The genre of horror films is one that is vast and continually growing. So many different elements have been known to appear in horror films that it is often times difficult to define what is explicitly a horror film and what is not. Due to this ambiguous definition of horror the genre is often times divided into subgenres. Each subgenre of horror has a more readily identifiable list of classifications that make it easier to cast a film to a subgenre, rather than the entire horror genre. One such subgenre that is particularly interesting is that of the stalker film. The stalker film can be categorized as a member of the horror genre in two ways. First, the stalker film can be identified within the horror genre due to its connection with the easily recognizable subgenre of horror, the slasher film. Though many elements of the stalker film differ from those of the slasher film, the use of non-mechanical weapons and obvious sexual plot points can be used to categorize the stalker film as a subgenre of the slasher film. Secondly, the stalker film can be considered a member of the horror genre using Robin Wood’s discussion regarding horror as that which society represses. The films Fatal Attraction, The Fan, and The Crush will be discussed in support of this argument. (Need some connector sentence here to finish out the intro) While once considered “low-brow” with a serious lack of documentation, the slasher film is now an established subgenre of the horror film. Like most genres and subgenres, the slasher film uses a predefined socially accepted list of criteria in order to classify a film as such. Carol J. Clover discusses this list in her article Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film. The slasher film is marked by its killer,... ... middle of paper ... ... against the societal patriarchal norms, thus coding her as “other” and the facilitator of horror. This new facilitator of horror, the stalker, has helped to redefine a new subgenre of the horror film industry. What they do is absolutely terrifying, as they basically invade every aspect of their victim’s lives, with no regard for their friends, family, or possessions. After analysis of the three stalker films referenced above, as well as the numerous amounts of stalker movies that continue to be produced, one can understand why there is a demand for this style of movie. The entire idea encompasses that which is suppressed because it threatens our normalcy of life. The idea is captivating, and we as a society would much rather view this from the outsider’s perspective on the “big screen,” than to see them enacted in our everyday lives through ourselves or others.
People have been looking behind their shower curtain when they enter the bathroom ever since Psycho swirled its way into movie theaters in 1960. This irrational fear of lurkers in the bath and scary psyches began with the first ever slasher film: Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. Throughout the years, Psycho never lost its potency as the movie that created the horror genre as we know it. The low-budget “just for fun” film project that Hitchcock had originally intended as his last “kick” in his career as a director changed the entire business and ended up being Hitchcock’s defining piece. Pre-Psycho scary movies had been slow in pace and conservative in content. Psycho’s director, Alfred Hitchcock, knew what the ‘norm’ was for filming because he had in the business for more than twenty years, but he wanted to break them. Psycho has been completely unforgettable since the 1960’s because of Hitchcock’s disregard of Hollywood’s rules of cinematography, revolutionary scoring, and never-before-seen yet realistic and creative filming techniques; Hitchcock did not create only a ‘scary’ movie, he created a new genre of fear that has had an effect on the film industry ever since.
These have been adapted from the early twentieth century, and have developed a whole series of genre conventions into a familiar variety of scary settings, iconography, and stereotyped characterisation. Audiences have a clear understanding of this, and they use it to their advantage. They can keep putting the audience through the jolts that horror conventions continue to give. An effective way of keeping the horror fresh would be to break the cycle, by breaking certain conventions. The isolated setting in the two films is a key device used to establish a threatening atmosphere.
Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton: Princeton Publishing, 1992.
What then do we make of American horror movies? In the canon of horror pictures they almost always come second in respect to foreign horror movies and any American horror film that is considered to be artful is the one with the most aesthetic distance. Upscale slashers like Johnathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991) or David Fincher's Seven (1995) are both gruesome and bloody borrowing many of the same shock techniques as their lower budget counterparts (for example, Russell Mulchahy's Sevenish thriller Resurrection (1999)), both focus on the body and its violation, either through sexual means or violent means, and both feature villains who fit easily into Carol Clover's assessment as "distinctly male; his fury is unmistakably sexual in both roots and expression."
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
Modern day horror films are very different from the first horror films which date back to the late nineteenth century, but the goal of shocking the audience is still the same. Over the course of its existence, the horror industry has had to innovate new ways to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats. Horror films are frightening films created solely to ignite anxiety and panic within the viewers. Dread and alarm summon deep fears by captivating the audience with a shocking, terrifying, and unpredictable finale that leaves the viewer stunned. (Horror Films)
Jake Decourcey in his article Norman Bates and Leatherface: Exploring the Psyches of Two Movie Psychos explains why the “shockingly violent visuals” from slasher movies “still frighten and entertain today” (I). He not only explained the psyche of those two movie “psychos” but why audiences are drawn to them as
“Why We Crave Horror Movies,” an essay by the legendary Stephen King, explains two challenging concepts to understand: why people like gory horror movies and how people are able to control their darkest desires. “I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all.” King opens the essay by addressing the hard truth- we are all insane. People have dull lives, and often it’s the little bit of crazy within in us tha...
