Isabella Orosco Feminism & Horror Prof. Feilla May, 10 2024 Essay Response 1: Clover & Paul: Social and Cinematic Hierarchy as Relative to Gender The most striking parallel between the respective analysis of Clover and Paul on horror, is the connection they make to societal hierarchies that subjugate the genre to low class status. The two analysts are in agreement that Horror is of a lower status because it seeks to elicit a physiological response. Together, they group in additional genres that receive this same treatment, Paul includes comedies, and Clover pornography. Their discussions on horror diverge at the point of influence versus impact; where Paul’s work emphasizes the economic and sociological influences on horror’s development holistically …show more content…
Paul notes the free love movement brought with it many desires to censor, and Clover’s work builds off of this idea of sexuality by exploring sexual identity through violence in horror. Citing the Freudian idea of men’s desire to return to the womb, she argues slasher films explore the intersection of violence and sexuality through the internalized understanding of gender roles (Clover, 73). Clover therefore concerns herself with the relationship between the Female lead and the Pursuant in the slasher films, drawing a connection of their respective cinematic journeys as relative to patriarchal objectification in cinema. This is where the conversation shifts to the dangers of exploitation, specifically through cinematic gore/spectacle (Paul 31), and consequent female sexualization as prey (Clover, 77). Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas are a part of the revolutionary era where cinema borders and indulges in exploitation on occasion: Texas Chainsaw capitalizing on the gore, and Black Christmas the female …show more content…
Unlike Black Christmas where the house is a site of invasion by the killer, Leatherface is the inhabitant defending his property from the teenagers who have trespassed. The defending of the house leads to intense gore and violence. Through cinematic and sociological intersections, Paul notes that, “Violence began to be seen increasingly as the real sickness in American culture, with the repressive attitudes toward sexuality as an inevitable neurotic complement. But even if a particular on-screen film intended a critical point of view toward violence, its presentation on-screen ran into the problem inherent in the screen’s nature as spectacle,” (Paul, 31). Overall, where Paul and Clover thrive, is in their reconstruction of the idea of low art as significant and braver in its construction of subversive themes that are in many ways more authentic to the period than higher art forms. Their work leads to many nuanced questions regarding American identity, and set-up deep exploration of the many layers of gender construction and perception within horror films post and during
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.
This essay argues that the film Bridesmaids transcends traditional representations of feminine desire that exhibits women as spectacles of erotic pleasure, through the symbolic reversal of gender identity in cinematic spaces. By discussing feminist perspectives on cinema, along with psychoanalytic theory and ideological narratives of female image, this essay will prove Bridesmaids embodies a new form of feminine desire coded in the space of the comedic film industry.
In contemporary film making, “Hollywood-ization” generally refers to the re-creation of a classic work in a form more vulgar and sexually explicit than the original in an effort to boost movie attendance. After all, sex and violence sell. However, from the mid-1930’s to the 1950’s, “Hollywood-ization” referred to the opposite case where controversial books had to be purified to abide by the Production Code of 1934.[1] This occurred to many of James Cain’s novels as they moved from text to the genre of “film noir.” As has been said about Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, “The property, bought several years ago, was kept in the studio’s archives until now because of [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s] “inability to clean it up.””[2] The sanitation of Cain’s novels greatly took from the strong themes of female emotional and financial independence that were rarely addressed at that time as they were adapted for the screen.
Movies are a favorite past time recreation among individuals. The following two authors Gianluca Di Muzio (2006) and Stephen King (2007) present opposing views towards the horror genre and its impact on society. Di Muzio article on “the immorality of horror films” and King’s article on “why we crave horror movies” are great examples on ways the horror genre affects society. Di Muzio (2006) presents the negative messages placed in horrific cinema, whereas King’s (2007) communication is about the positives. Di Muzio (2006) emphasizes dark themes, plot and ways society’s consumption to gore can lead to a sadistic lifestyle in one of his studies and critiques on the horror film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, whereas views conveyed by King (2007) towards the genre are simply recreational and meant for adrenalin addicts.
In the classical Western and Noir films, narrative is driven by the action of a male protagonist towards a clearly defined, relatable goal. Any lack of motivation or action on the part of the protagonist problematizes the classical association between masculinity and action. Due to inherent genre expectations, this crisis of action is equivalent to a crisis of masculinity. Because these genres are structured around male action, the crises of action and masculinity impose a crisis of genre. In the absence of traditional narrative elements and character tropes, these films can only identify as members of their genres through saturation with otherwise empty genre symbols. The equivalency between the crises of genre and masculinity frames this symbol saturation as a sort of compensatory masculine posturing.
(Brinkema, 2015) This article vividly explains where the genre of horror came from and the visual culture it relates to.. This article has primary sources of data through the form an interview with Noel Carroll. “Carroll reflects on contemporary films, digital media, video games and televisual monsters, and the paradoxes, familiar and new, that govern his philosophy of horror today, a philosophy that, as it did 25 years ago, is still durably bound to the aesthetic.” (Brinkema, 2015) This research on aesthetic values was from past generations. The article was represented well explaining visual cultures of horror but it had too many examples to text rather than film. Which is what is being
The overall purpose of Carol Clover’s essay “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film” is to illustrate the repetitive, predictable aspect that Slasher
American commercial cinema currently fuels many aspects of society. In the twenty-first century it has become available, active force in the perception of gender relations in the United States. In the earlier part of this century filmmakers, as well as the public, did not necessarily view the female“media image” as an infrastructure of sex inequality. Today, contemporary audiences and critics have become preoccupied with the role the cinema plays in shaping social values, institutions, and attitudes. American cinema has become narrowly focused on images of violent women, female sexuality, the portrayal of the “weaker sex” and subversively portraying women negatively in film. “Double Indemnity can be read in two ways. It is either a misogynist film about a terrifying, destroying woman, or it is a film that liberates the female character from the restrictive and oppressed melodramatic situation that render her helpless” (Kolker 124). There are arguably two extreme portrayals of the character of Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity; neither one is an accurate or fare portrayal.
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)
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.
In this paper I will be explicating in depth the ethical theory of Utilitarianism. I will be analyzing the controversy surrounding the theory, as well as the related topics of consequentialism and the idea of what is intrinsically and extrinsically valuable. Utilitarianism, the idea that the best moral decision is the decision that benefits the most people, is a morally wrong ethical theory as it devalues individuals rights and freedoms for the betterment of others.
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.
1978’s I Spit on Your Grave is one of the most controversial films ever released as it depicts sexual violence in a crude –and lengthy— manner. It was critically panned upon release, Roger Ebert even calling it “so sick, reprehensible and contemptible”. The film was even part of the UK’s Video Nasties, leading it to be quite heavily censored. The film inspired many debates, some claiming it to be exploitative of sexual violence against women, others claiming it is explorative. While it would be difficult to argue the film is enjoyable, going as far as claiming the film is exploitative and misogynistic shows a thorough lack of understanding of the film’s depth and implications. I Spit on Your Grave is the fulfillment of self-made justice-seeking
The patriarchal cinematic ideology detailed by Laura Mulvey in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” is pervasive in Stanley Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut. The women in the film all eventually become the passive sexual objects that Mulvey has described in her paper. There are times in the film that women attempt to defy these strongly enforced gender roles, but they are always punished and returned to their positions as objects of the male