WOMEN IN HORROR
by
April Diana Niver
A Thesis Presentation for Partial Fulfillment for the Masters in the Arts
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
April 16, 2000
WOMEN IN HORROR
by
April D. Niver
has been approved
April 2000
ABSTRACT
It has been said that it is the significance of gender relations that drives the horror
narrative as a source of disorder.1 Although this researcher does not disagree that this may be
the case, she would care to add that this is possible as a reflection of greater socio-political
fears and expectations of normalcy and justice. Popular films are said to be the fusion of the
personal dreams of the filmmakers and the collective dreams of the audience—made possible
by the shared structures of common ideology.2 This thesis will address genre themes and
character elements as part of larger social issues and fears. With this stance this analysis will
explore character roles and changes over time, focusing on horror, and related films, since
the 1970s. As one of the themes of horror has been the repression of sexual energy, and if the
social revolution and sexual revolution are inseparably linked, than horror has made
advances for each as women’s liberation is not always a part of horror’s representation of the
abject fears of society as it has begun to support and confirm its goals. 3
Critics in this analysis were selected for their examination of films during an era or on
the basis of the themes relevant to the topic of this thesis. Critic’s summations of periods,
characterizations of gender, and types of films have been incorporated to develop
generalizations of social issues and character roles.4 Although this thesis attempts to provide
general characterizations of horror films, the researcher is open to conceptions that there may
be films that do not fit into these conceptions. This inquiry has selected films with the
following themes: an insane fiend, the presence of a threat to normalcy and social order, an
interest in the relationship of the rational and the irrational, an interest in motivations for
murder and an interest in the victimization of women. I have excluded films representing the
femme fatale or those that make abject female sexuality with the intent of following those
ii
films that have affirmed female sexuality. It is the conclusion of this researcher that the affect
of social activism, director innovation, and conventions of the genre have altered character
roles in the horror film genre. This analysis adds to conception of a blurring between the
socio-historical material and thematic constructions in genres. However, rather than perceive
them as contradicting, this researcher perceives them as corresponding. 5
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HORROR: AN INTRODUCTION
1
CHARACTERS, THEMES, AND CHANGES IN FEMALE ROLES
10
IN CONCLUSION: A PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
54
Filmography
60
Bibliography
67
Endnotes
71
iv
Horror: An Introduction
The following is an investigation into the horror film genre in terms of its
construction of gender. Genre may be said to be a tacit relationship between the author and
the reader, or in this case director and the audience, that provides a general set of
expectations of plot, characters, the nature of conflict, and its resolution.6 These may also be
referred to as being a formula, but genre implies a general set of texts that follow the
particular formula.7 I, however, am investigating neither directors nor audiences, although I
may, at times, make general conjecture on viewer identification or an assumed audience to a
film. Instead, I choose to focus on the performance of character roles within the narrative and
how the performances of male and female have changed since the 1970s. The ranges of
factors contributing to this change are multiple and expose a corresponding relation between
socio-historical raw material and thematic constructions.8
The patterns, forms, or styles of a genre may be said to a vital structure from which
flow a myriad of themes and concepts.9 This structure is formed through production and
marketing strategies as well as aesthetic elements of repetition of a conventional formula,
stereotyped characters, iconography, and themes. The director is able to experiment, shape,
and refine within the framework a genre provides.10 The elements that compose this
framework may have multiple functions and may be categorized by their specific function
and thematic motivation. Genre films seem collapsed into the reality that is supposed to
motivate them, and so they are at odds with socio-historical reality as well as to particular
exhibitions of an auteur. This also contradicts with the extent to which genre exist as the
basis of economic practices of the industry, such as studio structure and star value.11 As such
there is a dilemma of socio-historical raw material and thematic constructions, and an attempt
to resolve these contradictions is said to be a route to the mythical origin where discourse and
reality meet.12 However, genres and their meanings are acknowledged to have an active role
as components in the construction of socio-historical reality, and as such are more than just
reflections of reality.13 It has been said of the horror genre that it is a site for the exploration
of social taboos and repressed fears and desires. As these fears have mainly been considered
as representative of the fear of feminine power originating in the infantile state, horror has
served as a means of extemporaneous relief for that fear.14 Horror films may be said to be
making dreams real, of taking seriously the fancies and figments of the imagination in all its
horrific possibilities.15 To understand the hold horror may have over us may be to understand
the importance of dreams. In the imagination, which was extremely important to the gothic
writers who first began the generic tradition, the primacy of reason had been overthrown. The
importance of the narrative was to uncover how deep and how powerfully affecting the
products of the imagination could become. Heroes of literature were often searching for truth
in sensations and were doomed by their search as they became seduced by the powers of
darkness.16 At the turn of the century, with the prevailing sense that social order was falling
apart, there emerged a preference for the decadent styles of literature. The rational and
myopic hero in film replaced the decadent romantic hero of literature, the role of the
decadent becoming the role of the fiend. This character was often portrayed as carrying a
great sadness, romanticizing or idealizing the object of desire. Originating from such a
literary background, the horror film genre originated with an attempt to deal with the dark
subconscious.17
2
A basic definition of any genre is a narrative following the reorganization of
disordered elements into order, in an attempt to retain a more simplistic definition. Because
this may be said to be to true of all genre, the distinguishing characteristic of this genre from
others would be its use of a monster, fiend or psychopath creating a disturbance through
murder and/or fear. Although true crimes and thrillers, with the element of suspense, may
also fall into this category, it is not problematic as they are often conventions of horror. For
my considerations, I liberally accept thrillers and into this analysis on the basis of a content
of a psychopathic killer. I also include one film from the drama genre because it falls into the
category of rape-revenge films, as representing a woman’s violent rape and her search for
justice. I suggest that horror’s tendency to fascinate, to terrify, and to seek to explain
disturbances to social order through psychoanalysis or the supernatural may be considered a
part of its defining characteristics as thrillers, true crime, and drama genres generally do not
involve an element of the supernatural, nor do they always seek to explain the killer’s
psychological development into a killer. Thrillers and drama do, however, inscribe sexuality
across codes of legality.18
What is of interest to me is that the resolution of disorder in the horror film genre has
typically been symbolized with the union of the heterosexual couple and the affirmation of
patriarchal social order. Yet another definition of horror is that its true subject is that of the
struggle for recognition of all that society represses.19 The structure of repression most
central to horror is the central repressive force of ideology is in its most pervasive form of
perpetuation, the institution of the patriarchal family.20 The maintenance of this structure
demands the oppression and repression of female sexuality and activity as well as forms of
bisexuality and homosexuality, or sexual energy in general. Contemporary films, such as
3
Silence of the Lambs (1991), Copycat (1995), and Mercy (1999), however, have ceased to
continue in this tradition. These films have not only altered the role characterizations with the
development of the female authority hero, but also they do not symbolize a return to a status
quo with an affirmation of the patriarchal social order. Contemporary horror, which
incorporates conventions of true crime and the thriller, is more a critique of male authority
and the social norms of patriarchy as well as an affirmation of the female role in society.
Because the literary origins of the genre may be firmly placed in an interest in the
subconscious, the power of dreams, and a fascination with the grotesque and horrific,21 I find
a meeting of discourse and reality not so mythical for the horror genre. And although the
relationship of socio-historical raw material and thematic conventions may be thought to be
contradicting, I propose that in the case of horror they are corresponding and perhaps
necessary. Even innovations of conventions and the construction of themes by directors seem
to correlate to social attitudes, as will be discussed in more detail later. Although issues of
form and content are also apparent in horror, as the iconography of a woman’s fear is often
the basis of the film’s content,22 I prefer to deal with the issue of the relationship of genre
themes and its connection to socio-historical reality by focusing on the female character. Her
role has changed as society has changed its conceptions of the status of women in society as
well a result of director innovation. This clarification and documentation of the change in the
portrayal of women serves as an example of the relationship of the socio-historical raw
materials and thematic constructions.
Narrative is generally the discourse of the transformation of elements that constitute
its pretext. There is an interruption of the equilibrium and a reconfiguration of its
components, resulting in a new configuration of equilibrium,23 as I have alluded to above in
4
terms of the union of the heterosexual couple in classic Hollywood and rational horror. The
monster’s presence often disrupts categories of human and the natural and is often explained
in terms of the empirical or the supernatural.24 In this genre the production of the monstrous
takes place within the construction of masculinity and femininity as well as human and nonhuman, and the construction of male and female are often constructed through the
performance of activity and passivity. This structure of relations is one aspect of the
ideological play of meanings and attitudes that pervade the thematic structures of the genre.
These are, for instance, human/non-human, normal/strange, rational/irrational, good/evil,
nature/culture, rural/urban, rich/poor. Because the category of society is presented as
homogeneous, the construction of sexual difference fractures it. The monster, never entirely
non-human, is monstrous because of the possession of human traits. As a site of
heterogeneity, the monster, or psychopath, threatens the homogeneity of the human and the
normal. Whatever the interpretation of its identity, the monster functions to disturb the
boundaries of sexual identity, power, and difference.25 However, it is important to note that
monsters tend to be defined as male in as far as the object of their desire is almost exclusively
a woman. Women, then, become their primary victims. It could be maintained that women’s
sexuality, that which renders them desirable, as well as threatening, may constitute the real
problem the horror film genre seeks to explore, and thereby constitutes that which is truly
monstrous.26 However, I do not entirely agree with the statement, because contemporary
horror, since the advent of slasher horror, films where a killer slashes through victims as a
result of an earlier traumatic experience, women have become a heroic and socializing force
and men have become more aligned with the feminine or the monstrousness. In such films as
Silence of the Lambs, Copycat, Kiss the Girls (1997) and Mercy, women’s sexuality is still a
5
vested interest, but it has become less important to in relation to larger themes of power,
domination, and the assertion of self-identity. In this sense it is the victimization or overemphasis of her sexuality or her identity within patriarchal society that is depicted rather than
her presence as an object of desire and as a mode of reproduction.
The fiend or monster’s interference with the status quo invites both male and female
characters to cross boundaries of normalcy in terms of social roles and rules of gender and
conduct. Women were often lured away from convention by seductive fiends, only to return
to the arms of the hero by the film’s end.27 Their performances, or over-performances of fear
were often a cover for male suffering and inadequacy. This serves to retain traditional
conceptions of gender, as men suffer, struggle, or are feminized women must be relocated to
a place where they are made more passive by comparison.28 As gender in horror may be
permeable, I do not feel it is a throwback to one-sex reasoning.29 I also do not agree that in
the universe of horror that sex necessarily proceeds from gender, that a woman is defined by
the fact that she cries and cowers, or that a man is defined by his actions as a psycho killer.30
Contemporary horror represents this as women are more often being depicted as heroes who
do not scream, or cower, but rather are even more capable in their role of hero than their male
predecessors. Women in films such as Silence of the Lambs, Copycat, and Mercy are
representative of female authority figures that are able to control events that are bound by a
desire to help the helpless, and who are aware of the danger they confront. These women are
also depicted as having resolved the conflict of the rational and the irrational as they use their
powers of reason as well as imagination and intuition. In Kiss the Girls, the victim-heroine
remains composed when kidnapped by a power-obsessed psychopath. Not only does she
empower herself to defy him and escape, but also she is empowered by her experience to
6
assist in his apprehension. I also do not perceive these characters as being conflicted in their
sexuality or identity. I perceive these characters as able to successfully negotiate emotional
conflict and sexual advancements. These claims will be explored later as I give discuss the
films in more detail.
