It’s no secret that most horror films follow pretty specific formulas (varying somewhat depending on their sub-genres — slasher, supernatural horror, thriller, etc.)
In fact, the idea of the formulaic horror film was even parodied in the classic self-aware horror movie Scream, a movie so chock-full of meta-consciousness that it even started its own horror sub-genre: scary movies that feature characters who have seen all the scary movies.
But perhaps no horror movie cliche is more observed and understood than that of the Final Girl — the lone female who survives to the end of the movie, long after most of the other characters have been killed, and inevitably confronts whatever Big Bad may be threatening her. It is with this character that we have come to discover the term “Scream Queen.”
The phenomenon is particularly noteworthy given that most other movie genres still either mostly ignore female characters, or portray them in superficial or stereotypical ways.
Perhaps the Final Girl that sparked the current trend in horror is Laurie Strode, a young babysitter played by Jamie Lee Curtis who was stalked by a masked serial killer in John Carpenter’s terrifying masterpiece Halloween.
In many ways, Laurie is the prototypical Final Girl: she begins the story as a normal, unassuming young woman, a student in high school, in fact. She often questions her own abilities just in everyday life.
But when the going gets tough (and her friends get hacked and slashed), she discovers an inner strength she didn’t know she had and becomes capable of fighting back against the bad guy, and often succeeds in vanquishing him.
In fact, it almost sounds like your standard Hero Myth.
So does this make the horror genre, well … feminist?
It’s true that these movies sometimes include scenes of women being victimized, enduring things that male characters are rarely subjected to — and sometimes seemingly for the “entertainment” of the audience.
And let’s face it: these movies are almost always written and directed by men.
But unlike almost every other film genre, women are usually the “movers” in horror films — the protagonists, the central characters who drive the action.
What a concept!
Some even see a kind of feminist symbolism at work: the killers, who are almost always male, symbolize the misogynistic hatred that some men have for women, and are often armed with a knife or stabbing instrument — a representation of the phallus in its most violent form — which they then use to murder the Other (women) along with their own rivals (men).
The Final Girl, in order to defeat the Killer, must then assume a phallus of her own — grabbing a butcher knife from the kitchen, finding a shovel in the garage — that she then turns upon the owner of the true phallus, the Killer/Man.
Once the Killer is slain, the Final Girl will often look with revulsion on her murder weapon — a symbol of her momentary descent into masculinity — before she casts it aside, hoping to never be forced to wield it again.
In many ways, this is unabashedly pro-female. And yet usually these movies are targeted to young, adolescent males, with the promise of not only gratuitous gore, but the high probability of seeing a young woman topless.
But that’s specifically slasher films. What of horror films that deal with the supernatural?
Recently, there was a spate of horror films based on Japanese movies, such as The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water, etc. All of these films featured a woman as the protagonist who goes up against not a flesh and blood male killer, but evil spirits and ghosts.
Intriguingly, these films place the female’s intellect above all their other attributes — as the stories mostly involve them having to solve some sort of mystery in order to discover why they are being plagued by the restless evil dead.
But what about when women are also the antagonists? In 1968, Roman Polanski terrified the world with Rosemary’s Baby, a chilling demonic thriller about a young urban couple who move into a creepy old apartment building that hosts some eccentric neighbors.
Rosemary, played by Mia Farrow, soon becomes pregnant, and is attended by her elderly neighbor Minnie, who, it later turns out, is conspiring with just about everyone else in Rosemary’s life to help bring the devil’s child — Rosemary’s child — into the world.
Never was a kindly old woman creepier.
And in 1996, goth high school girls had their day in the sun (or, more likely, their day hiding from the sun) when The Craft opened in theaters. The film featured four girls, all outcasts, who spend their day learning spells and magic, which they use to their own selfish ends.
When one of the girls, Sarah, realizes the harm they might be doing, the alpha girl of the group, Nancy, turns the other two against her, and the suspenseful plot leads up to an all-out magical battle as the two girls take each other on.
Despite the stereotype of horror films being a guy’s-movie type of film, anyone who’s gone to see a horror film in the theaters in the past decade knows that girls and women are extremely well-represented in the audience, often outnumbering the men.
Why would this be? Well, women no doubt enjoy seeing other women on the screen in powerful roles, not as militant post-gender warriors, but as realistic women who become heroic when the situation calls for it. Duh.
Filmmakers, of course, know full well the price they must pay to be able to tell these “feminist” stories: in order to draw the adolescent boys into the theaters too, they have to offer more than a little gore and a female nipple or two.
But when you consider that in 2009, these female-driven stories still aren’t really being told anywhere else, well, that’s a price worth paying, don’t you think?
