Unveiling Female Identity in Horror Cinema: Analyzing Gender Representation in Psychological Thrillers

1. Female Identity in Horror Movies: From Virgins and Housewives to Badass Bitches Photos from www.amazon.com Kathleen Hemphill, Sarah Brumbeloe, Katie Bagwell and Lauren Dyer

2. Our mission:We set out to watch six movies of three subgenres of horror including psychological thriller, slasher, and monster in an attempt to analyze gender in various cultural contexts. We derived comparisons from the movies themselves and from other forms of relevant media.

3. Psychological Thrillers The Others (2001) and Hard Candy (2005) Photos from www.amazon.com

4. The Others Relevance to other media: • We drew a lot of comparisons between this movie and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman • Hysteria links Grace (Kidman) and the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” • Historically there was not much knowledge about the female body, leading to misdiagnoses of “hysteria.” There was really no proper cure. • As viewers we feel more sympathy for these women given their psychological and cultural circumstances. • For Grace the house is like the room with the yellow wallpaper. • Because of complete confinement, both women are driven crazy. The “cure” is to relieve themselves of the burden that confines them. • For the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the confinement is the room with the wallpaper and her controlling husband, as shown in the following quote: “I’ve got out at last…in spite of [my husband] and Jane.” • For Grace it is her children and the responsibility of keeping a household without her husband.

5. The Others Relevance to other media (cont.): We drew connections between the daughter Anne in The Others to the daughter Denver in Beloved by Toni Morrison. • Both love their mothers despite the horrific things that their mothers have done or tried to do to them. • They both feed off of their mothers and feel a need to please them. We also found similarities between the plots of “No Name Woman” by Maxine Hong Kingston and The Others. • Rather than trying to fit into a cultural mold that they cannot fit in, they take their lives as well as their children’s. • The aunt of “No Name Woman” haunts her descendents through memory (“My aunt remains forever hungry.”), whereas Grace haunts all who come into contact with her house. Neither women’s story can die: both represent the social pressures of the female role.

6. Clip: “The Good Mother • The following clip reveals what happens after Grace abandons her role as a mother by killing her children. Even in death she learns that motherhood is not something she can ever separate from. When Grace clutches her children we see that she is choosing to resume her traditional female role of that period. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRFw7v_l0Dw&feature=related • Start at 3 min 41sec. End at 5min 24sec.

7. The Others Our Analysis: • We sympathize with Grace because of her situation: she is managing a household on her own. • She fits the role of a strong heroine because of her independence from her late husband. • Her children have a certain element of vampirism in that they “suck out” her time, patience, love, and energy. She sustains them. • We found the movie depressing because, even though she attempts to free herself from social standards, she still becomes eternally linked to motherhood because ghosts can never age. It turns out that she needs her children just as much as they need her; traditional roles often offer women comfort and security.

8. Hard Candy Relevance to other media: • Comparison with “The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter: • Hayley (Paige) is similar to the Little Red Riding Hood character found in “The Company of Wolves.” • They each use sexuality to create a role reversal in which the hunted becomes the hunter. Like Red Riding Hood sheds her clothes (118), Hayley sheds the innocence associated with young women. • However, Hayley derives control from getting rid of the predator while Little Red Riding Hood instead gains control by connecting with the predator (“sweet and sound she sleeps in granny’s bed, between the paws of the tender wolf.” [118]). • We used material from Donato Totaro’s critical essay “The Final Girl: A Few Thoughts on Feminism and Horror.” • Totaro references a concept called “The Monstrous Feminine.” Older horror movies from the 1970s and 1980s portray “the female as a castrated male.” “The Monstrous Feminine” concept says that these women are actually “the female as [a] castrator, period.” • Hard Candy supports this theory in that Hayley is a strong woman in her own right. She is not a castrated male. In fact she has the power to castrate males.

9. Hard Candy Our Analysis: • from his role as a sexually potent man. The movie raised interesting questions about male/female dynamics. • Instead of the typical idea of a man deflowering a female, this situation is reversed when Hayley appears to castrate Jeff (Wilson). Just as the loss of virginity is irreversible, so is the castration of a man. • The ultimate emasculation of Jeff occurs when he begs Hayley for death rather than castration. Where Grace from The Others derives security from her female role as a mother, Jeff gets security.