In this analysis I attempt trace the development of the female character from a role of
victim-heroine, in the sub-genre of slasher horror, where she is portrayed as confronting the
fiend alone, aware of the danger, and able to withstand the horror others could not into a role
of authority. This sub-genre is also characterized by the action of the killer slashing his way
through victims, a change in the narratives deep structure, and in the apparent content of a
traumatic event that created the killer and implicates the community, or social norms, which I
will address later in the text. I include rape-revenge films as a part of this development
because they contribute to the horror genre’s exploration of women’s victimization in terms
of society’s, in particular men’s, perception of her sexuality. This is significant as the sociohistorical element of feminism sought to form a new understanding between the relations of
the sexes.31 Foremost in this endeavor was the rejection of stereotypical polarities in human
beings, a refusal to be exploited and dehumanized, and as a rejection of rape and the
mentality of rape. More than a negation or foil to masculinity, it is an affirmation of the
female, of women.32 Although rape-revenge films may be read as a form of masquerading
pornography, I read these films as representing the horrific act of rape and as presenting
social commentary on male behaviors, social dynamics, and a prevailing ideology of
misogyny as implicated in the act.33 Slasher horror may have developed a female hero to
release male anxiety in viewership, as a response to female viewers’ demand for a more
plausible figure, an instance of director’s initiative and innovation of conventions or as an
7
increasing interest in victimization. I feel that this is an area for conjecture and discussion
that may provide insight into the relationship between socio-historical raw material and
generic themes. I suggest that the mechanism of this change in the portrayal of the female
role as capable and triumphant serves as a subversion of earlier norms, where women, despite
whatever activity they may of had in the film were depicted as weak in comparison to a
males. In contemporary thrillers the female hero not only does not scream or wail, but also is
not safeguarded into a traditional gender role as part of a heterosexual couple. Instead, have
become weak and increasingly more feminized in relation to women characters. Men are not
only incompetent, but are also more emotional and motivated by issues of identity grounded
in sex and power relations. In the films I will discuss, after a brief commentary on the
development of horror’s themes and characterizations of gender, the authority heroines are
representative of feminist goals for women in American society.34 These women are no
longer fettered by sexualized social roles tempered by their biology that has developed into
persons of social influence, of economic, political and cultural power.35
I am attempting to break free from an analysis of the complex nature of gender in the
horror genre to instead present a place where horror has broken free from traditional relations
of permeability, negotiation, and affirmation to create a place where women exist not on the
basis of their sexuality but on the basis of their social role as a hero, as an authority. 36
Women are still victims, but not for the same reasons as in previous horror. Women in these
films are to some extent still the objects of sexual interest, but as a terrain to dominate and
not necessarily as a site for the expression of emotional conflict in relation to the feminine
form.
8
However, the tendency to present gender as being in reciprocal relation remains. In
Lacanian discourse gender is being beyond active and passive, and biological difference is
inadequate as many cross over these boundaries at the psychic level. Instead, Lacan perceives
sexual difference as without complementarity or commensurability. In terms of boundaries or
limits man is a “closed set,” woman is an “open set.” While still maintaining the importance
of structure, this conception points to the necessary incompleteness and undecidability of the
statements made within it.37 Although there remains a reciprocal relation of active and
passive between the genders in these films I will focus on, where the female is active and
successful, the male is often passive and failed, or implicated in social injustice, I consider
this as perhaps a result of this undecidability. As women gain social roles of influence and
power, men’s roles are tenuous in their ability to maintain an earlier status that seemed to be
instilled by an assumption.
As films since the development of slasher horror since the 1970s has changed
conceptions of women’s social roles, characterizations, and abilities, this is possible the
result of changing social norms as well as auteur innovations. The differences in the
characterizations of the killer also reflect changes in society as perceptions of gender as well
as social fears and concerns have changed. The narcissisms of a commodity driven
environment as well as an increasing alienation has increased issues of self in terms of
dominance and assertion, this is reflected in increasingly mature, technical, and power driven
psycho killers as well as to increasingly feminized male character roles. Considerations of
how the films represent character roles as representing a gender, and how these conceptions
have changed over time will add to a conception of thematic construction and social reality
as they reflect social issues and the dilemmas and issues revealed as plot themes continue to
9
focus on the victimization of women in society rather than on the threat or desirability of
women as a social object.
10
Characters, Themes, and Changes in the Female Role
With origins in oral narrative and gothic literature, the horror film genre is dynamic.
Its themes play on the reciprocity and permeability of male and female, active and passive,
good and evil. Filmmakers since the 1930s have maintained the basic narrative structure of
orientation, complicating action, and resolution—typically one that provides a sense of social
and moral order. A traditional horror narrative affirms the existence of normalized society
with the union of a heterosexual couple. The characters are stereotyped. The killer is a
monster, madman or psycho-sadist. The heroine is victimized or sought after; the hero is a
lucky, myopic novice. There is also an expert, who serves in a mentor capacity to the hero.
Although a female character was given foresight into the crisis, and depicted as competent
and intelligent, she was unable to withstand the horror. She freezes with terror and faints, or
she screams, feebly struggles, and becomes aligned with the abject. Fortunately, the hero
takes her from harms way. His act of salvation then serves to complete his symbolic journey
into adult life as he is united with the heroine and normalized patriarchal authority is
restored. This is interesting because the hero figure does not require skill, his is an assumed
success that needs only to be affirmed through his heterosexual union. Over time, as its focus
on the nature of horror and its causes has changed, so have the stereotypes and sphere of
action for its characters. Not only may these changes be a response to changing social
ideologies, but also to filmmakers’ extensions and subversions of genre conventions.
As a result, there is a new tendency in the genre to depict women as empowered and
to present their experience as a symbolic entrance into society. Unlike their male
11
predecessors, these women are capable, rational, imaginative, and able to control events. Due
to a change in focus on the victimized experience of women in 1970s slasher and raperevenge horror, her position became a collapsed role of victim-heroine. This role is defined
by her ability to survive the horror. As the final-girl, the last survivor to the terror, she
witnesses and withstands the horror her friends did not. 38 Although by far more capable than
a hero, she is still often in need of assistance or rescue, and is disturbed and shaken by her
experience. Current films reflect an extension of this tendency as they present women as
entering, or existing as, an expert or authority. However, rather than symbolizing the
maintenance of normalized society with the union of the heterosexual couple, the heroine is
without a mate at the film’s end. Thus her role as a female in society is autonomous and beset
by the reality of social horrors, male inadequacy, and alienation. Having survived the hazing
this segment of her life has offered she is shaken and paranoid or stronger and more
confident than before having learned a life lesson and completing a symbolic journey.
Research on female roles and spectatorship by Rhonda Berenstein has exposed a
viewing space for a range of female responses including sadistic pleasure as well as
opportunities for male homosexuality in classic Hollywood horror. The sub-genre of
hypnosis horror films of the 1930s was focused on the mesmerizing powers of fiends,
repressed sexuality, the weakness of victims, and the myopia and ineffectualness of male
heroics.39 These films often followed in the trends of romantic gothic literature, as well as
decadent fiction and crime novels of the time, and made an obvious attempt to deal with the
dark subconscious.40 Filmic versions of the genre quickly instituted a range of stock
characters and situations. From these films come the stereotypes of mad doctors, arch
criminals, femme fatales, bland heroes, and women as objects of obsession.
12
Very often these films relegated female power under male heterosexual authority and
aligned her character with the abject. She was often lured away from the hero’s side by the
hypnotizing look of a monstrous fiend, typically witnessed in vampire film such as Dracula.
However, a woman is always aligned with the abject as she also is characterized by her social
and symbolic position as other.41 The order maintaining function of relegating
extemporaneous on- or off-screen female competency and sexual activity to the dominance
of male heterosexuality and normality, not only retained traditional conceptions of gender
relations, but also disavowed any implication of male inadequacy, passivity, or
homosexuality.42 Dominant images of women are mainly that of a dependent, accepting of
the socially defined position of other, gaining identity through her husband and existing to
extend his will.43 Classic Hollywood horror allows women activity through their overperformances of fear, insight into danger, and at times as more practical and in control of
events.44 However, women’s autonomy and independence are repressed by the film’s close in
order to affirm the continuation of normalized patriarchal society where men may project
their own innate, repressed femininity onto women in order to disown it as inferior.45 In these
films the homosexual connotation is inferred in the dominance of homosocial relations within
the narrative. In its own sense, hypnosis horror, and especially mad doctor films, of the 1930s
celebrate male homosexuality by ensuring that a repressed element of society will return with
a vengeance.46 Deviations from ideological sexual norms are one of the clearest examples of
the mechanism of oppression and repression.47
Berenstein explains that women’s performances of fear are often an over
dramatization to cover whatever pleasure they may gain in witnessing a man’s suffering.
Also, her performances of fear served as a cover for male weakness as the camera focused on
13
her screaming rather than on male suffering.48 In order for feminized male to retain some
value of a traditional gender role women were made weaker as they cowered in fear or
fainted.49 In his ruminations on the relationship between women and horror, Bella Lugosi is
said to explain that women love the genre and, moreover, that they have a ghoulish
compulsion to see men torn, bloody, and in agony.50 Despite whatever enjoyment a woman
may take watching the hero suffering and weak, he luckily triumphs over the fiend and she is
united with him at the film’s close, the union of the heterosexual patriarchal family is
assumed and order is maintained. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a lack of commitment to
the genre in America, perhaps a sense that the shiver of terror was not something to be sought
for its own sake, let alone to be manufactured. By the 1940s major studios mainly ceased to
produce horror, leaving the genre to smaller independent production companies. The serials
that did emerge relied upon the delirium and surreal energy of the gothic and turn of the
century romance.51 I am reminded of Val Lewton’s films in particular that were known for
their surreal quality of theme and the insipid normality of characters. His narratives also dealt
with the psychological and were known for making the audience think more about the
content material than warranted, creating drama with highly symbolic sounds and textures
with the intention of making the audience hypersensitive to the text. 52 Another
characterization of 1930s classic Hollywood horror was that the settings were most often in
foreign locations; Lewton’s films changed this trend by setting his films in America.53
During the 1940s and 1950s many American films fit more into a science fiction
genre than into horror. At this time, English gothic horror flourished in the form of
productions made at Hammer Films that began trends for exploitative sex and violence and
became prominent as a “Sadist Only” category of English gothic films in the 1950s.54
14
Inspiration for many of these films came from pornography and the audiences’ appetite for
violent crime. Peeping Tom (1960) is an excellent example of this category of films as its
cinematography, accompanied at times with the whir of the recorder, clicking of the camera
and the clumsiness of the camera technique reminds us of our complicity in the act, which
arouses guilt, and anxiety in the viewer. In this film it is also significant that the victims, a
prostitute, a starlet, and a pin-up girl, all relied on the power of men’s voyeuristic gaze for
their profit. Also significant is that the killer was not only psychologically scarred by his
father’s experiments in fear, and the result of the constant watch of his father in the son’s
voyeurism, but also in that the killer is a pornographic photographer as well as a cameraman
in a movie studio. These films maintained traditional gender roles, and perhaps were not as
permeable in their representations as classic Hollywood horror. Women remained objects of
desire and obsession, as well as a site for the expression of male anxiety.
The development of American horror in the 1950s into outsider, invasion, and crises
of identity horror film genres, cumulatively referred to as rational horror by Mark Jancovitch,
may be said to reflect the changing concerns and lives of the American public. Jancovitch
argues that the American films of the 1950s were more interested in continuing an
investigation of crises of identity than on commentary of the American family. He
understands all three divisions of narratives as concerned with conceptions of how the
rational may organize the irrational or unconscious, especially in terms of the scientifictechnical management of social, economic, and cultural life, a growing American
phenomenon.55 In these films as well as in American society there was a building anxiety, as
rationality and irrationality both seemed problematic in resisting social and individual
dilemmas.56 These films had layers of meanings as the monstrous, typically in the form of
15
aliens or mutant insects and animals, represented the threats of communist and alternative
ideologies, repressed sexual energy and the security of normal social order through the
patriarchal family.57 These were common, growing concerns and fears among a post-WWII
generation about to enter into a Cold War. Outsider and invasion narratives seemed to view
irrational qualities of emotion, intuition and spontaneity as a possible source of resistance to
rationalism. These qualities were very often attributed to female characters. Despite this
additional, and often beneficial activity, women were generally characterized as passive,
perhaps even more so than in classic horror as they seldom seem to experience the same
sense of activity as a cover for male passivity. In these films there is perhaps an increased
sense of the female as passive to the male. There are less female characters with active
sadistic acts from their association with fiends as vampire films fade to the formula of
science fiction themes of rationalism. Also, the women are often already securely a part of
patriarchal structure as a finance or girlfriend, or in a role where they preside over the care of
a child. In this instance I am referring to The Day the World Stood Still (1951), in this film
the female character is in charge of a young boy who befriends a humanoid alien. Together
they represent the possibility of the family unit and compel the alien character to experience
the warmth of family. In general I would characterize female figures as assisting the male
heroes who, in this period, have increased in competency and effectualness. I say this with
outsider and invasion narratives in mind in particular. I would say that the difference in these
films is that when women are aligned to the abject it is a sense that is beneficial. For instance,
in The Day the World Ended (1955), the virtuous daughter Louise is telepathically connected
with the mutant creature watching over the party of survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Her
ability alerts her danger. In Forbidden Planet (1956), it is the overtly rational female
16
character’s association with a male figure and an exposure to his standards results in her
forming not only the desire to please him but a change in her attitude of extreme rationalism
to empathy and tender emotion. I consider this representation as beneficial as it presents an
example to female viewers to not desire rational character traits as they would impede on
their feminine role as wife and mother. Crisis of identity horror, however, there is an increase
in female roles as psychotic as well as an increase in their implication in the formation of
conflict in the male ego.
