K.H - Representations of women in horror | Group 3

Traditionally women were represented as weak characters who needed saving by the typically masculine hero, essentially filling the role of the “damsel in distress".
However, with the changing times such as the Vietnam War, race riots and the increasingly popular feminist movement.
Famous horror directors such as George Romero, Wes Craven and John Carpenter responded to world events.
Throughout the 70s women were re-positioned with the release of now well-known horror films such as Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) and Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)
Female characters became more independent, seeking out a threat themselves in order to destroy it.

Content:

Mark Whitehead in his book Slasher Films describes the stalk and slash genre as American in nature and extremely formulaic.
Nearly all entries into the genre follow the same plot, a mixed group of teenagers travel to a remote location where they are murdered one by one by a masked killer.
In the third act, the remaining member of the group must confront the antagonist and fight them alone, at which point the identity and motivation of the killer is revealed.

Audience:

Research found that the core audience was teenage boys and young men who watched for both the depiction of violent deaths and scenes of female nudity.
The popularity of the sub-genre led to the increasingly gory depiction of character deaths to maintain audience interest.

Significance of the sub-genre:

It is responsible for the creation of two highly recognisable horror icons, Freddie Krueger from The Nightmare on Elmstreet franchise and Jason Voorhees from the Halloween franchise
More notably however, some argue that there is a strong moral core to the sub-genre, as it is, on a basic level, based on the punishment of a group of people for either the trespassing upon special grounds, or for some kind of earlier wrong-doing
There is a case to be made that these films ultimately promote good morality to young people, as core plot serves as a kind of cautionary tale for giving into a desire to be free from the protection of society and their parents.

The Final Girl is widely recognised as a trope of the Slasher genre.
It involves a female character who is the most sensible member of her group of friends.
Carol J. Clover in her essay “Her Body, Himself” describes the character as “intelligent, watchful, level-headed”.
Typically she is morally pure and the first to identify the danger the group is in.
She ties into the moral idea behind stalk and slash movies as The Final Girl is depicted as the somewhat “powerless” in comparison with her more “adult” friends, but her sensibility helps her overcome the threat and defeat it.
Some, such as Clover, believe that the character becomes more masculine as the plot progresses, having to use a phallic weapon to kill the antagonist, such as knife, axe or chainsaw.
Some even suggest that through the act of murder The Final Girl becomes more mature herself and an “adult” on her own terms.

Some examples of The Final Girl trope: