind his intent are
revealed.
There is very little variation from this concept
within the sub-genre.
The core audience for Slasher films was
originally young men and teenage boys, which is thought to be due to the main
visual aspects of the genre: sustained scenes of female nudity and explicit
scenes of murder and violence. In fact, the great love
of gore prompted the development of new, increasingly graphic and gruesome
murder techniques- arrows through throats, chopped off limbs and extreme
beatings. The makeup artists and technical team would become famous amongst the
young males who subscribed to the genre.
James Rose, who wrote the article, upon which I focus,
for MediaMagazine, argued that, although they appear to just be for
entertainment purposes, films within the Slasher genre do hold a greater
significance. On one level, this is financial, as some characters, like Freddy Krueger from The Nightmare on Elm Street, became
iconic- this then led on to a franchise being formed, which had a sustained
narrative and provided a continuous revenue.
The social commentary within these films is not always noticed by the main audience, but, when the film is studied in greater depth, a moral driven concept is brought to the forefront: the killer often acts out due to the behaviour of the teenagers, who trespass and transgress social norms, suggesting that murder is a form of punishment, albeit an extreme one. This is also related to the hegemonic portrayal of teenagers as rowdy and rebellious, displaying the effects of not heeding the warning and teachings of parents, suggesting that the group is killed for wanting to be free from the constraints of the authoritative figures. Overall, this could mean that the message is an educational one: Don’t misbehave and listen to parental figures, or it could be one of revolt, against societal pressure and oppression.
The
Final Girl
This character is different from her peers,
she tends to be smarter, level-headed and morally pure- often recognising the
lack of morals within her peer group and refusing to behave in a similar manner
i.e. does not consume drugs or engage in sexual activity. The final girl is
also the first to notice that the group is in danger. At the start of the film,
this girl seems powerless, whilst her friends appear to empower themselves
through substance use, and younger, as she does not partake in typically ‘adult’
behaviour. This dynamic shifts once the murderer enters the narrative: The
Final Girl recognises the danger and attempts to create a plan, meaning that
she is the last survivor in the group (hence ‘Final’). The female then uses
cunning and wit in order to trap or challenge the killer. Eventually, she
murders him in a very climactic manner. There is conflict over the fact that the Final Girl, although female, shows many traits that are typically masculine- smart, logical, independent and strong- this is further highlighted by her choice of weapon e.g. knives, axes, machetes etc. By the end of the film the girl seems to have lost her powerlessness, becoming empowered through the destruction of the killer. The Final Girl is also responsible for causing a death that symbolically castrates the male killer- providing her with a dominant status.
Laurie Strode, from 'Halloween' is a classic Final Girl
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