Alfred Hitchcock, with his film Psycho (1960), solidified conflict of identity horror
into a genre formula. This genre is referred to as conflict of identity and paranoid horror by
Mark Jancovitch, but others, as well as myself, refer to them as psychological-thrillers or
personality horror.58 Some view this film as a transformation of the horror genre, but rather
than see it as a break from the concerns of rationalism in 1950s films, Jancovitch views this
film as a point in the development of central concerns and features. He notes, Psycho may be
read as either a break in traditional horror forms or a key to understanding horror.59 From that
point on Hollywood cinema recognized horror as both American and familial.60 Norman’s
schizophrenia, resulting from his guilt from his act of matricide against his repressive
mother, represents the more distorted view a perspective on the family may provide. This
film set the tone for the horror films to come where the killer is generally a white male, who
is repressed, abused, and distorted.
Jancovitch states that films following Psycho’s formula may also be referred to as
family horror. These films continued a subversion of horror expectations and focused on the
family as a source of problems as well as an image of community. The upheaval of the
family, presented as a source of tensions and subversions continued the American trend into
17
paranoid horror. Film critic Andrew Tudor explains these films as revolving not simply
around a criterion of family derision, but also around larger social practices and institutions.61
Horror films from the 1930s until the 1960s generally reaffirmed to a secure social
order; even when society created the problem there was still faith in its ability to resolve the
conflict. Paranoid horror, not relying as much on the family, replaces this security with
doubt, experts are often part of the problem and the threat is out of human control. Attributed
to this stage in the developments of horror narratives is the tendency to shift the focus of the
horror narrative from the expert to the victim or monster. This also helps to explain women
characters becoming increasingly active and centralized.62 Jancovitch is not surprised that
female heroines emerge relying on themselves rather than male heroes as a result of a lack in
faith in patriarchal social institutions, experts, and personal identity. As roles may be
blurred, as roles of monster and victim commonly were in 1930s classic horror, dichotomous
distinctions of order and disorder are also blurred in 1960s paranoid horror where threats to
subjectivity may come from within, rather than from without.63
Many horror films of the 1970s continued usual horror trends of sadistic males and
persecuted, or possessed women with heroes as myopic, martyred, or lucky. Films explored
the occult, madmen, monsters, and the forces of nature, science, and the supernatural.
However, despite these diverse perspectives, the audience watching rational and paranoid
horror is still left wondering, “What motivated the killer” regardless of a film’s disjointed
attempt to explain. Critic Charles Derry comments that people leave films like Psycho
reassured that the killer was a crazy man, rather than considering Norman as a man seeming
as normal as anyone, but who wasn’t. However, the main contribution of this film’s formula
was the suggestion that Norman was made a killer as a result of his over active, dominating
18
mother. As these trend in horror continued films like Targets (1968), based on a true story of
a young man suddenly kills his wife, mother, and takes up a sniper position by a drive in,
rejects the psychological basis of previous paranoid horror.64 Instead these films exhibit a
strange sort of matter-of-factness in their use of violence and terror, suggesting that there is
no explanation, some people just kill.65 Crisis of identity, family, paranoid, or personality
horror,66 has the characteristics issues of who is crazy, who is repressive, what is the state of
human nature and religiosity, what is the safety of “normal” people, and what is becoming of
our society or the youth of society. Many films of this time may also be termed as
apocalyptic horror in that gives the sense of civilization condemning itself, yet their
negativity is not incommensurable to the dominant ideology, but constitute the recognition of
that ideologies deterioration.67 The main distinction here is that apocalyptic horror reflects
the possibility of a social revolution, while reactionary horror, the bulk of horror as has been
discussed, evoke terror and panic only to seal it over again.68 In exploring the nature of the
monstrous, reactionary horror invokes sympathy for it, but eventually resolve the issue that
the monstrous is something to be repressed.
The change in themes over the years has evolved from a concern of a crisis of
identity, from external oppressive and repressive forces or self-torture, became more
concerned with the more horrific conception that there is no cause, or no remedy. I this stage
of development in the horror film genre the sexes have reached a point of some equality as
each are cable of horror and insanity. Many women were figured as torturing, repressive, or
insane murderous figures to other women or men as other women were figured as tortured,
attacked, and manipulated. They are not simply objects of desire and models of traditional
19
femininity. At this point, the in horror film genre the security of normalcy was crumbling and
benefits of patriarchal authority were brought severely into doubt.
These factors were continued out into the late 1970s until John Carpenter turned
Psycho on its head with his film Halloween (1978), the narrative of a young boy who
murders his sister, and who returns years later to punish and kill his younger sister and her
friends. This film was the trendsetter for stalker-cycle or slasher horror films. I will refer to
them hereafter as slasher films. Although quite often slasher films are classified as such
because of the activity of the killer as slashing through victims, Dika has chosen to refer to
many of the films that fall under this classification as stalker-cycle.69 Such a title refers to the
“I” camera effect that is produced as we see what the killer sees as he stalks his victims. Such
a title for these films also implies their propensity for sequels.
These films present the killer as simply evil and other. Jancovitch explains that critics
claim slasher films are not commentaries on American society because the killer is not
presented as a product of American society.70 However, other critics such as Vera Dika, as
well as myself, have remarks that may disagree with that assumption. As Vera Dika notes,
slasher films gave excess viewership of socially taboo images of nudity, sex, and violence.
Slasher films appealed to a particular audience in a particular historical and social context,
much like Sadist Only horror which seemed to appeal mainly to white middle class males,
although perhaps not exclusively.71 These films, largely low budget and produced for profit,
a common strategy in the horror film genre, were popular from 1978 into the 1980’s. The
twelve to seventeen age brackets, who, from various social and ethnic backgrounds,
encouraged the actions of both victim and killer, especially favored these films.72 Dika
believes that the slasher films fulfilled the young, diverse audience’s need for a significant
20
message during that particular post-Vietnam period as well as severing as a form of social
ritual. As teens would cheer and scream for either, or both, heroine and stalker, the film
perhaps resolved psychosexual tension as well as the tension they were feeling as youths
about to enter the dangerous and dark world of adulthood.73
The stalker film has brought to the surface what was previously latent content
material. In these films the conflict of the Oedipal stage is apparent manifest content. The
formal elements of the slasher involve the presentation of a past traumatic event and the
continuation of the narrative in the present as the killer resolves emotional conflict through
displaced aggression and violence. We quite often see through the killer’s eyes, as I
mentioned before. This technique serves to make his exact position within the text uncertain
or non-defined, in this way our identification with the killer is created and suspended.74 Ken
Hanke referred to this as not only alienating us from his interior world, but also as
representing the killer’s own separation from it as well.75
Each character dominates a particular space and type of vision. The heroine is the
opposite pole of identification for viewers from the killer. We rarely see her from the killer’s
perspective. Instead she is the object of the spectator’s fictionalized gaze.76 However, we do
see the killer from the heroine’s perspective. As the center of consciousness in the film, the
spectator is allowed to read the heroine’s interior and acknowledge her status, however
limited, as a subject. However, since her humanistic and moralistic attributes are put into a
shifting tension with the spectator’s voyeuristic, and sadistic, identification with the killer,
the two are set into tension and are struggling for dominance both on-screen and in terms of
viewer identification.77 The heroine in slasher films, as outlined by Vera Dika, is strong
willed, practical, has a variety of well-developed skills, and is dedicated and dutiful, with a
21
high moral character. Laurie, in Halloween, for instance, is attentive in class, sensitive and
caring to the young boy she baby-sits, and is shy about the subject of dating. Also, unlike her
friends she dresses in skirts. The victim-heroine engages in significant narrative action
through her ability to perceive the situation and to utilize violence. Dika considers these last
qualities as giving her an essentially masculine position.
Here, I disagree to the extent that although I can also say these qualities are often
attributed as being masculine I do not choose to exclude them as being distinctly and only
masculine. Instead I would like to refer to a character such as the heroic final girl, the
victim-heroine, as being inclusive in gender. She has both masculine and feminine attributes.
My stance is in line with radical feminist views that would argue that the definitions of
masculine and feminine attributes are a patriarchal construct that limit both men and women
in their social construction of self from realizing their full range of potentialities and
emotions.78 Some critics do not acknowledge these characters as possibly presenting
inclusive gender performances, and instead read them as the masking of a male hero in a
female form to lessen the traumatic experience of the male, while also providing him with
more fanciful eye candy. This assertion holds until one considers how more contemporary
horror has increased the ineffectual aptitude of male characters to such a level that for a male
viewer to identify with them he would be admitting his own chauvinistic guilt, his depressive
emotional states, and his feelings of ineffectualness and failure. Perhaps the new male
characterizations are the result of a sense of the white male’s attachment to old social norms
of patriarchy, egoism, and hegemonic social oppression. The increasing ineffectual
characterization is also perhaps the result of the continuation of the genre’s tendency to
minimize male heroics and to continue a trend of reciprocating gender.
22
The heroine is accompanied by a group of friends. They, however, are not model
citizens, good students, or possessing a high moral character in the same way that the heroine
is presented. However, they are typically healthy, attractive, and /or lively. Although they
are not conventional, they are presented as undistinguished or non-specific. The heroines
friends are regular middle class Americans, depicted generally as white, although not
always.79 These characters are involved with each other; they are innocent and engaging in
trivial activities. They are generally unproductive and are not aware of reality. These
characters are meant to appeal to a broad audience base as being regular people.80 They are
engrossed with the present, and it is this failing which spells their doom.
Dika makes the point that although depicted as being in conflict, the killer, heroine,
and her friends are all part of a singular, young community. They all exist as other to an outgroup of older people. The older community may be supportive of the young, although
typically they are not. Regardless of this, their actions generally do not affect the outcome of
the film, except as a lone authority figure or expert may enter the film's action to make a last
minute gesture to save the final girl. In general, despite any good intentions of an old
community member, the people are unable to ward off, or divert, the slaughter of the young
and old alike.81
Dika outlines the structure of the slasher as being in two parts, in this way slightly
altering the normative progression of narrative. These are the initial experience that
traumatizes the future killer, and the main action of the film that is set at a later date where
the killer returns to avenge his trauma and commemorate the past action. Often in slasher
films there is the implication of the community for the fault of the first trauma, either through
direct involvement or indirectly as the outcome of the dysfunctional or abusive social
23
relations. The setting is important to this as a relic of the past event and motivation for new
action. Time may also be significant as an anniversary of the past trauma and thereby also a
motivator for the new. 82
Implying that the community, or social relations in general, are at fault for the trauma
that creates a killer further increases the importance to this analysis of social attitudes and
behaviors in horror films. Michael, in Halloween, represents the psychosexual trauma latent
in the social parenting practices of the white middle class family. Michael’s Oedipal
attachments may have been projected onto his elder sister rather than his mother, as latch key
kids are typical in white middle class families. Perhaps conflicted by sexual desires projected
onto his sister, who he witnesses engaging in sexual activity with her boyfriend, unconcerned
of her young brother’s whereabouts, enraged his ego as he felt his connection with her was
broken. Another interpretation is that he misinterprets sex as violent, or that he is by nature
entirely desensitized to human suffering or social morality. Yet another interpretation may be
that Michael sought to take over the patriarchal role in his parent’s absence and punish his
sister for her negligence and promiscuity. He walks out of the house silent, perhaps awaiting
his parent’s praise. In Friday the 13th Part 1(1980), directed by Sean S. Cunningham, mother
Vorhees is avenging the death of her son Jason on new camp counselors at Camp Crystal
Lake in recompense for the original counselors negligently having sex while Jason was
swimming in the lake. In Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), directed by Wes Craven, we
become familiarized with the killer who, in dreams, is avenging his lynching by fire in the
school boiler room by community parents whose children were his innocent victim’s in life.
In this tale the sins of the parents are borne by their children.
24
In order to further explain the social significance of slasher films, I would like
to reconstruct the argument given by Vera Dika in her text Games of Terror: Halloween,
Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle. In her argument she recalls events from
the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dika also discusses the relation of the horror genre to the
western, each represents social attitudes and follow characteristic norms of myths. She places
slasher horror as inheritors of the popularity westerns once held, and considers them to be
influenced by the horror, science fiction and western genres that preceded them.