10. Clip: Jeff looses it • This clip shows Jeff’s freak-out before the “castration” scene. It displays the complete power Hayley has over Jeff when his manhood is threatened. Jeff is at Hayley’s disposal. • http://www.movstreaming.com/watch-movie-hard-candy-streaming-megavideo-16681.html • Start: 1hr 4min. End: 1hr 6min 12sec.

11. Slasher Movies Friday the 13th (1980) and Scream (1996) Photos from www.amazon.com

12. Friday the 13th Our Analysis: • We could easily observe the rules of slasher movies at work during this film. • For instance, all women who have sex in the film “must” die. While the only way to survive is to remain a virgin (Brenda). • Any woman who is assertive (a “bitch”) is automatically portrayed as a monster. Mrs. Voorhees’ (Palmer) maternal instinct is interpreted as a plague that infects her and causes her to go crazy, like Grendel’s mother. • Women are also forced to live within the confines of a society where all the men hit on the women. It is like normal behavior to all the female characters; therefore, male chauvinism is another villain in the film. • Most of the time, you cannot see who the killer is. The film fools the viewer into thinking that the killer is a man, by showing muscular hands, boots, etc. When you realize that it is an old woman, you are significantly less scared by her. The film builds up the tension only to intentionally disappoint the viewer. By initially portraying her as a man, Mrs. Voorhees is placed in a mold that she cannot fill; her power as a strong female character is thus limited.

13. Clip: Mrs. Voorhees in Action • In this clip you can see Mrs. Voorhees’ maternal mania at work. At one point she shows a split personality between herself and her son Jason. This is like Psycho in reverse: Norman Bates assumes his mother’s persona at vulnerable points; this film suggests that extreme maternal loss can result in a mother shrinking into a immature, child-like state when vulnerable. • http://www.watch-movies.net.in/play_new.php?si=208393&s=1&tra_st=0&u=aHR0cCUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy5tZWdhdmlkZW8uY29tJTJGdiUyRjNNWlpVOUkxYmE0M2Q2ZDYzNmJhZmQ3YTA2NjljNWJjY2QxZTI5ZGU=&host=megavideo&mi=Friday-the-13th-1980 • Start 1hr 17min 30sec. End 1hr 20min 8sec.

14. Scream Our Analysis: • This film redefines many of the rules set down by typical slashers like Friday the 13th • Sydney (Campbell) is the “New Age Heroine.” She can express herself sexually, yet she can also defend herself and retain respect. • Gail Weathers (Cox) is the prototypical “bitch.” However, she can be aggressive without being labeled a monster. In the end, she bands together with Sydney to kick the killer’s ass. • The film itself is a commentary on the older horror rules. It satirizes them; the film is aware of itself as a parody. The characters of Casey (Barrymore) and Tatum (McGowan) are used to dramatize the older horror females. They are easily overtaken and over-sexualized. At one point Tatum’s boyfriend throws her over his shoulder and totes her away; this is a physical manifestation of female treatment during older horror movies. They are at the mercy of either male characters in the film or male cultural influence outside the film.

15. Scream Relevance to other media: • We drew connections once more to Totaro’s essay “The Final Girl.” • Older horror movies according to Totaro are usually from “the narratively dominant killer’s subjective point of view.” • Scream, on the other hand, represents a postmodern horror film. It not only turns the female lead into an empowered female heroine, it also bends the traditional narrative point of view. At one point in the film Sydney states, “Not in my movie.” This disproves Totaro’s outdated theory. No longer do horror films have to be told from a male point of view. Scream is Sydney’s movie, not the killer’s.

16. Clip: Girls Gone Wild • This clip basically displays all that Scream stands for in a nutshell. We see Sydney and Gail affirming their independence. And we see the self-aware aspects of the movie when Sydney states, “Not in my movie,” etc. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acni4EOIjdE&feature=related • Start at 4min 40sec. End at 6min 10sec.

