For my A2 Media exam i am researching the female representation in the Horror Genre over the last 50 years. My study starts from analysing Psycho. I was just wondering on your views, do you think women representation has changed and if so how i.e. appearence, role etc.
Thanks alot for your help.
Chris Tomkins. (www.christomkins.co.uk)

Female representation in the Horror genre has definately gone through changes since Psycho. A film which itself caused many of the changes in the genre. Before it, women were seen as helpless victims and under a threat from which only a male 'hero' can protect her. Since it's release, and furthermore with the release of Halloween, women are increasingly seen as the active protagonists who must themselves face the 'hero's journey' and have the final confrontation with the usually masculine threat, but only if they are moral and virginal. If not... they're dead meat. Because the Horror genre is also highly reactionary, and arguably this also began with Psycho. Marion Crane was punished for her immorality. She is a thief and an adulteress when we meet her.Though Hitchcock still shows us the female's fundemental vulnerability to the male and puts Marion under the constant and evermore threatening gaze of the men she meets. You might also want to consider Alien (1) which is a horror movie in space and the overt rape imagary of that film. The last scene, when viewed from a certain perspective is essentially a sexy woman running around in her knickers being chased by a giant penis. The role of the Mother figure is another interesting aspect of the Horror genre. Good luck with it

also you might wish to read the essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey

http://www.haberarts.com/mulvey.htm

oh wait. this is the actual essay

http://www.panix.com/~squigle/vcs/mulvey-vpnc.html

i agree that it is changing, but the majority of films still portray females in the typical running/screaming/get slaughtered manner.

i think you're right about films like alien and halloween changing things. more recently, what about the blair witch project,where Heather was the leader of the group, but was given what i think was a very realistc, layered character, both strong and vulnerable. also, what about The Ring and the Scream series, where the lead roles were both smart, strong females? or how about looking at Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where it was generally the women with power, protecting the male characters from evil?

yes and Halloween is, of course, a homage in part to Psycho. It's John Carpenter imagining how Marion Crane's indepenant but still pure/virginal daughter might deal with a butcher's knife wielding maniac, hence the casting of Jamie lee Curtis

notice as well how Scream takes the p*ss out of the 'rules' of horror, eg when sidney sleeps with billy and they tell her "You're no longer a virgin-now you've gotta die!!" , which of course she doesnt.

I think that roles for women have changed alot in the last ten or fifteen years. In general as well as horror.
It seems that alot more filmakers are putting women in the lead roles, showing them as stronger than they used to. To me, instead of being subversive, it seems a little bit gimmicky, like they are trying to subvert the norm while actually being unrealistic, within even a film environment. ( for example, a big guy or multiple guys with knives are more than a match for a single, unarmed, woman. It's just a fact, not sexism.)
Its the same in action films. They are scoring points with women at the expense of the film's core entertainment value. Thats just my opinion anyway. maybe I am talking crap.

Horror films are designed to induce the emotion of threat and it's obviously easier to put a woman under threat than a man. But a film like Fatal Attraction is arguably a Horror film where the threat is from a female on the male. Horror films are about the loss of control either of the natural world (as we know it) or of the self. Whether its to supernatural forces, a knife weilding (out of control) maniac, pissed off birds or a knob shaped alien. And some might say, true horror films end on a negative beat, without the restoring of control, or if it is restored, it's only temporarily. Even the Michael Jackson Thriller video had a last shot where we see that he really is a monster and control has not been restored. oh wait, i've strayed off the subject. what was the question again? Women in Horror? yes, its changed. They're still the ones under threat but now they save themselves (temporarily) from it.

Thanks for your help, if you have any more ideas i'd much apreciate them all! I'm especially now looking at the representation in Psycho (1960s) 'The Exorcist (1970s) Aliens (1980s) and Juon The Grudge (2000) although i will look at others if you recommend them. I'm considering bringing Halloween in to my study too.
Thank you,
Chris Tomkins
www.christomkins.co.uk

Also Scream (1990s!) Also if you have any mates that would be able to help me please get them to give me a response! It's great what i have so far!
Thanks again,
Chris Tomkins
www.christomkins.co.uk

The there'e the whole Dario Argento argument where woman are regularily killed in his films but at the same time the central character is often a woman as well(Susperia/Opera/Phenomena) - so he gets both sides of the debate....