The significant message of slasher horror is far from evident if one sees only the
senseless violence. However, the return to the primal scene, the excessive use of force, and
the empowerment of the women also reveal the American political attitudes of the time. The
1970s represents a swing from liberalism back to conservatism. This swing was prompted in
part by rising inflation and reduced buying power and a sense of America’s inability to
respond effectively to international crises, as in the 1979 Iran hostage situation. Increased
military spending and a return to traditional ideas of patriarchy as a defensive response to
such feelings of impotence and humiliation marked this conservatism.83
The desire to insure security in an uncertain economic future was further translated
into a reevaluation of traditional values. The 1960s rebellion against these values was
replaced by a reinstitution of marriage, family, and religion. The cultural climate of the late
1970s was a reversal of the 1960s aesthetic. As the slasher films gained in popularity, so did
punk music and punk fashion as well as a practice of the postmodern aesthetic. The 1960s
attitude of peace and love was replaced with attitudes of a harsh, aggressive artificiality.
Slasher films share in the changing cultural aesthetic as they, like art of the time, used
materials from earlier films, their works almost entirely composed from previously seen
25
narrative and cinematic elements. The high level of violence in the films presents the social
attitude that disavows earlier preferences for pacifism. The election of Ronald Reagan to the
presidency in 1980 affirmed the political desire to undo the attitudes of the ‘60s. As America
has traditionally viewed itself as a redeeming nation possessing moral purity, the western
hero persona of Reagan represented the superior skillful person who is compelled to use
violence out of his concern for the safety of others. The popularity of the western may be due
to its dramatized expression of the fantasy of legitimized violence. The reuse of this image in
the Reagan presidency displayed the nation’s desire to return to that type of attitude. America
wanted to be perceived as kind and good as well as ever ready and willing to use ultimate
force.84
The relationship between existing social events, conditions and the development of
the new film formula of slasher horror is best represented in an examination of its deep
structural elements. The slasher film has a specific set of elements that distinguish it from
other formulas, such as the two-part structure of a delineating historical event, its use of
binary oppositions, and a focus on the victim-heroine. The binary oppositions exist in
multiple ways, 1) valued/devalued 2) in-group/out-group 3) strong/weak 4) life/death 5)
controlled/uncontrolled (ego/id). These films did not spring into existence, but where the
product of individual artistic interests responding to changes in society and restrictions of the
market. These films embody a personal appraisal of an ongoing conflict. That the films
continued with the support of sustained audience response, some with a ridiculous number of
sequels, offers evidence that there was an appreciation of that attitude by the audience.
Considering the slasher film against the social, political, and economic context of the time of
its development and rise to popularity explains how old ideas are outmoded. As the killer is
26
considered to be a part of the young in-group, the dialogue of the slasher is between opposing
factions of a single young community. These films explain to an insular community how
self-awareness; a more conservative stance in terms of personal and sexual matters; and a
readiness to use violence are once again attitudes that best ensure survival, an attitude
embraced by a growing yuppie generation. This also explains the use of a heroine, as female,
and symbolically “castrated”. She is a symbol for an enfeebled United States, who, once
roused is strong. These films, frequented primarily by a new generation, one not subscribing
to the yuppie dictates of their older siblings, emerge as narrative structures that incorporated
changing social contexts. Slasher films gained force not only by relating to a psychosexual
interest with adolescents, but also by providing an example for social action. These films
allow the audience to participate in the stalker’s game: a game of terror, stimulating both in
its predictability and its surprises, while also infused with ideological purpose.85
Rape-revenge films of the mid-1970s and into the 1980s are also infused with
ideological purpose. Rather than appealing to an adolescent identification with psychosexual
tensions, and the uncertain nature of the future, these films refer to the social oppression of
women by exposing the dynamics of gender relations. Perhaps these films began as a
continuation of the victim-heroine focus from slasher horror, appealing to a women viewers
with plausible female characters; they have built off the space slasher horror unwittingly
exposed, that of women’s social victimization. These films represent the space of women’s
social oppression under the pervasive social norm of male chauvinism that the women’s
liberation movement sought to expel in the 1970s and after. These films are may be viewed
as reactionary in that they do not accept the simple definition of the monstrous as simply evil.
The manner in which these films modify the question of the monstrous is unique in how it
27
challenges patriarchal authority by facing it with a very real act that is implicitly condoned
by its rule. Also, this film is not reactionary because it allows no room for sympathy for the
monstrous. The rapist is abhorrent to men and especially to women. The events in raperevenge films expose the mechanism of the assumed authority and will of men at its worst, in
a very realistic manner. More shocking than a true crime, these films expose an area of
behavior that has been ignored, trivialized, and reduced to be the fault of the woman raped.86
Also, the sealing of the monstrous at the end of the film does not suggest a continuation of its
repression, but in fact signal an awakening to its presence and the will of women to remove
it.87
These films generally play on the single axis of male/female relations, however, as
with many horror narratives, the plot’s tension may include the binary oppositions of
city/country, high class/low class, and justice/injustice. What is most interesting about these
particular films is that rather than present the attackers, or rapists, as psychologically
disturbed they are presented as normalized males in society. Quite often the narrative exposes
and comments on the nature of male group dynamics as being implicitly involved in sexual
harassment and rape.
The film I Spit On Your Grave a.k.a Day of the Woman (1978), offers the explanation
for rape as having to do with male social nature, or male sexual nature as it is constituted by
group dynamics.88 Jennifer, a romance writer from New York, rents a summerhouse in the
country to write a novel. She first meets Johnny, a gas station attendant. After stretching her
legs while he pumps her gas, we see his friends, Stanley and Andy, competing in a knife
throwing game. Jennifer leaves for the summerhouse. The difference between Jennifer and
Johnny is an evident regional and class distinction. She is from the city, educated, well
28
mannered, wearing a pretty red dress and heels, and driving a car Johnny could only imagine
owning. The class tensions are compounded by Johnny’s situation as a struggling mechanic,
always in his overalls, with lay-about bums for friends. The difference between Jennifer and
the country people is furthered when we see Johnny’s wife, slightly overweight, in jeans, a Tshirt, sneakers, and a jean-jacket. Jennifer seems to always be well dressed, and stylish, she
is especially thin, with very long wavy hair.
When Jennifer is at her summer home she calls to the local grocery to have an order
delivered to her. Matthew, who is mentally deficient, brings them to her on his bicycle. Later
he discusses Jennifer with Johnny, Stanley, and Andy while they are fishing. There is a
general discussion of women in cities and how they “fuck around a lot.” The men joke with
Matthew about his virginity and taunt him that he doesn’t find women attractive. He tells him
that he likes Jennifer and that he could see her “tits, tits with no bra” through her shirt when
he delivered the groceries. The conversation eventually turns to Andy and Stanley’s desire to
do to New York or California where there are lots of women just waiting to get fucked.
The next day, Jennifer is sunning herself in her canoe. The men buzz by her on a
speedboat. They take up the line on her canoe, pull her along behind them and eventually let
her go onto land. They chase her down and tear her small bikini off her. She cries out and
continuously calls them bastards. First they offer her to Matthew and imply that they had
gotten her for him to loose his virginity. The men tease him that he may never get another
opportunity. Johnny strips and rapes her while the others hold her down. They let her walk
away, and after letting her roam the woods the men surround her in a clearing in the forest.
Stanley sodomizes her against a rock. This act one-ups Johnny, and establishes a conflict in
the pecking order of the group, made up of Johnny, Stanley, Andy, and Matthew. Andy and
29
Matthew hold her arms and Johnny watches from directly behind Stanley holding Jennifer’s
legs. At first he looks a bit upset or surprised. However, besides the homosexual tone of this
scene, one may instead notice the approving look that forms on Johnny’s face. They leave
Jennifer to walk to her summerhouse where they are waiting for her again. Matthew, excited
by the atmosphere of Jennifer’s rough treatment, takes a few shots of the whisky and finds
the courage to rape her as the others cheer him with calls of “Go, Go, Go!” Andy walks over
and places his foot on Matthew behind, shoving him into Jennifer. However, Matthew is
unable to climax with the others watching. Andy tries to force fellatio, but Jennifer is
unconscious. Matthew yells at him, “You wanted total submission, you got it!” At no time do
the men seem concerned for Jennifer, during Johnny’s act of rape the others seemed nervous,
but not from doubts or out of compassion for Jennifer. They read her work and mock her
description of “making love.” The men leave with a comment that the manuscript had
confirmed that city girls “fuck around” a lot. Johnny tells Matthew to kill Jennifer but he is
unable and wipes blood on the knife to satisfy the others. Jennifer slowly recovers, and goes
to a church to ask forgiveness before she begins her revenge. When Jennifer confronts her
attackers each pleads his case that it was the other man’s idea; Matthew blames Johnny,
Johnny blames Stanley. In his defense Johnny cries to her, “This thing with you is a thing
any man would have done. You coax a man into doing it to you and a man gets a message
fast…first thing, you come to the gas station, you expose your dam sexy legs to me…”
Jennifer proves to be even more vicious as vicious as her attackers. Unlike them she
has carefully calculated and planned her actions. She lures both Johnny and Matthew into a
false sense of security by pretending she is interested in them sexually. She even has sex with
Matthew in order to place a noose around his neck. At fist she tries the direct approach with
30
Johnny, but seems to give into his pleas and invites him to her place where she will give him
a bath. Johnny, totally buying into the idea that she had really like their first sexual encounter
is completely unsuspecting. She tells him that she killed Matthew and he laughs, saying she
has some sense of humor. He barely notices that she has castrated him until blood begins to
flow noticeably into the tub. She locks him in the bathroom and plays a record, waiting for
him to bleed to death.
It is in the nature of revenge stories that the avenger becomes directly or indirectly as
violent as her assailant, to some measure these films are about that transformation. I found
this film to remain somewhat distanced from all action, except the rape scenes where we are
often view the attackers from Jennifer’s perspective. The camera also focuses at length on
Jennifer’s tortured body and shots of the rapist’s threatening faces; in this manner the viewer
is forced into a position of victim, not villain. 89 The extreme long shots at ground level are
meant to imply the viewer’s position as being given a vantage on the story. Also, the purpose
is to perhaps retain a feeling of separation from the violence. When Jennifer observes Johnny
with his family in her rearview mirror, the shot remains at the distance of her perspective
rather than moving in for an optimal vantage on the scene. I read this as realistic, as well as
signifying her lack of compassion, she views them at a distance as she is distanced from
compassion for the harm she will bring to the family with Johnny’s murder. There are few
close ups on Jennifer’s acts of violence, and I read this as maintaining her distance from the
acts as well as a form of de-emphasizing these acts of violence in comparison to her rape.
This film was considered to be unsuitable due to extreme violent content, its screenings
suffered forced closure and video releases were banned for private viewing for some time.90
31
Rape-revenge films also expose the trauma and humiliation women experience when
the rape is reported and the legal system is unsupportive. Films like Lipstick (1976), directed
by Lamont Johnson, and The Accused (1988), directed by Jonathan Kaplan, depict the
woman’s use of the legal system and the trial. In each of these films the female victim is
plagued beyond her rape by questions of her attack and her personal life. In this way the
films reveal the tenuous position of autonomous women in society. Being sexually active,
having sexual fantasies, dressing provocatively are all held against these women as they seek
justice for their rapes in court. Also, men in these films approach the subject of rape with
insensitivity for the woman involved, wondering why she cannot get over it, or let it go.
Lipstick presents rape as a form of male revenge, but as in I Spit on your Grave, in
order to expose it as such and not to draw us into it. The rapist, Gordon Stuart, a music
teacher and would-be composer, resents Chris McCormick, a famous and beautiful model.
He resents her for not liking his music and fulfilling his hope that she might present his
music to influential people to start his career. He reaffirms his masculinity by forcing her to
wear the lipstick she models, tying her to her bed and sodomizing her. The scene is brief and
entirely lacking any erotic context. Chris reports the rape and Gordon is arrested. However,
her female lawyer warns her that it will be difficult to prove rape because Chris had invited
Gordon into her condominium. Chris’s boyfriend advises her not to go through with the case
because of what it might do to her career. But Chris wants him to pay for what he did, she
says, “ He tried to kill me, he tried to kill me with his cock.”
Gordon’s defense plays on the fact that Chris had also invited Gordon to a photo
shoot on the beach where she was erotically posing in the nude. They also ask her how she
poses so erotically and if she imagines sexual scenarios, to which she answers, “yes.” Her
32
lawyer defends her and asks what the ads are selling; she answers that they are selling
lipstick. The lawyer then asks why the ads show her as they do. Chris responds that she is
supposed to represent what every woman wants to be. Presented as a cock tease to the jury,
Gordon is found not guilty. However, sometime later while Chris is at a photo shoot, her
younger sister Kathy becomes bored and roams around the building. On another floor she
discovers her former music teacher practicing a dance routine with her former classmates.
