Women In Horror

[blocaddict]

I am doing a critical research project on how women are portrayed in horror films. As part of a research it has been suggested i join a forum to gain other peoples views, to back up my hypotheses. Hope your willing to give your thoughts!

I am researching how traditional horror (up to the 70's) generally vicimizes women, whereas contemporary horror is representing women women as empowered and stongwilled. your thoughts please...
I have read Carol Clovers book 'men women and chainsaws', has anyone else, what did you think?

Anyone seen Carrie (1976) or Ginger Snaps (2000)?

how does feminism play a part in horror films?

What films do you feel victimise women, and what films do you feel empower women?

[bleeding_angelgirl]

iv seen carrie and iv seen ginger snaps all of them

[bloody_ribcut]

victimise - the devil's reject's, the last house on the left


empowers- the texas chainsaw massacre, cujo

[blocaddict]

I have heard of last house on the left...quite an old one? What happens in it?

[AmericanManiac]

victimize - the devil's reject's, the last house on the left


Right there is what it's about nothing fills me with terror then that, shit. What happens in it ? Kidnap, tourcher, rape

edit: can't forget the home invasions!

[bleeding_angelgirl]

sounds like my dreams

[stenchofdeath]

Films that i think victimise women: The Hills Have Eyes- in the caravan, Silent Hill- barbed wire in the church, The Stepford Wives- women the victims of the mens organization, Evil Dead- The girl raped in the forest by the tree. Empower: Aliens- Ripley with the huge blaster, The Wicker man- The island mostly controlled by women.

[DP McCoy]

Check out Audition(1999) and Switchblade Romance aka Haute Tension aka High Tension(2003).

[ferretchucker]

The Halloween saga does both. It has the innocent little damsel in distress who eventually (20 years later) fights back. many films use the woman as the weaker one who is the focus of the main character to get back. But often in these films, at one poin (usually during a fight scene near the end) that woman will show her darker, stronger side. It all really dates back hundreds of years when women were the one who had to cower in the house when the men fought. Although women are just as strong and sometimes stronger, the attitude that women are weak still remains. But i think the majority of films have at least one point when a woman fights back.

[bloodrayne]

The Wicker man- The island mostly controlled by women.That's the remake...The original isn't like that

[ferretchucker]

That's the remake...The original isn't like that

ah, Christopher Lee. Scaramanger, Saruman, dracula. Never has he looked as funny as he did with that long hair and those clothes in the wicker man.

[Doc Faustus]

Feminism plays a big part in horror films, I would say, although it's often a juvenile sort of feminism. Succubi aren't really feminist. In fact, they've stemmed from a fear of female power. A lot of movies are about this. I would say the most mature explorations of feminism in horror have been those of Dario Argento. When it comes to women, he has more hang ups than Fellini, but he has the guts to explore them. Every view of womanhood and feminism appears in his movies. Check out Phenomena for female empowerment. A girl uses her primal feminine connection to nature to save herself. Over the course of his films, female characters evolve and gain autonomy. The ending of Opera is another such instance. It's pretty impressive, because Italian culture is more than a little misogynistic. Hammer movies also have hints of burgeoning feminism AND the cultural resistance to it . Sexual politics can become a real, fleshed out source of horror in these films. The original Wicker Man also has some feminist sub text as well. A man from a conservative culture deals with sexually liberated women who lack inhibitions. Feminism and the generation gap play out really well in that movie. Texas Chainsaw Massacre shows a woman being very resilient, and another example of intergenerational conflict playing out and showing resistance to feminist ideology.