Representation of women in horror

Representation of women in horror films

This essay will look at the representation of women in horror films, looking closely at two theorists. Along with these theories, a number of films will also be referenced as examples or for comparison purposes. Films that will be used as examples in this essay are Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978), The Crazies (Rahda Mitchell, 2010), The Thing (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 2011) and The Descent (Shauna Macdonald, 2005). These movies apply to one, both or neither of the theories, making them fitting examples.

 Carol Clover is the first theorist that will be mentioned, Clover is responsible for publishing the “Final Girl” theory. This theory applies to all of my selected examples in some form, though some more than others. Essentially, the theory relates to the one girl that survives at the end of the film, making her the final girl, and Clover’s theory also shows some of the stereotypical traits of this girl (slightly masculine, often a virgin, well behaved and pays attention). Before the final girl, it was often shown as males rescuing a damsel in distress; this shows how attitudes in film have changed. Halloween’s final girl is Laurie Strode, who follows all of the traits that Clover had listed, she is virginal and more masculine than her friends (she is not as feminine in the way she acts and presents herself), she avoids adult activities like sex and drinking though there is an exception when Laurie and Annie were smoking, what we can safely assume was not a standard cigarette. The Crazies does not have a final girl exactly, but one female does survive with the help of her husband and because of this is the least relatable of the four. It is not just that her husband helped her survive that makes this film less relatable, it is also the fact that we are not certain that she does survive, at the end of the film she is alive but the ending implies that the containment protocol would result in the destruction of another town and no doubt their deaths. The Thing is similar to Halloween in the sense that it can be related to the final girl theory very easily, Kate Lloyd is intelligent but tough. It is her who figures out the “thing” cannot duplicate non-organic material and potentially saving lives. Finally, The Descent ends with Sarah being the final girl. She is the most unstable of the friends due to the death of her husband and daughter, but this causes her tougher personality.

Laura Mulvey is the theorist who is responsible for theorising the “Male Gaze”. The male gaze is the use of cinematic techniques to put viewer in the place of a male who looks at a female in a particular way. This theory is much more difficult to apply to the chosen films as there is very little or no evidence of the male gaze in some of the films. In Halloween, the male gaze exists as Michael Myers stares through watching Annie get (un)dressed, but very little evidence exists in other areas. The Crazies shows no evidence of the male gaze; this is likely to due to the mass destruction rather than the single killer that we see in Halloween. Amidst all of the chaos, realistically there would be little time for the male gaze to fit in appropriately. The Thing also does not use the male gaze throughout, there is a feeling of distrust throughout the film and so none of the characters would allow themselves to be distracted in such a situation, because it would most certainly lead to death.  Finally, The Descent, for the most part only includes a female group of friends and because of this there are many opportunities to include the male gaze. A vast amount of the film is underground, featuring the group of female friends and the only POV style shots we see are those from their camera (which at times becomes their only way to navigate in the dark, quite typical of the genre). The group are all wearing practical, yet tight clothes which contribute to the male gaze.

The two theories are very different when compared to one another and each will relate to a film more easily dependant on the sub-genres. Clover’s theory seems to be more commonly applicable to movies within the horror genre whereas Mulvey’s theory may be more easily applied to another genre. Perhaps this would be different if films from an earlier age were used. The main difference between the two theories is that Clover’s shows women on camera to be powerful and often intelligent against their pursuer given they follow the criteria to be the final girl, whereas Mulvey states that the majority of women featured on camera in horror films are just objects to be looked at, rather than characters themselves. Based on this, Clover’s theory would be looking at women in the horror genre in a positive light were and Mulvey would be the opposite, which is clearly negative.

Given my selected films and how easily they can relate to each of the two theories, I believe that Carol Clover and the “Final Girl” theory appears more often in horror films than the male gaze, my selected films show some evidence of this, more of them could apply to the final girl theory than they could to the male gaze. Only one of the four films could be easily related to the male gaze, this could be coincidence from choices or it could be that it is just less common. I do not think that the horror genre shows the female characters in a negative way, there are some exceptions which might as with any genre but for the most part they are relatively equal in representation when compared to the male characters. Clover’s theory has changed critical attitude (as it intended) and women can prevail just as often as survivors as men do, it is not always males saving females in horror anymore.