After they leave Gordon notices Kathy on the landing above. He asks her to come and talk
with him. He says he want to share with her what she has been missing out on, his music. He
places a microphone on her chest so she can hear her heartbeat and breathing. He continues
to lick the microphone and place it lower and lower on her chest. She becomes frightened
and runs away. He catches up to her and rapes her. When Kathy stumbles back to the photo
studio, she tells her sister that it was Mr. Stuart, Gordon. In her beautiful evening gown,
Chris runs out into the parking lot and takes a rifle from her truck. Chris and her sister where
planning to leave the photo shoot and go directly into the mountains; in her apartment we had
a glimpse of this possible ending as we saw a of a photo of Chris shooting her rifle in a
mountain setting. She spots Gordon driving out of the lot and shoots him several times until
the car wrecks. The police come, take away her rifle, handcuff Chris and escort her away.
When we next see Chris it is with a distressed look on her face as her lawyer makes her
closing statement. She tells the jury that acquitting Chris would be justice, as the system had
failed her and her sister when the matter was first brought before the court, and indeed she is
acquitted.
Another film that presents a woman’s humiliation and struggle for justice is The
Accused (1988). This academy award winning film begins with a man reporting a rape
33
outside a bar. Next, we watch as a screaming girl runs from the bar into the street where a
truck stops and picks her up. We next see her at the hospital. This woman, Sarah Tobias is
reporting her rape. They ask her questions about her sex life and if she has ever had a
venereal disease. They ask her to lift her gown to photograph her many cuts and bruises.
Soon her lawyer, Kathryn Murphy arrives with a fresh set of clothes and drives her home.
During the hospital sequence we also watch as the doctor, also a woman, asks Sarah to relax
while her feet are in the stirrups of a gynecological table while they examine her, take sperm
specimens, and comb for the men’s hairs.
Her lawyer tells Sarah Tobias, a waitress or questionable character, that it will be
difficult proving her case. As another lawyer put it, “she was drunk, stoned, and did
everything but yank their dicks.” Kathryn Murphy is presented as being a good lawyer who
does not like to lose. She plea-bargains the case to reckless endangerment. When Sarah hears
this on the television she is furious. She goes to Kathryn’s apartment and chastises her for
“selling her out.” After Sarah encounters one of the spectators to her rape in a record store
where he harasses her, she rams his truck with her car and is hospitalized. Kathryn chases
down the man outside the hospital and asks him if he knew the girl. After denying he knew
her, he admitted while walking away that she was the girl in the ‘show’ at the bar. Kathryn
spends the night going through law books until she finds a statute that implicated those who
solicit, encourage, or provoke illegal activity. On this basis, Kathryn sets out to bring the
spectators on charges. Their indictment would then ensure the other men convicted for
reckless endangerment would stay in prison the full five years of their sentence, and more
importantly to Sarah, she would get to tell her story. However, we do not hear a full account
of the rape until the man who reported the rape takes the stand.
34
The rape scene in The Accused also represents the nature of male social activity as
implicit in the occurrence of the rape as it is presented to us in a flashback from the
perspective of the fraternity boy, Ken Joyce, who reported the rape. In this sequence we are
made more than positive that the crowd encouraged the rape. Sarah came into the bar scantily
dressed in a halter-top and mini-skirt, she had flirted with a man who was sending her drinks
from the bar and smiled at another fraternity student who had come to the bar with Ken after
a game. The man from the bar, Danny, asked her if she wanted to play pinball. She goes into
the game room and is soon playing pinball with Danny and the other frat boy, Larry. As she
plays the camera watches her from across the room, and watches her hips sway as she moves
from behind. Danny begins to come on to her, asking if she wants to get out of there, but her
favorite song comes on the juke box and she uses it as an opportunity to move away from
him. She begins to dance alone, in a seductive manner until Danny begins to dance with her.
He begins kissing her, and walking her over to a pinball machine while the others encouraged
him. As she begins to struggle he places his hand on her throat and squeezes. When someone
said, “he’s really going to do it here,” a crowd formed, cheered him on, and invited others to
participate. As they chant “poke that pussy ‘til its sore,” the similarity between the rape and a
sporting event is evident. This film was also the subject of debate due to its portrayal of rape.
Some considered it to whet the appetites of sadistic viewers, others critics91 considered the
trauma as trivialized. Jodi Foster, who stars as Sarah Tobias referred to this scene as
“Uplifting, but on an important practical level.”
Clover remarks that it is perhaps no coincidence that the most high budget production
of a rape-revenge narrative be one that not only focused on third party intervention, but one
that also succeeds in meeting out justice and showing the legal system as friendly to women.
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This narrative is based on real events, and many cases in the last decade have been brought to
trial. However in many instances men plead “rough sex” and are acquitted, some are
convicted and sentenced only to return after release and kill the woman who turned then in.92
Clover also comments that in this most civilized production, something gets lost. There is a
sense that the third party, the legal system, becomes the hero. Focus has shifted from the
victim to her lawyer. We become engaged with her struggle to gain the support of her
colleges, to triumph over the warning from her colleagues that she may lose her career, and
her meetings with reluctant witnesses. This film has moved from questions of why men rape
and how victims feel to questions of what constitutes evidence. Another factor that detracts
from the success of this film is its insensitivity to fact that the fear that accompanies rape
begins where this film has ended, when the jury pronounces a sentence of guilty as charged.
Although this film does bring male gazing into account by punishing the cheering spectators
to the rape, the authority of that charge is based entirely on the male spectator, Ken.93
In contrast, Rape-revenge films affirm not a male-centered legal system but a
woman’s right to her body, her right to consent. Regardless of the focus on the victim or her
lawyer, these films affirm the presence of a female protagonist in the horror genre. These
films are also lacking a homosocial environment, as mainly women dominate the screen. As
the traditional icon of horror, a woman’s fear and suffering are being replaced by her active
search for social justice and the protection of her form. What is disturbing about these films
is how they enforce a message of male passivity by providing men with a passive model of
assistance, or a model for male chauvinism and insensitivity. Rather than be the hero
charging to her rescue, or exhibiting sensitivity to her plight, they emotionally and physically
draw away from her. Both Chris and Sarah lose their boyfriends during the films. Even Ken,
36
the star witness in a film that tells women to rely on the legal system like The Accused is
mainly reluctant and unwilling until he enters the courtroom. In a dangerous society where
women are not safe to be out alone, perhaps male spectators are given the message that
women have to resist and combat their own horror alone.94
The increasing interest on the victim has subverted itself into a focus on the female
role as hero, who is now a force seeking out social disturbances. These films are also not
reactionary in a typical sense. There is still no sympathy for the monstrous. Although the
question of the nature of the monstrous is not addressed and is almost accepted as simply
evil, there is no sense of the apocalyptic, that society is disintegrating from its own means.
There is the suggestion that more serial killers are being produced in our society today than
in the past in Copycat, but the film deals with their presence matter-of-factly. What is
progressive about this film is that it presents the possibility of social change in the reduction
of an emphasis on sexuality in the image of its heroines, however the manner of resolving the
monstrous still a matter of repression. One could argue that the progressive element in these
films is the ‘pop’ feminism that reduces the question of sexual difference and a legacy of
patriarchal oppression to the suggestion that women can do anything men can do.95 However,
this analysis diminishes what the representations of female authority heroes represent. They
are not simply women who can do what men can do, rather they represent the fact that there
are social roles that must be filled by competent capable persons, the gender is not
significant, only the ability. To say that these performances assert women can do what men
can do, is to not accept these films as representing what patriarchal order attempts to repress,
that men can be feminine and women can be feminine. Although these films challenge clearcut sexual distinctions upon which the ideology of bourgeois-capitalist builds its foundations,
37
it does so in a way which affirms the winds of change. Not apocalyptic in the sense that
civilization is condemning itself, instead this signifies how alternative ideologies become
incorporated and how past sources of meaning are left to search for a new form of
expression. This is represented in the male heroes expression of femininity remaining
exposed or as sexually harassing ideals are left hanging without female support.
Another change in the gender dynamics of horror involves placing more blame on the
typically male killer and instituting a female authority hero or an empowered female victimhero. In Silence of the Lambs, Kiss the Girls and Copycat the killer is representative of the
horror of a twisted male ego in a state of narcissistic crisis, rather than as was previously
typical in slasher horror, an oedipal crisis. These men, less motivated by fear of a repressive
or overt female sexuality, are more motivated by the desire to abate their own fears of
inadequacy and self hate. This frustration is then acted out by a desire to claim mastery over
a woman in a forced intimate relation, as in Kiss the Girls. The attempt to resolve inner
conflict is present in the killer’s designing a suit of female flesh in Silence of the Lambs.
However, although this killer is said to perceive his dilemma as relating to his sexual
confusion he is described as having a pathology that is far more deadly and savage. The killer
in Copycat struggles not only with the repressive female forces wife and mother (although
this is not emphasized, with only one brief scene to support this conjecture), but also his
desire for attention by recreating crime scenes of famous serial killers of the past. The killers
in these films also implicate male hyper rationality how they are extremely technical and
precise, unlike the killers in slasher horror who were chaotic, uncontrolled and fascinated by
the disorder caused by the opening of their victim’s body
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As the characterizations of killer combine the social and the psychological, the
significance of female sexuality has increased. For instance, as slasher films were played out
into the 1980s and 90s it was no longer important that the victim-hero is a virgin.96 Also, as
the victim-heroine’s role was once relegated to patriarchal authority, she is now left alone at
the end of a film’s close without a mate. As the contemporary true crime thrillers now
include an empowered victim or a competent female police authority, that woman is now
alone at the end of the film’s close represents an autonomous female in society who is able to
bear the burden of her protection, and successfully weather attacks. Women in the role of
police authority both adds to a conception of a role of personality rather than a role of
sexuality as well as representing how women have taken social action through social roles to
combat victimization.
In Kiss the Girls (1997), the heroine, Kate, is depicted as a doctor who enjoys kick
boxing in her spare time. The killer has selected her because he considers her special, he says
that he appreciates her intelligence. She has had very few intimate relationships, and is
extremely competent in her work as well as sensitive to her patients needs. She wears jeans
and a backpack purse when not in her scrubs, and exudes femininity. The killer, known as
Casanova, has collected a number of women who he feels are worthy of his lovetalented,
beautiful, intelligent women. In this film, Kate is empowered by her experience. She
disobeys the rules Casanova has imposed upon her. She cries out to the other women, she
attacks and overcomes him with her acquired kick boxing skills and escapes her captor. So
empowered by her experience and her empathy and concern for the women held captive, she
insists to be allowed to assist in the investigation. She states to the forensic psychologist also
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assisting on the case, who, significantly, is an African-American male, “don’t treat me like a
tourist in this because I wasn’t raped.”
The portrayal of Alex Cross, the forensic psychologist is significant to this analysis
because his performance serves as another example of an alternative to an expert figure that
is a white, male. Cross is a hero, almost a superhero, in comparison to typical male heroes as
well as to the white police figures who surround him. He is a well-known and respected
expert in his field, sympathetic, up to the challenge, and drives an expensive sports car.
When we first meet Alex he is on the scene of a murder. A woman had killed her husband,
and was in her bedroom threatening to kill herself. Alex talks her out of it by appealing to her
sense of justice. He asks her how often her husband beat her, and if he was usually drunk
when he did. He tells her that he can find her a good lawyer, and that with photos of her
bruises no one would convict her. He tells her, “if is you pull the trigger, no one will know
the truth.” Presented as sympathetic to women’s interests in this case, his character’s appeal
is furthered by his relationship with his family. Notified that his niece has been missing for
days he calms his sister and promises her that he will go to Charlotte and help with the
investigation to bring his niece, Naomi, home. When Alex does meet the investigating
officers they are friendly and ask him politely to stay out of the way. Yet, compared to Cross
they provide little insight into the investigation.
Alex decides to further the investigation on his own by tracking a lead to a serial
killer in California known as the Gentleman Caller. Two other officers, one white, one black,
and Kate accompany him. When the killer detects their presence outside his mountain home,
he kills the white officer, while the other two men continue the chase unsuccessfully. Kate
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has the most affect in this sequence. She tries to stop him by driving the car into his truck as
he passes her while driving away.
