Media Coursework Production Evaluation ( 760 Words )

Everyone loves to watch a good horror film. Whether the effects in the movie are really gory or extremely unsettling, these nail-biting experiences are what give the audience a thrill as they try to peel their eyes away from the screen. The concept of these movies is to give the viewers a good scare, one that will have them glancing over their shoulders or double checking if their doors are locked at night for the next week. This genre has been around since the late nineteenth century, but horror movies did not gain much popularity until the 1930s. Modern day horror films have evolved from its beginnings, but the elements in a horror movie are consistent regardless of time.

Horror has long been about tales of heroic men fighting monsters (whether it be human or inhuman) and saving damsels in distress. Women were mostly used as eye candy, victims of violence or only to further the plight of the leading man. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that women in horror movies started to have more power in horror movies. This was majorly due to the rise of feminism, the female protagonists were fighting back which lead to the rise of the ‘final-girl’ archetype – the ‘final-girl’ being the only one surviving at the end of the film having outsmarted the killer. The final girl not only promotes feminism but also a reflection of the values in our

In this piece, Carol Clover portrays a new pattern in horror cinema where the “man in charge” is eliminated, such as by being killed, and the female is left to be on her own and fend for herself. When she makes her argument, she states that the audience generally associates themselves with their own gender. The man will support the man character, and the woman will support the woman character. It can also be said that genders can cross when supporting characters; the male can support the female character and vice versa. Clover’s purpose for writing Her Body, Himself was to better understand a social or cultural phenomena in slasher films.

Men and women have played gender specific roles, from the earliest sign of civilization to modern society. In the cult classic “Night of the Living Dead”, stereotypical gender role were on display. George A. Romero’s film hinted at subtle references to the responsibilities of men and women and depicted the stereotypes America held during the 1960s. Men played the protectors and enforcers, while the women represented the submissive homemakers and caretakers. Romero’s film portrays the sexes, men and women, in their respective stereotypical behaviors. Stereotypes that sets the undertone for the duration of the film.

The Siskel and Ebert Halloween Review from 1978 shows how they like how the movie shows how the female character is seen as intelligent, brave and smart. The way the two men spoke about how they felt about the film gave a feminist critic. They were able to put them self in her shoes and think about how they might of felt in that scenario. They see the film as up and positive and see the movie for the film qualities other than the depressing killing. The film focused on film qualities, where the mood, lighting, music and camera angle all played roll in creating the feeling where one can feel that the female actor out smart the bad masked man.

This paper will look at how the movies portray women in a way that women can relate to regardless if it’s an insulting

Many horror films provide their audiences with scares and screams.  Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers.  However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s essay, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s.  The model that is a female is featured as a primary character and that the female tends to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film to become victorious.

In the media, gender is stereotypically represented by splitting both men and women into two categories. Within these categories are specific traits that have led women to become represented as inferior to men. Women are presented as sexual, emotional and dependant while men are portrayed as strong, reliant and independent. This causes males in the media to be the "hero" who has the capabilities to take on the active roles while women deal with the passive roles. The representation of both genders significantly influence the way that the horror genre is portrayed in today 's movies (Santili, 2007). A prime example is

Horror movies throughout history have been known to have their cheesy storylines or continuous bad acting. Especially horror movies. People nowadays could easily spot the flaws in a film and judge them drastically in reviews. Yet, little do people notice the ongoing discrimination between genders. Horror films tend to portray males and females substantially differently because of stereotypical views. There seems to be a pattern in which each gender takes a certain role in a movie continuously. Females are shown to be “objects” such as sex and emotional symbols, while males are shown as strong or powerful and moreover as the main bad guy. Although some of the newer edition films of the horror genre are displaying each gender more and more equal throughout the ongoing years, the gender discrimination dilemma still exists and can be seen by the statistics in the movie industry in general.

Creed, B. 1999. Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection. Feminist Film Theory, a Reader, edited by. Sue Thornham. New York: New York U P.

Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.

According to Freud, as human beings we are driven by these two instincts, which balance each other out. Considering the fact that the life drive prevents humans from completely giving in to the death drive, other means of expression for this darkness is sought out in horror novels, games and films. Horror films are one of the most lucrative of all other genres and it is also the most difficult to succeed in mastering. One clear aspect of almost every early horror film is the guarantee of an over sexualized female character. According to Laura Mulvey in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative cinema” this exploitation of the female form is something she refers to as the “Male Gaze.”

Since the inventions of television and film, media influences have become extremely important in modern society with people constantly being inundated by images and messages that come from film, television, magazines, internet and advertising. Researchers and theorists such as Carol J. Clover and Jean Kilborne believe that the fact that people are going to be affected by the media is absolutely unavoidable. Films can act as guides to how people, particularly women, should act and look. Women in horror are typically shown as the ‘damsel in distress’ and are usually attacked by the killer after committing a sinful act like having sex or misusing drugs or alcohol. The females are

For this research, I would focus on the type of audience attracted to horror films, and the reason why certain group of individuals like horror films more than others. There are significant genders and age differences between horror film audiences. The types of horror films i.e. supernatural or slasher, is also a contributing factor in attracting different types of audiences. I have identified different opinions regarding horror films in my research so far. Some of these include inducing scare being the primary motive behind horror films, how feminist movements over the course of last few decades have influenced the way women are depicted in horror films, how overly sexualized imagery of women in contemporary horror films attracts male audience

Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.