Would anyone say horror films have had there day!? and are now less popular than they were say 30 years ago? (still looking for your views on female represntation too! thanks for all your comments so far)
Thank you,
Chris Tomkins
www.christomkins.co.uk

Horror films will never have their day. Cinema was invented and flourished on the back of them. Fear is our favorite emotion to simulate it seems. The first ever exhibited film of a train hurtling towards the screen had the audience running out of theatre in fear of it crashing through the screen. German expressionism, Universal studios and God knows how many other film companies and film makers are all built on Horror foundations. It's a very cinematic genre. Types of Horror films will go in cycles.

If you want to see a purified case-study of women and female sexuality in horror movies then go and see Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" (1965). It is THE absolute masterpiece of psychological horror, and is one of the few pre-1960s horror movies that is still rather shocking and scary.

You might also want to check out that other 1960s classic horror movie "The Haunting" because of it's sly lesbian references. If you watch the documentary on 'Suspiria', you will also find that Dario Argento has some err..interesting views about female sexuality in the slasher genre.

Horror hasn't 'had it's day'. It just needs some investers to have the balls to allow a freaky young movie maker the liberty to really get under our skin again. Heck, in the current political climate with issues such as asylum and terrorism there should be ample fears to exploit.

well said, but of course for it to be a true Horror film the threat needs to be supernatural strictly speaking. But I agree there is a lot of pent up fear around at the moment just waiting to be released by a great new Horror film

So do you people believe women stereotypes have changed due to horror films, or do you think they've changed because of the way in society that they are wanting to be treated equally to men?
Do you think its crucial to have a strong female role in a horror to make a successful horror film is another question i'm trying to ask?
Thanks for all your feedback im getting, its great and would love more!
Chris Tomkins
www.christomkins.co.uk

Female sexuality seems to evoke a lot of deep seated fear in both men and women.

I cited 'Repulsion' as being an absolutely critical movie in this regard because it really tends to encapsulate the theme of women's liberation that occured after contraception became socially available. On the one hand you have the lead characters dark fantasies manafesting over her fear of men. On the other, you have the sexists deep fear of female reprisal. One can also note that it is the policeman's defiant fear of female sexuality that leads him to his doom in The Wickerman too. Also note that the most cutting elements in the Exorcist tends to revolve around profanity from a pre-pubescent girl.

The role of the female lead does seem to be a staple of most typical horror movies. This is true of most films since the sixties at least. Possibly, Psycho is important in this respect. I've yet to see a Halloween-esque slasher movie without a female heroin at it's core, while
Alien's Riply has become almost like a femenist icon. The recent trend of Japanese ghost stories also seems to almost exclusively be themed around the sanctity of the mother-child relationship. Even Silence of the Lambs seems to go out of their way to have a female FBI agent! The list goes on.

I do think, socially, that the characteristics of the female lead has changed over time. Witness the difference in the characteristics of the female leads in the various remakes of seventies horror movies compared to the originals. Specifically compare the attitudes towards females between the old and new Dawn of the Dead movies. Buffy has a lot to answer for!

Makes sense to me. I've never studied Women's representation in Horror but theres a factor when studying social representation in anything modern, that of Post-modernism and the fact that many modern Horror films set out to examine the films that have influenced their own existance, and not 'real' social injustices or whatever. Indeed if most modern Horror films have a comment it's not about the status of women but about itself as a 'Horror' film. Scream being the obvious example of this (though Scream is not itself a Horror film, but a Thriller wearing a Horror mask)

So what's the next phase (the future) for female roles in horror? Or are they most likely at their peak currently?
Chris Tomkins
www.christomkins.co.uk

who knows. Perhaps women will become the source of the Horror. The Monster.

I'd recommend watching David Cronenberg's "The Brood" as part of your research. An excellent film (boasting a fine performance from Oliver Reed), with a particularly strong female lead role for Samantha Eggar.

Do you reckon its because of Emmeline Pankhurst (the women vote lady) that the role in female representation in film has changed? Or do you think there is no link what so ever?
Thanks alot
Chris Tomkins
www.christomkins.co.uk

I asked my friends to fill in a questionnaire about the area. I noticed know one put horror as their favourite genre, why do you think this is? as i recon 30yrs or so it would have come out with a different result.
Thanks alot
Chris Tomkins
www.christomkins.co.uk

I think that Emily Pankhurst died in the 1920's so it's quite hard to really analyse the impact she made on movies, horror or otherwise.