Love is an important topic in this film. After a kickboxing lesson we watch as Kate
relaxes in a sauna with a friend. Her friend is talking about relationships, the ideal guy. Kate
tells her that she wants a relationship that reflects the love she had seen in her father’s eyes
when he looked at her mother. When Casanova holds her captive, she asks him why she is
there. He tells her she is there to experience love. After her escape, Kate is talking about this
with Alex. She recalls to him that Casanova had told her that he loved her, and she scoffs that
he does not know what love is. Alex tells her that she should multiply the hate she feels for
him by a hundred, that would equal how much Casanova believes he loves her. Indeed, he
does believe that he loves Kate. When he attacks her in her home during the film’s final
sequence, he tells her that he had sacrificed for her. But now, he was going to show her what
sacrifice means.
The killer in this film is interesting because his homicidal tendencies are tied to a
popular conception of a “normal” relationship between a man and a woman, rather than a
repressed, confused, or avenging ego. When Alex arrives just in time to stop Casanova from
lighting gas that was leaking in the house and killing all three of them in Kate’s house, he
tried to distract the killer by engaging him in conversation. Casanova, whose identity is now
revealed to be Nick Ruskin, one of the investigators to the murders, tells Alex that he should
understand his drive to tear women down. But Alex responds, “I don’t work like that,” and
shoots Nick through a milk carton in order to eliminate the sparks the shot would have
produced and avoid lighting the gas. The killer’s “normal” expectations of love was that love
was for him to give and women to receive, that women were to obey him, sacrifice for him,
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and fulfill his needs. His expression of this love was further corrupted by his obsession with
domination as he collected a number of women and kept them loved in rooms until he
desired their presence.
In Silence of the Lambs (1991), an academy award wining film by director Jonathan
Demme, we see a figure of female authority in training. Pulled out of training, she is assigned
to assist in the investigation of a series of murders where the killer skins his victims, weighs
them down, and puts them into different rivers. She is surrounded by male mentor figures
assisting her. Some of the men attempt to woo or romance her, but Clarice is established as
being career oriented with little time for men except in a mentor capacity.
In the opening sequence we are made aware of the life Clarice Starling has chosen for
her self written on a sign in the training field, “Hurt, Agony, Pain,Love It.” She has chosen
a male dominated field, which is made obvious when she enters an elevator filled with men
dressed in red jogging suits who tower over her small frame. Her assignment begins with her
instructions to administer a standard evaluation to Dr. Lector, known as Hannibal the
Cannibal. When she is sent to question Dr. Lector, a mature killer who eats his victims, he
asks her if Jack Crawford, the head of the criminal behavioral science division, has romantic
interests in her, if that is why he is helping her career. She answers that she is not interested
in that sort of thing.
Dr. Lector seems to be attracted to Clarice and bargains for a psychological profile of
Buffalo Bill, the killer she is seeking, in return for personal information about herself. In their
sessions of quid pro-quo, she recalls for him the story of her father’s death. He was a town
Marshall who was killed when he surprised thieves coming out of a store. Her mother had
also died when she was very young. Clarice was sent to live with relatives who were
42
ranchers. One night she had woken to the sounds of screaming. She went out to see what was
the matter, and found the lambs screaming as they were being herded out for slaughter. She
had lifted one onto her shoulders and ran. Picked up by the local police she was returned to
the ranch. The rancher was so angry she was sent away, and her lamb was killed. This story
fascinates Dr. Lector as it reveals the driving force within Clarice, her desire to stop the
screams of the innocent. Dr. Lector had drawn images of her holding a lamb.
Despite such feminine compassion, Clarice is also an able agent with the composure
and intellect usually associated with the men who find and stop killers. She is quick at
noticing and solving the various anagrams’ Dr. Lector uses. She uses her imagination to
solve her case, trying to think as Buffalo Bill thinks. She also takes her own initiative.
Crawford had told her not to tell Lector anything personal, that she didn’t want someone like
him inside her head. But she does tell him personal details about her life. Also, when Lector
does begin to analyze her, with the intent of breaking down her personal resolve, insulting
her with the truth, she retains her composure and redirects the attack to him. This is probably
what makes Lector appreciate her character. She also takes an extra initiative to continue
interviewing people on the death of Fredrika Bimmel, the first victim. This choice is lucky,
as the lead Crawford was following was incorrect. When Clarice interviews the man who had
taken over a seamstress’ business the victim had worked for, she notices the death’s head
moth as it lands on spindles of thread. He runs and she follows him into the basement. When
she enters a pitch-black room, we gain his perspective as he watches her with night vision
goggles. This incredibly voyeuristic scene is ended when Clarice uses another female
attributed sense, her hearing. She hears his gun click as he prepares to fire. She turns and
empties her chamber into his torso.
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Yet, Clarice also demonstrates feminine traits. She relates well with others as is
shown in her friendship with her roommate, Ardelia, one of the few black women in these
films to survive. I view her as an example of an increasing tendency to represent society as it
is, and not exclude the representation to a white only society. We see the two female agents
support each other. They recite law codes to each other while they jog. Ardelia also helps
Clarice decipher the profile Dr. Lector had composed on Buffalo Bill, and she calls Clarice to
warn her when Dr. Lector escapes. Another interesting comment on gender relations in this
film is the sequence when Clarice and Ardelia are jogging together, they are passing by a
group of men who turn to watch the women as they jog by. The two women, however, do not
notice them at all. Another indication, along with Clarice’s masculine, practical, wardrobe, is
that they are as serious about their careers as any man is assumed to be.
This narrative, rather than presenting a masculinized female, presents Clarice as a
woman who is successfully making her way in a dangerous, male-dominated career. She is
versatile in her abilities and also considerate and friendly to others. She combines the most
positive attributes of traditional conceptions of femininity and masculinity.
Copycat (1995) is another film that represents a successful female in a maledominated profession. This film is focused on the work of a police lieutenant, M.J. Monahan,
her partner, Rubin, and a clinical psychologist, Helen Hudson, who together profile the serial
killer on the loose in San Francisco. This film follows the two-part structure of slasher horror
in that it introduces a primary trauma, with the main action occurring thirteen months later.
The difference is that the first trauma served not only to nullify the courage of the clinical
psychologist, Helen, but also as an activator for the killer who is basis of the plot. The fist
trauma, when Helen was attacked, was committed by another killer, Daryl Lee, who exists as
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a mentor to Peter, the central killer to the plot. He also serves as a reminder that the trauma
and horror does not end with the death of Peter at the film’s close, as we see him writing a
letter to another fledgling killer.
As a result of her attack at the film’s start, Dr. Hudson is, as described by Monahan,
an agoraphobic, pill-popping juice head. However, when she is taken captive at the film’s
end she overcomes her fear in order to escape. She runs outside onto the rooftop and when
there is nowhere left to run she turns and confronts her attacker. Laughing, she holds up her
cuffed hands and says, “Put up your dukes.” In this way this film’s final girl’s re-experience
of trauma empowers her to face her fear.
Police Lieutenant M.J. Monahan experiences an awakening to her capabilities and the
realities of the world in terms of effective law enforcement. When we first meet her she is
going through a drill exercise with her partner Rubin. She gives him the lesson of
conservative police work. She suggests that he aim for the brachial nerve, thereby forcing the
criminal to drop the gun without eliciting a wrongful death action or a slur on his character.
Later, when she puts this theory into action, her partner dies as a result. The man, who was
holding her partner hostage in a violent scene unrelated to the central plot, simply picks up
the gun with his other hand and shoots Rubin from behind on the floor. The use of this scene
is an unusual function of this film in comparison to other horror or thriller films, because the
cause of his death was completely unrelated to the main action. However, this sequence
serves to provide commentary on male inadequacy, as it highlights Nicoletti’s failure, and
later his emotional weakness.
At the film’s close when M.J. confronts Peter she is shot, however, she was wearing a
bulletproof vest and is able to come to Helen’s rescue on the roof. One may speculate that if
45
the man were the authority hero in this film he would not have been wearing a vest, and
Helen would be left to save herself. However, she does come to Helen’s aid, and from across
the roof, unseen by the camera, she shoots Peter in the brachial nerve before he plunges a
knife into Helen. He turns and we see her struggle to steady herself and squint as she
anticipates his movements. As he goes for his gun, she shoots again and again until he is
finally dead. From this scenario, M.J. has learned the severity of police work and that the true
nature of the criminal is such that he will not be deterred by a mere shot to the arm.
This film is also interesting as it reveals the relationship between M.J. and Nicoletti,
another lieutenant who works Chinatown. Nicoletti is ultimately responsible for Rubin’s
death. It was his prisoner who attempted to escape from the prescient holding Rubin hostage
with Nicoletti’s gun, which he had put in the drawer beside the prisoner without locking it.
We know that she had a relationship with Nicoletti, but that he had cheated on her at a point
prior to the action of the film. He is repentant, but she will not forgive him his indiscretion.
What is significant is that M.J. is shown as a tough but sweet policewoman. There are
several exchanges with the police lieutenant that exhibit her ability to speak her mind at
work. When she is upset that he chose to sequester evidence without asking or informing her,
she asks, “Am I in charge of this case or not?” After an discussion on the matter, he tells her,
“You sure are a pushy broad.” When she says she wants to ask Dr. Hudson for advice on the
case since no one on staff has experience with a serial killer, the lieutenant says that he has
had experience. M.J responds, “You were on the Scorpio killer case right? Did they ever
catch him, or did he die of old age?” Here she uses sarcasm to express her point in a friendly
but humiliating way.
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She is serious about her job, but remains friendly and relaxed. She never raises her
voice to make herself heard or to affirm her position; her dominance is in her tone. Also, M.J.
is typically wearing a knee-length skirt, a button down shirt, and a jacket, in this way her
manner of dress represents her as being inclusive in gender, as she blends the styles
traditional to each sex. One element of M.J. behavior at work could be read as either a
detriment as putting her into a maternal role, or could be read as an example of the difference
between male and female authority. One example is her mediation she maintains between
Nicoletti and her young partner Rubin. Nicoletti comments disparagingly on Rubin’s tie as
being too flashy. Rubin responds, “We can’t all shop at K-Mart.” After this exchange, as she
is standing beside Nicoletti, she quietly tells him to lay off Rubin. Nicoletti grumbles a few
more words and quiets. Rather than see this as an example of her maternal behavior, I read it
as an example of the male officer’s childishness. Another possible example of her expression
of maternal behavior could be the sequence after Nicoletti is given leave of absence as
punishment for his lapse responsible for Rubin’s death. She sympathetically listens to him as
he pours out his pain over his mistake, that he wishes he could trade places with him if he
could. Although these incidents could be read as maternal, they could also be seen as how a
companion and authority is supportive to other officers. However, Nicotteli comments that he
has never seen her cry, and indeed she is not crying at that point in the film. But this is not an
example of her as lacking emotion, because later, when she arrives at Dr. Hudson’s
apartment to give her the news of Rubin’s death it is evident that she has been crying and is
distraught. I think it is significant that she did not cry in Nicoletti’s presence, that she
maintains composure while in a professional setting.
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The last film I would like to discuss is an example of how the psychological-thriller
has come to completely subvert its norms of a male killer and a male hero, but also serves as
an example of the significant social force woman may serve, using their authority to end
domestic abuse, the oft cited cause for a killer’s actions. I also find this film interesting
because, unlike the previous thrillers I have discussed, it is more like a horror film as it
displays images of sadistic acts. The social taboo of incest is another theme that connects this
thriller to the horror genre, as it is central to the attempt to the explanation the killer’s
motivation as the cause for her psychological derision and a desire to revenge her emotional
suffering onto others.
Mercy (1999) is the narrative of detective Catherine Palmer who is investigating a
series of murders where the female victims are laid out on a bed with their arms folded on
their chests. Their bodies are badly mutilated and the eyelids are cut off. The FBI
psychological profiles provided to her department have determined that the killer is a man
because the murders have taken place in arbitrary locations, in a hotel and in a victim’s
home, whereas women killers are profiled as typically killing in their own homes or in one
location. The excessive mutilation is another reason why a man is suspected. Palmer suspects
that the killer may be a woman and is frustrated by her partner’s willingness to accept the
F.B.I profile. She tells them, “I just don’t think our suspect (a male Vietnam vet) would have
taken the time to wash her, comb her hair, and put make up on her.” The suspect she was
referring to was discovered to be involved with a woman who knew both the victims. He is
further suspected after the police uncover photos of Vietnamese under his bed, many of the
photos where close ups of wrists and ankles marked from their restraints. Another latent
suspect is the woman involved with this man as well as the two victims. Her relationship
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with the male suspect involves a dance she performs for him in a hotel window. She is
dressed in a small Vietnamese dress, wearing a black wig, with her eyes taped on the sides.