The Horror Movie in Late Modern Society’ that labelling films such as these as postmodern may be an overreach. He argues that the hybridity of the genre as seen in horror-comedies such as ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ and ‘Scream’ are nothing ‘new’ and that comedy has always played a prevalent role in the horror genre. He goes on to state that, “much of the comic fun to be had (in contemporary horror-comedies) derives from the excess of gory detail. The other aspect, in this case more a development characteristic of the 1990s than the 1980s, is the tendency to reflexively generate humour by openly appealing to a knowing audience’s familiarity with the genre conventions.” This view suggests that Tudor views the emergence of a more comedic element to horror movies as more of an evolutionary step in horror, than a deliberately postmodern outlook. He cements this as his view as he uses the example of ‘Scream’ and the films made in its wake (such as ‘Scary Movie’ (2000)), Tudor claims “It is films such as these that have so often attracted the designation ‘postmodern’, if only superficially, because of their studied self-consciousness and their use of pastiche.” (Tudor, p.107) Tudor’s view is that films such as these bear only surface-level post-modernism that the term is used too liberally and the films would be better suited towards the term parody than a post-modernism. Tudor argues that their “studied self-consciousness” disqualifies them from being labelled as postmodern, however it can be argued that parody and self-consciousness elements of these films are what make them postmodern at
This depends on the location - is it a business mans office or an old
If someone is trying to find the point in time when horror movies started to shift into what they are today, the best place to start is the 70s. Some of the most popular horror movies came out in the 70s, most being ones that critics and fans alike refer to as “good horror films”. Those include Halloween, Carrie, The Omen, Amityville Horror and the focus of this paper - The Exorcist. The Exorcist was a ground-breaking film that is the foundation for modern possession films, and to understand why this movie is so important to modern times, it starts with looking at it in it’s own time.
When most people think of a “slasher film” (Clover 1992) they tend to think of movies such as Friday the 13th, Halloween, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. These movies align with the basic necessities for a slasher film ,but at the same time, are repetitive. In 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street was created and completely changed what was looked at as a “slasher villain”. In A Nightmare on Elm Street the viewer is introduced the evil omnipresent being known as Freddy Krueger. Freddy Krueger is a nightmareous malicious monster whose only purpose is to kill. He is the embodiment of fear and evil with immense power and abilities that some would dub as “Godlike.” In James Kendrick’s Razors in the Dreamscape: Revisiting A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Slasher Film Kendrick discusses A Nightmare on Elm Street’s originality as compared to other slasher films such as Friday the 13th, Halloween, etc. Kendrick presents an understanding of how A Nightmare on Elm Street fights common archetypes and tropes associated with the slasher genre by discussing the amalgamation of Krueger and his victims and how it ultimately emasculates Krueger and leads to his demise.
Stephen King, a very well-known writer and director, has a passionate voice when it comes to anything dealing with horror. In “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” King calls us out for knowing that we love the adrenaline rush and how we are so captivated by horror movies. He explains how we watch horror movies for the level of fun. King proposes that we go to defy ourselves; to see how far it can push us and that is what makes the experience so interesting. We lock our inner psycho from reality and feed it with the demonic, bloody violence found in horror movies. Doing this suggests that horror movies are our fix for our psychotic thoughts. Stephen King’s “Why We Crave Horror Movies” portrays that we are all insane in some weird way through
The reading by Barbara Creed titled “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection”, is an in-depth examination on the role of women in horror films. Creed challenges the commanding patriarchal view, which frequently puts the woman in the position of the helpless victim. She argues that when the feminine is constructed as monstrous, it is frequently done in conjunction with its mothering role and function. Creed’s main thesis supports that the prototype of all cinematic definitions of monstrosity related to the feminine is linked to the woman’s reproductive body. Creed elects to use the term “monstrous feminine” instead of female monster, because for Creed it is the “femininity itself that is monstrous” (41). It has been unfairly
Horror literature has been around since as long as man has been on earth. While usually in the form of ghost stories, many have often told stories orally, or on paper, to play on the horrors and darkest fears that we as humans face. While large populations of people do not like the horror genre, some get a satisfaction or enjoyment at looking at some of their worst fears being played out in front of them via a book or movie. As the stories have advanced through history and been examined and read through many different lenses both by history and literature experts, one aspects remains to be examined, and that is the changing role on of women in the story. While many of the early stories early stories portray them as simple, one-dimensional characters, weak and unable to help themselves, they evolve into more complex and eventually pushing through the damsel in distress mantra into the complex villain or hero.