17. The Sexual Evolution: Friday the 13th and Scream • We drew comparisons between the female heroines in both slasher movies by assessing their sexuality. • In Friday the 13th the heroine Brenda is the most virginal character. According to the rules of slasher movies, she manages to survive because she values her reputation as a pristine female over her sexual freedom. • Scream juxtaposes the idea that the lead female must be sexually pure in order to possess control over her victimizer. Sydney, the heroine of Scream, after Sydney becomes sexually active she is still a “badass bitch.” In this way, Scream satirizes slasher movies by breaking this rule and allowing Sydney to be sexually expressive. She exemplifies the third wave of feminism (which values sexual empowerment) that was starting around the time of this movie’s creation (http://feminism.suite101.com/article.cfm/third_wave_feminism). • This is the sexual evolution of slasher movies over time.

18. Monster Movies: 28 Days Later (2002) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006) Photos from www.amazon.com

19. 28 Days Later Our Analysis: • Two of the characters in this film had significant transformations in gender. • Initially Selena (Harris) possesses “masculine” characteristics such as apathy, brutality, and bluntness. As Selena gets closer to Jim (Murphy), she becomes more dependent on him and less dependent on herself. She also adopts maternal qualities through her care of Hannah. • Jim is very effeminate and nonviolent when the story begins, but with Selena’s influence and his loss of innocence (he murders an infected child) he takes on the macho man stereotype.

20. 28 Days Later Our Analysis (cont.): General observations: • The female animal rights activist, who is the first human to become infected with rage, parallels Eve unleashing the knowledge of good and evil and the wrath of God on Earth. • We also liked that Britain was a quarantined island. We thought that this was an interesting Gothic technique. It is the ultimate situation of isolation.

21. Clip: Survival • At the beginning of this scene we see how Selena is preyed on by the men and Jim has to defend her. This shows the effects of her transformation of her from a killing machine to a victim. Later in this clip we see how Selena and Hannah are viewed by the military: they are objects needed for survival, like air or water. The society retrogressed in these 28 days so severely that men have reverted back to their unhindered, animalistic instincts. • http://www.megavideo.com/?v=E1SHEBLG • Start at 1hr 18min 32sec. Stop at 1hr 21min 39sec.

22. The Hills Have Eyes Our Analysis: • Degradation of women: • Every female character whether mutant or not is devalued by the men in the film. This is found in the rape of Brenda (de Ravin), the mistreatment of Ruby (Ortiz), and the lack of consideration for the lives of a daughter (Shaw) and mother (Quinlan). • In monster movies women serve a purpose; therefore, they are further objectified because they are used by men for survival. • Women are the vessel through which men can continue their legacy in our patriarchal society. • Even in this life and death situation women are still considered inferior and they are not given the proper means to defend themselves (no woman gets a gun, even though all the men do). • Woman are still expected to be the “angel in the house” (or trailer). They cannot call forth their killer instinct even when it is required. • Female inferiority is so deeply imbedded in the film that even family pets are not exempt from it. • The female dog Beauty is the first to die and her counterpart Beast becomes a key component in combating the mutants. Also the name Beauty represents the quintessential female, while Beast exemplifies raw masculinity.

23. Clip: The Most Disturbing Thing You Have Ever Seen • In this clip we witness the complete degradation of every single female member of the family. The surviving men of the family do not seem to notice that all of the females are being violated in some way until it is too late. This is a perfect example of how this subgenre of film considers women as an afterthought; they are not worth consideration. • CAUTION: This clip contains VERY graphic content. • http://www.bigvidpro.com/?v=_vBQYvGfESpzjsLkjD87PQ • Start at 55min 37sec. End at 59 min 59sec.

24. In Conclusion • After viewing each film in its respective subgenre we have come to the conclusion that psychological thrillers are the most capable of producing female heroines. They prove the fact that females are as mentally capable as men, despite historical beliefs to the contrary. • The slasher genre has evolved over time in its portrayal of women. In Friday the 13th women are frequently sexualized and victimized; even the female heroine is a victim of social standards. Scream, however, introduces a female sexual revolution. • In the monster movies women are seen as methods of survival and nothing else. • Overall The Hills Have Eyes has the most appalling portrayal and treatment of female characters. Hard Candy, on the other hand,has the strongest depiction of women: It does not depreciate its female character, but instead gives her freedom of voice and thought.