Women love gore too. Since the beginning of time people have always been intrigued by storytelling especially ones that scare them. Stephen King the master of horror once said people love watching horror films simply because it keeps their sanity. “It may be that horror movies provide psychic relief on this level because this invitation to lapse into simplicity, irrationality and even outright madness is extended so rarely” (King). When people see a slasher film it gives them a chance to kill off “Annoying Bob” from the office in their heads. Horror films also tell the story about the culture watching them.“Horror films are to an observer of culture what frogs are to the medical student: dissecting them displays the anatomy of the culture behind them better than with any other genre” (Brashinsky). Horror film directors give great visuals for people to kill off people in their minds as well as tell the story of the culture watching them. Traditionally this genre has been dominated by male directors. The work of most women in film gets pushed aside. Women’s perspectives as well as their work often gets devalued. Women can and have created great horror films. In the horror genre women are depicted as the victims but in many movies women are the heroes or the villains as well the director. Very few female directors have gotten credit for their work on films, even on great films. Their work is discredited especially in the horror genre. The reason women have been shut out of horror is the same reason women been shut out of film: it’s a man’s field. Since the beginning of cinema women have been involved. They wrote, produced, and even directed. Unfortunately they were not given credit and written out of the history of cinema. The only... ... middle of paper ... ...Films In Review 47.1/2 (1996): 36. Academic Search Elite. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. Weaver, Matthew. "Kathryn Bigelow Makes History as First Woman to Win Best Director Oscar." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 08 Mar. 2010. Web. 28 April 2014. Bartyzel, Monika. "Girls on Film: 10 Horror Movies You Probably Didn't Know Were Directed by Women." The Week.com. The Week Publications, 25 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. Hall, R.D. Through a Dark Lens: Jackson's Lord of the Rings as Abject Horror. Through a Dark Lens: Jackson's Lord of the Rings as Abject Horror. 3-4 ed. Vol. 25. : Mythlore, 2007. 55. Print. (Spring-Summer 2007). Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue: The Evolution of American Horror Films. Dir. Joseph Maddrey. Lorber Films, 2009. DVD. Bartyzel, Monika. "Girls on Film: How Women Shaped Horror." AOL Moviefone.com. Aol, Web. 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Too many horror films provide scares and screams throughout their respective cinemas. Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers. However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s novel, 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 is a female is featured as a primary character and that females tend to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film.
Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton: Princeton Publishing, 1992.
“As a broad answer, we might say that horror addresses fears that are both universally taboo and that also respond to historically and culturally specific anxieties. Horror movies exploit timeless themes of sex and death, the self and the soul, and our own beastly inner nature – fears that exist within our collective unconscious – as well as more topical fears such as, for example, atomic radiation in the 1950s, environmental contamination in the 1970s and 1980s, or, more recently, post-911 tourist horror with films such as Touristas (2006), The Ruins (2008), and the two Hostel films (2005, 2007).” (Grant ?)
“Why We Crave Horror Movies,“ written by Steven King, is both an informative and persuasive essay. King uses his writing skills and charming sense of humor to explain why
Among New American Ghost Cinema, one can witness the re-emergence of an interesting sub-genre: the Found Footage Cinema. We can observe this new fascination in many modern horror films such as 2008’s Cloverfield, 2009's Paranormal Activity, and 2011's Apollo 18. Digging below the surface of a literal reading of some of these movies, one finds a genre that can be far more intelligent than what meets the public eye. For example, within Cloverfield, the screams and images of smoke heaving through the city of Manhattan hint at post-September 11th. To understand the growing popularity of Found Footage Cinema and why we discover these political undertones, this paper will examine The Blair Witch Project (1999, Myrick and Sanchez) in the context of theorists Robin Wood and Jürgen Habermas’ discussion on humankind’s senses of truth and what our society represses or oppresses. Both Habermas’ essay “The Public Sphere” and Wood’s “Introduction to the American Horror Film” touch on the inner workings of the public’s mind. With these essays and an analysis of these films, I will be able to propose theories working towards a mode of critical engagement with the success of The Blair Witch Project. It is then that we will connect it to the wider social and political jungle surrounding America as it stood on the edge of the Twenty First Century.
In Hollywood today, most films can be categorized according to the genre system. There are action films, horror flicks, Westerns, comedies and the likes. On a broader scope, films are often separated into two categories: Hollywood films, and independent or foreign ‘art house’ films. Yet, this outlook, albeit superficial, was how many viewed films. Celebrity-packed blockbusters filled with action and drama, with the use of seamless top-of-the-line digital editing and special effects were considered ‘Hollywood films’. Films where unconventional themes like existentialism or paranoia, often with excessive violence or sex or a combination of both, with obvious attempts to displace its audiences from the film were often attributed with the generic label of ‘foreign’ or ‘art house’ cinema.
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.
The horror genre of film captives the frightfulness of individual fear, horror is the only genre that is meant captive the terror of the audience. The horror- the genre has been around well over one hundred- years there has been an extension of different types of horror and how the audience perceives horror. Many would even argue that horror films often reflect the fear of society in that certain time period. The evolution of horror reflects the evolution of society’s fear.
Morgan, J. The biology of horror: gothic literature and film. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.
Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.
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)
Horror movies have been part of mainstream cinema since the early 1930s when films such as Dracula and Frankenstein were created. As the horror genre evolved, so did the stories in the films. Friday the 13th (Marcus Nipsel, 2009) is a very good example of this evolution. Even though it is a remake, Friday the 13th changed the way horror movies were seen by the audience. The ideas and theory behind this slasher sub-genre of horror films can be summed up in a book. Carol Clover, an American professor of film studies, wrote a book in 1992 entitled Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film in which she described the horror film genre. In a chapter entitled “Her Body, Himself”, Clover describes how weapons play a very important role in horror movies as well as explaining her Final Girl theory. Her book’s ideas changed not only academic notions but also popular beliefs on horror films. The 2009 remake of Friday the 13th implies that Carol Clover’s ideas about 80s slasher films, including male tormentors, the importance of weapons, and the Final Girl, have stayed the same through the years.
Horror films are designed to frighten the audience and engage them in their worst fears, while captivating and entertaining at the same time. Horror films often center on the darker side of life, on what is forbidden and strange. These films play with society’s fears, its nightmare’s and vulnerability, the terror of the unknown, the fear of death, the loss of identity, and the fear of sexuality. Horror films are generally set in spooky old mansions, fog-ridden areas, or dark locales with unknown human, supernatural or grotesque creatures lurking about. These creatures can range from vampires, madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts, monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, satanic villains, the possessed, werewolves and freaks to the unseen and even the mere presence of evil.
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
Jack Morgan, The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002) null03, Questia, Web, 29 May 2010.