He shoots her with a paintball rifle from another building across the street. She explains this
act as his release for the sexual arousal he experienced as a sniper and continues to desire.
Vikki’s involvement with the two women is from time spent with them at a known SandM
club where people pay for rooms to practice enjoy their fetish. There are many scenes
depicting women in bondage, being cut and abused. One of the two women was also her
roommate sometime before the events of the film.
The real killer is discovered near the film’s close when she confesses to her therapist,
who was also a therapist to one of the other victims and was consulted by Detective Palmer.
The killer is rarely figured in the film prior to these sequences near the film’s close. Once we
see her passing outside a window at her psychologist’s home while he is with another patient,
and in another sequence where she reveals her first incestuous advance from her stepfather.
During these final sequences that explain her psychological motivations, she had tells the
doctor of her stepfather’s sexual advances and how her mother, although near by noticed
nothing. He explains to her that everyone’s primary attachment is to the mother. For a
woman, this means that her first attraction is to someone of the same sex. He continues to
explain that the tragedy of insect is that the mother-daughter bond is broken too quickly, too
sharply. This break leaves a daughter longing for close maternal bonds that at once recall her
father as betrayer, lover, and attacker. Then he turns to her and says, “I’m going to paint our
faces.”
When Mary, our killer, goes to Dr. Broussard’s home one night and finds him dressed
in drag; she says she doesn’t care, she wants to tell him more about the little girl, herself as a
49
child. We find them inside, each dressed only in underwear; she is in black, he is in white
and tied to the bed. She relates the day when she had confronted her mother with her
stepfather’s incestuous abuse. While watching television in the family room, she had allowed
him, for the first time, to take everything off. As he was on top of her, she heard her mother
enter the room and stop. Mary had wanted to look and see her mother’s expression, but that
would mean she would also see her stepfather on top of her, so she kept her eyes closed.
Then she heard her mother walk out of the room. After her stepfather had finished, Mary
found her mother sitting in her favorite chair eating ice cream. Mary says that it was then that
she knew that it was never going to stop, that her mother had given over to her new husbands
desires, not wanting to jeopardize the wealthy status he had given her. At this point she
begins to talk to the doctor as if he was her mother. She says, “You abandoned me, even in
the womb you abandoned me.” She begins to bite the doctor, at first it is pleasant to him, but
soon he is in serious pain and screams. The camera looms over the bed, and we see him
struggle. The story then returns to Detective Palmer, who has seen Dr. Broussard in a video
at a recently busted SandM club dressed in drag. She confronts the woman who ran the club
about his presence and asks who else was involved in the fetishistic gatherings. The woman
affirms the doctor’s involvement and Detective Palmer leaves for his home. Entering his
house she is attacked by his fierce and protective dog. She fights with the dog and eventually
throws him out of a window, however, at no time during the struggle does she scream. Mary
enters the room. She had recovered the gun Palmer had dropped while wrestling with the
dog. There is a struggle and as Mary turns to shoot Palmer, the detective stabs her in the
stomach. We watch the two lying on the floor from above, each in the same pose and
bleeding.
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If this ending seems anti-climatic it is because the moment of triumph is not in
the death of this troubled woman but in the rescue of a young girl from sexual abuse. While
investigating the murders, Palmer had formed a bond with Vikki Kittrie, the woman involved
with the victims and the killer. There is a brief sexual encounter between them, but Catherine
had pulled away and reminded Vikki that she had only wanted to talk with her about the
investigation. She asks Vikki why she enjoys being abused, and Vikki tells her that she had
left home after being the victim of sexual abuse by both her father and brother. She adds that
she left home when she was fourteen, leaving her younger sister behind. Mary had also
murdered Vikki, and Catherine was visibly upset by her death. She remains in the room with
Vikki’s body and is momentarily unresponsive to another officer’s question. When the other
officer leaves she remains, holding her head in her hands. This could be read as sadness for a
woman she cared for, as well as compassion for the murder of a woman she had come to
know. After time has passed and Catherine has recovered from her struggle with Mary, and
the dog, she goes to the Kittrie home with a woman from social services to remove the young
girl from the house. The father tells her, “You can’t do that.” She responds, starring at him
coolly, “oh yes I can.”
This ending affirms the woman’s role in authority to fight for women’s issues and
against women’s terrors. I believe Mary’s death was anti-climatic because of the
understanding Catherine had developed for her suffering through her relationship with Vikki
and her knowledge of killer as also being victims of abuse. The ending also displays the
passive role of the mother, again, as Mrs. Kittrie seems more embarrassed and frightened
from the presence of the detective and social worker. Once she seats herself, she does not
move away from the table she is sitting at. These events display Catherine’s emotional
51
investment in her work as well as her ability to remain composed and alert under pressure.
As the main investigator she represents a successful woman in a male-dominated field as
well as rational, intuitive, and determined.
I would like to add a few comments on Detective Catherine Palmer as an autonomous
woman in society. Early in the film we see her go to a bar alone after work. She picks up a
guy who had been starring at her from across the bar. He asks her what she does for a living,
and she tells him she is a cop in homicide. He asks her is it is difficult for her because she is a
woman; she does not answer. She asks him what he does for a living. He says, “I’m a
mechanic, I fix things.” Next, we briefly see them on the floor of one of their homes, deeply
engrossed in one another. I read this sequence as offering insight into her confidence,
affirming her sexual security, as well as indicating the lonely and isolated life she must lead.
Vikki Kittrie also addresses the topic of her career. Vikki had taken Catherine to a
special party where women, some influential themselves or married to influential men, gather
for lesbian encounters. Catherine asked Vikki why so many women came there to get away.
Vikki responds by asking Catherine how many women work in homicide. She answers three.
Vikki asks her how many people are in the department; Catherine answers seventy-five. This
in itself is an answer to Catherine’s question. These women come to the special party not
only to form lesbian liaisons, but also to escape the homosocial atmosphere of their daily
lives. She is always in dressed practically in pants and a jacket. She seems to be on equal
ground with her partners and is tough and crude with them. However, these men, who are
known to dominate in her workplace, are rarely present. When they are present they are
eclipsed by her presence. In the sequence where she proposes her theory that the killer is a
woman, the male figures are hardly seen. We catch glimpses of them, but rather than the
52
entirety of their for, we see their blue-shirts and ties. Her sexual activity is aggressive, and
when advanced upon by Vikki she remains composed, mindful of her position as a detective.
In this manner she sheds traditional conceptions of a woman as weak, irrational, or ruled by
sexual drives. Also, when she and her partner investigate an SandM club in a women’s home
they are shot at by a man in the house. Her partner is shot, while she follows quickly after,
shooting him twice after yelling for him to “Freeze, Scumbag!” This scene confirms the trend
demands as portraying her capabilities as excelling that of her male partners.
The women in Kiss the Girls, Silence of the Lambs, Copycat and Mercy represent
women who defy conceptions of women in the work force or in traumatic situations. They
remain composed while under attack. They do not use their sexuality to advance their
careers. These women are focused on their careers and are secure in their sense of self and
empowerment. These women are compassionate, intuitive, and imaginative as well as
rational, deductive, determined, strong and able to protect themselves. They are examples
that women are capable of occupying judgmental or power wielding roles. By integrating the
best of masculine and feminine behavior characteristics they represent the possibility that
people may be able to rise above expectations of gender they are able to create environments
where men and women can work and be together with full rights of personhood, free from
the limitations of male/female sex games.97 However, such an environment does not yet exist
as men are still portrayed as attempting to initiate such games, or continue to play them out,
even though the women are not interested. Also, as men are portrayed as weaker or less
adequate in comparison to women, the continuation of the constitution of reciprocating
definitions of sex roles remains prominent and detrimental to social order. These films are
examples of how feminist activism is becoming prominent in society as woman take social
53
roles of authority and defend the rights of the victim. Although this change owes much to the
origin of horror’s interest in the role of the victim, such a change may be attributed to
director’s innovation as well as a representation of changing social ideologies. By responding
to needs and changes in the industry, such as its production practices, audience expectations,
competencies for viewership, the text as a contribution to the genre as well as to the
ideological issues played out and maintained, the horror genre has continued to express its
dynamic nature. Its dynamism of themes, trends, conventions, and characters has produced
an empowered female role as victim-heroine and as an authority. The role of the female is no
longer to ensure male authority and masculinity; rather she is able to stand alone, leaving the
feminized male grasping for support to his identity. This is a result of the commensurability
of generic themes and the raw material of socio-historical society.
54
In Conclusion: A Sociological, Psychological Perspective
It has been said of the horror film genre that it is a site for the exploration of social
taboos, repressed fears and desires that may have originated during the infantile state. As
these fears are mainly representative of the male fear of feminine power, the horror genre has
served to give extemporaneous relief to that fear.98 Horror has also been regarded as a setting
for events stemming from a crisis of identity.99 Often in horror films, psychologically
disturbed egomaniacs are represented as acting out their conflicts and frustrations, their
desire to dominate, through aggressive behavior directed mainly at the female form,
homosexuals, weak men or figures of normalization and/or authority. The particular category
of horror films that fit the above description may be generally referred to as the
psychological-thriller. While horror films have traditionally focused on either the killer who
reinforced normative ideals of gender, there has also been a group of films that focus on the
female position.100
Arranged around events that occur when members of society are not successfully
normalized into a sexual, gendered identity of self, tempered by a respect for the right of self
held by others, the psychological-thriller explores how society creates and dissolves its
counter-productions, or its own elements of social deviancy. It may be said of western culture
that this is its main paradox. How may a person develop, or be socialized, to a sense of an
autonomous self without empowering oneself beyond a mutual respect for the existence of
other autonomous selves?101 The paradox here is that in reproducing the individualism of
55
western society, of America, in particular, society must be protected by aware, selfactualizing persons who are able to discern truth and morality for themselves and yet have
empathy for others. Citizens must be aware of their rights and the rights of others in order to
function morally and harmoniously. This may also be said to be a dilemma of western
patterns of parenting and institutionalized processes of socialization, as well as a dilemma
within the construction of gender.102
As the woman’s role was previously defined as a nurturer, her alienation from her
own power, as it has been relegated to patriarchal authority, has led to repression and
alienation in her offspring. The family reproduces citizen for the continuation of the state.
The republican ideal of the American family is the individualistic, self-motivated man and
his wife who nurtures him and his male children for social life. What this tells us is that the
relation between the family and the state is that of micro and macro relations, and from this
dynamic, we may perceive that the “personal is political.” 103
The attitude of a passive female role in parenting relations may cause a male child to
not develop a sense of identification with the mother. By being passive to the male child’s
reign of ego dominance as he identifies with the active ego dominating position of ‘ideal’
maleness, represented by the active authority of the father, the mother encourages the
formation of an egocentric child. His egoism is left boundless and his sense of self rests on a
differentiation from the repressive and constrictive image of the unity mother offers as a
model of femaleness and interpersonal relationships. However, the mother who is active and
actively encourages her son’s freedom encourages her son to recognize her as a like mind
and as someone with agency. By identifying with his mother as an active agent of will he
56
recognizes her as an equal and thus is more able to negotiate the active and passive aspects of
his masculinity.104
Conversely, the masochism of women may be seen reproduced in stereotypical
behavior in parenting.105 As the mother fails to provide a role model of active agency and
desire a daughter comes to identify with her father as an ideal image activity and agency.
Daughters develop conflict here because they are unable to fulfill the identification, perhaps
because the father does not identify with the daughter because he too found identity as not
female and therefore sees his daughter as a thing, an object. Perhaps the daughter is unable to
compare physically and/or is humiliated by her sensitivity in rough play with father.106 What
she envies is the role of activity, as well as a sense of approval from her father. A daughter
whose mother represents a source of active agency and desire may develop the character
traits of agency and activity, as may a daughter whose father mutually recognizes her as an
equal self. In these two instances of role acquirement and performance a daughter may not
experience envy. Her envy of agency however, if she does not come to see it as a role
position she may inhabit, restricts a woman to empowerment by active males who signify her
femaleness. In such a case, it is only with the approval of an ideal male, who replaces her
father and positions her as mother, that she may find identity.107
Films, such as I Spit On Your Grave, The Accused, Lipstick, Silence of the Lambs,
Copy Cat, Kiss the Girls, and Mercy represent what happens when women are not socially
conditioned to submit to ego domination, when women are invested with the right to defend
their bodies, their identities, their lives and the lives of others. These films also add to the
interpretation of male identity in society and its fragile balance rooted in a sense of difference
not mutuality, as male characters become increasing ineffectual in the presence of effective,
57
and empowered female characters. These women gain their sense of identity from their
actions and social roles as persons, not in response to sexual behaviors or stereotypes. They
do not require a man’s love and support to form a sense of identity as in early horror films.