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Admittedly I’m a little late to bring up Buffy again, but there’s something I have to get off my chest. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a few students get frozen and they want to close the school. People are pulling their children out in droves. However, at Sunnydale High School, students and teachers die horrible deaths in every episode, or at least have something horrible happen to them. Let’s take a look back: In the episode Witch, Cordelia is struck blind, Buffy turns into a gibbering idiot, and Amy is lit on fire. Wait, there’s more. In the episode The Puppet Show, students get harvested for organs and Giles is almost decapitated. Wait, there’s more! In the episode The Pack, several students (Xander included) are possessed by hyenas, and Principal Flutie is eaten alive. And yet after all of this, people still flock back to Sunnydale High School where the three R’s stand for Ravaged, Reamed, and Ripped Apart.
Wait, was that too long of a rant?
And one more thing: that’s just from three episodes in the first season. I think I’ve made my point.
Eliza + Joss should be gold, but several friends from the US have warned me that the series might disappoint once it gets to NZ.
Say it aint so!
Not particularly about movies per se, but the Resident Evil line of video games. Basically they’re interactive horror movies. Every game features strong women (admittedly a little scantily-clad), but who fight better than most males. Not in the terms of what you describe above, in that they fight when they have to and don’t want to again, but special agents who live for it, will stand and fight, and will damn sure do it again. They are strong, confident, and break the mold. If video games can change, there may be hope for movies after all. Also, Ralph, Buffy is the greatest show ever and Joss Whedon is God.
Lol Chip.
I was watching some interviews with Patrick Rothsfuss online (and if you haven’t read his “The Name of the Wind” you should, it’s great), and in one of the clips he was wearing a shirt that read “Joss Whedon is my God now”
Hey, the man knows how to write a scifi/action/fantasy/horror/teen/comedy/epic show. What can I say.
I thought that too, until DOLLHOUSE.
I kid. I’m still a fan!
Is i wrong that I haven’t seen a single episode of Dollhouse?
I don’t think Eliza’s aging well, and quite frankly, I blame the smoking.
ATTN: ELIZA DUSHKU:
STOP SMOKING!!!
Ok it’s bad enough to mis-quote an author but to mis-quote a T-shirt? I should be flogged!
Patrick’s t shirt reads “Joss Whedon Is My Master Now”.
http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/author.asp
Seriously it’s a great fantasy novel despite the hype.
I’d still jump the fence for Eliza.
I don’t think the nipples-and-gore are just an incidental “price” for the Final Girl. I think horror movies play out this whole game where *one* girl gets to be the “special” one, smart and capable and heroic and able to defeat an evil male villain, but she’s made special exactly by not being like other women. Other women are literal bodies splayed out to be stared at, whether we mean living naked boobs or dead slashed-apart bodies. They’re meaningless except as meat, and then the movies supply a character that women can identify themselves with who is Not Like All the Others. In my mind, it’s inherently anti-feminist to encourage individual women to feel special and successful through how different they are from all those other disposable female bodies that exist for male entertainment. One of the things that I thought made Scream really special and successful is that the Pretty Blonde Victim characters — the Barrymore and McGowan characters — were also basically likeable women that a viewer could relate to as easily as Sydney, and the trilogy had two female survivors instead of one. Sydney was a great character, but she wasn’t presented as the one and only woman on the universe who had thoughts and courage.
You’re painting with far too wide a brush. First, EVERY movie presents its main character as “special” — that’s why they’re the main character. We’re don’t see the stories of the other characters because they’re not as interesting/capable. Duh. As for any other anti-feminist message, it completely depends on the movie. But the fact is, horror movies do make female characters active and central to the action, unlike almost every other genre. That’s why so many young women are drawn to them.
As much as I’d like to say I believe it was so, I don’t think that the “Final Girl” staple of the genre is a particualrly strong feminist statement being made by moviemakers. As “Scream” rather pointedly highlighted, the Final Girl usually only survives by virtue of keeping her virginity.
Sex = Death isn’t a particularly affirming statement to be sending to young girls. You can be smart and resourceful and survive if you *dont* have sex, but the minute you do become overtly sexual, you immediately become fair game for any psycho with a chainsaw/knife/fish-hook/hockey mask. You could almost frame it in terms of the ultimate attempt by men to control female sexuality. Or not. :)
I love horror movies but I wish more of them were like Buffy (okay I pretty much wish everything was written by Joss Whedon or Alan Ball but thats just me). Joss specifically set out to over-turn the idea that a girl *has* to be the victim in a horror movie. She can rescue herself, empower herself, and she can look hot doing it too — if she wants to.
He was very literal about it - when Buffy first had sex with Angel he turned back into the Angelus of old and set out to punish Buffy. Message? if a woman has sex she should be punished.
So Buffy killed him. Message? Suck on that! I can have sex and still be a kick ass strong chick who can save the world.