The history of horror films and its evolution through strand of sub-genres, from
hypnosis horror to psychological thriller, adds to the investigation of how western society has
addressed and represented issues of identity as well as how it has presented feminine power.
Not only is this an issue of concern for social theorists intent on finding a better way for
people to get along, but also for psychologists intent on de-tangling the web of signification
and meaning in identity and being. Specifically explore the rift created by sexual difference
in society and how it may create domestic violence, serial killers, and psycho-sadists.
A philosophical split between mind and body in western culture has relegated women
to a position of marginality and nothingness as it defers her association with the body to the
mind and the male. Presenting images of normalized and developmentally significant forms
of female power, these films represent a shift in the American cultural perspectives of
women. To me, these films portray performances of the real and necessary social forms of
power women may have, and therefore cater to an empowered female audience, as well as
continuing to explore social victimization from the perspective of those who endure it. In this
manner these films give an example of how generic themes and practices are commensurable
to the socio-historical material, as they work from each other to construct a perspective of
social reality and to explore social fears, concerns, and conceptions of normalcy.
I feel I may situate these texts in the social and political relations of society. Such
relations are: the struggle between socialist feminism and authoritarian patriarchy; and the
psychological conflict of self and other inherent in the process of identity making. I feel that
58
it is significant to the interpretation of these films that it be recognized that the same themes
of alienation, oppression, repression, and empowerment exist in these real social contexts as
well as in the horror genre narrative.
This work is an overview of the female character in horror and how her role has
changed over time. The gender bending that occurs as an inclusive female identity is perhaps
more normalized as an alternative way of living today due to promotions in media and
society. Perhaps it is an effect of feminist politics and criticism. The cause aside, I feel it is
apparent that horror films no longer develop their female characters to perform the traditional
gender role of a passive victim. The feminist advancement for the reclaiming of women’s
bodies by women is evident in these films. These victims are capable, active, and are not
waiting to be saved. They are quite often agents of their own salvation or is the savior to
other women. These women do not typically freeze with fear, but act to protect their own
bodies and rights to life and self. These women are also not typically relegated to the
protective shoulder of patriarchal authority. Although several of the women owe authority
figures for support or assistance, they are not put into the arms of their boyfriends at the end
of the film. Instead these women are alone. Surviving what their boyfriend did not, these
women complete their symbolic journey as an autonomous individual in the adult world,
proving their ability, compulsion, and willingness to protect their own form.
It is because horror films have developed a theme of focusing on the female
character, her journey and struggle for self, and that this struggle does not end in patriarchal
relegation, that I have chosen it for investigation. These films reflect the changing state of
social perceptions and attitudes of female power and behavior as well as the issues and
dilemmas that her new political status present to her. Women provoke and inspire but they
59
may also control. As horror represents the fears and desires of society so they represent the
fear women as victims have in society as well as the desire women have to combat the
victimization and the trauma.
These films are positive performances of female agency and power. We see women
as they empower themselves in the face of oppression and rise to meet a challenge. These
women transform themselves; they evaluate themselves and their environment and find
solutions for survival. Using all their faculties of reason, intuition, imagination, and emotion
these women find a way to live another day and combat social oppression and abuse. These
women are professional, inclusive, and in control of themselves and their actions. These
women do not react, they respond. And, just as the final girls, the female authority figures
also utilize every faculty to find a solution, to keep fighting. Also, although they are without
a mate at the film’s close, that these women are not entirely alone. Men who also understand
the types of systems of oppression and hate assist women in their battles against egoism,
sexism, hatred and violence. There are some men who align with them, men who can also
withstand the horror and who are ineffectual, to combat social deviancy, as it exists in the
form of serial killers and domestic abuse. These films not only work through repressed fears
and desires of society, it also points to ways of reform and empowerment. Although the
general ineffectualness of the white male may point to a malaise existing among that
particular race and gender in the American population, that black men are effectual along
with white women in ending sadism, egoism, and oppression of others points to the need for
disadvantaged social groups to align with one another. I will conclude by stating that recent
horror films tell women and other victimized groups to be firm against violence, not be
consumed by hate and conflict, and to band together
60
Filmography108
German Expressionist Cinema
Das kabinett des Doctor Caligari 1920 Germany/ The Cabinet of Docrot Caligari
1921USA.
Dir. Robert Wiene. Prod. Delca-Bishop
Nosferatu,eine Symphonie des Grauens 1922.
Dir. F.W. Prod. Murnau. Prana-Film.
Classic Hollywood Horror
Dracula 1931.
Dir. Tod Browning. Prod. Universal.
The Invisible Man 1933.
Dir. James Whale. Prod. Universal Pictures.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1931.
Dir. Rouben Mamoulin. Prod. Paramount Pictures Inc.
Dr. X 1931.
Dir. Michael Curtiz. Prod. First National Pictures
The Black Cat 1934.
Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer. Prod. Universal Pictures.
Dracula’s Daughter 1936.
Dir. Lambert Hillyer. Prod. Universal Pictures.
English Gothic Horror\
Circus of Horror 1960.
Dir. Sydney Hayers. Prod. Lynx Films Ltd.
Corridors of Blood 1962.
Dir. Robert Day. Prod. Amalgamated Productions and Producers Associates.
Horrors of the Black Museum 1959.
Dir. Arthor Crabtree. Prod. Merton Park Studios.
Peeping Tom 1960.
Dir. Michael Powell. Prod. Anglo-Amalgamated Productions.
Rational Horror (Outsider and Invasion Narratives)
The Day the World Ended 1955.
Dir. Roger Corman. Prod. Golden State Productions.
The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951
Dir. Robert Wise. Prod. 20th Century Fox
Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954.
Dir. Jack Arnold. Prod. Universal International Pictures.
It Came From Outer Space 1953.
Dir. Jack Arnold. Prod. Universal International Pictures.
Rocky Jones, Space Ranger 1954 (TV-series)
Dir. Hollingsworth Morse. Prod. Official Films Television.
When Worlds Collide 1951.
Dir. Rudolph Maté. Prod. Paramount Pictures.
Paranoid Horror (Crises of Identity, Family Horror, Horror of Personality)
The Leopord Man 1943.
Dir. Jaques Tourner Producer Val Lewton with RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Curse of the Cat People 1944.
Dir. Robert Wise Gunther von Fritsch. Producer Val Lewton with RKO Radio Pictures,
Body Snatcher 1945.
Dir. Robert Wise Gunther von Fritsch. Producer Val Lewton with RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Forbidden Planet 1956.
Dir. Fred M. Wilcox Prod. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Les Diaboleques 1955.
62
Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot. Prod. Vera Films (USA) and Filmsonor (French).
The Haunting of Hill House 1959.
Dir. William Castle. Prod. DreamWorks SKG and Roth-Arnold Productions.
Psycho 1960.
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Prod. Shamley Productions.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane 1962.
Dir. Robert Aldrich. Prod. Aldrich, Seven Arts Productions (UK) and Warner Brothers (UK)
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charolette 1964.
Dir. Robert Aldrich. Prod. 20th century Fox, Aldrich, and Associates.
Pretty Poison 1968.
Dir. Noel Black Prod. 20th Century Fox and Mollino.
Targets 1968.
Dir. Peter Bogdanovich. Saticoy Productions.
(Family, apocalyptic and demonic horror)
Rosemary’s Baby 1968.
Dir. Roman Polanski. Prod. Paramount Pictures
Night of the Living Dead 1968.
Dir. George Romero. Prod. Image Ten and Laurel
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974.
Dir. Tobe Hooper. Prod. Vortex.
The Omen 1976.
Dir. Richard Donner. Prod. 20th Century Fox.
Dawn of the Dead 1978.
Dir. Georde A. Romero. Prod. Laurel Group.
Damien: Omen II 1978.
Dir. Don Taylor. Prod. 20th Century Fox and Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane.
The Hills have Eyes 1978.
Dir Wes Craven. Prod. Blood Relatives.
The Final Conflict 1981.
Dir. Grahm Baker. Prod. 20th Century Fox.
63
The Hills have Eyes part II 1985.
Dir. Wes Craven. Prod. Vestron Video.
Day of the Dead 1985.
Dir. George A. Romero. Prod. Laurel and Laurel Communications.
TheTexas Chainsaw Massacre 2 1986.
Dir. Tobe Hooper. Prod. Cannon Films.
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III 1990.
Dir. Jeff Burr. Prod. New Line Cinema.
The Omen IV: The Awakening 1991. (TV)
Dir. Jorge Montessi and Dominique Othenin-Girard. Prod. FNM Films.
Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1994.
Dir. Kim Henkel. Prod. Return Productions, River City Films, Ultra Muchos Productions and
Genre Pictures.
Rape-Revenge
Last House on the Left 1972.
Dir. Wes Craven.
Lipstick 1976. Prod. Sean S. Cunningham Films.
Dir Lamont Johnson. Prod. De Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures.
Day of the Woman or I Spit on Your Grave 1978
Dir. Meir Zarchi. Prod. Cinemagic Pictures.
Ms. 45 1981.
Dir. Abel Ferrara. Prod. Navaron Films and Rochelle Films
Eyes of a Stranger 1981.
Dir. Ken Wiederhorn
Sudden Impact 1983.
Dir. Clint Eastwood. Prod. Warner Brothers and The Malpaso Company.
Extremeties 1986.
Dir. Robert M. Young. Prod. Atlantic.
Ladies Club 1986.
Dir. Janet Greek.
64
Positive I.D. 1987.
Dir. Andy Anderson. Prod. Adersonfilm.
The Accused 1988.
Dir. Jonathan Kaplan. Prod. Paramount Pictures.
Slasher Horror
Halloween 1978.
Dir. John Carpenter. Prod. Falcon Films.
Prom Night 1980.
Dir. Paul Lynch. Prod. Simcom Limited.
Terror Train 1980.
Dir. Roger Spottiswood. Prod. Sandy Howard Productions, Daniel Grodnik, Astral Bellvue
Pathé and Astral Films.
Friday the 13th 1980.
Dir. Sean S. Cunningham. Prod. Georgetown Productions, Paramount Pictures, and Sean S.
Cunningham Films.
Happy Birthday to Me 1981.
Dir. J. Lee Thompson. Prod. The Birthday Film Company and Columbia Pictures
Corporation.
Friday the 13th part 2 1981.
Dir. Steve Miner. Prod. Geoergetown Productions, Greengrass Productions and Paramount
Pictures.
Firday the 13th part 3: 3D 1982.
Dir. Steve Miner. Prod. Jason Productions and Paramount Pictures.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter 1984.
Dir. Joseph Zito. Prod. Paramount Pictures.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984.
Dir. Wes Craven. Prod. Media Home Entertainment, Mew Line Cinema, Smart Egg Pictures.
Friday the 13th part V: A New Beginning 1985.
Dir. Danny Steinmann. Prod. Paramount Pictures.
A Nightmare on Elm StreetPart 2: Freddy’s Revenge 1985
Dir. Jack Sholder. Prod. New Line Cinema.
65
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives 1986.
Dir. Tom McLouglin. Prod. Terror Films Inc. Paramount Pictures.
Hellraiser 1987.
Dir. Clive Barker. Prod. Cinemarque Entertainment BV, Film Futures, New World Pictures.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors 1987.
Dir. Chuck Russell. Prod. Heron Communications, New Line Cinemas and Smart Egg
Productions.
Hellbound: Hellraiser II 1988.
Dir. Tony Randel. Prod. New World Pictures.
Friday the 13th part VII: Jason takes Manhattan 1989.
Dir. Rob Hedden. Prod. Horror Films and Paramount Pictures.
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare 1991.
Dir. Rachel Talalay. Prod. New Line Cinema.
Candyman 1992.
Dir. Bernard Rose. Prod. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Propaganda Films.
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth 1992.
Dir. Anthony Hickox. Prod. Trans Atlantic Entertainment and Fifth Avenue Entertainment.
Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh 1995.
Dir. Bill Condon. Prod. Gamercy Pictures, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, and Propaganda
Films.
HalloweenH20: Twenty Years Later 1998.
Dir. Steve Miner. Prod. Nightfall Productions and Dimension Films.
Hellraiser: Bloodline 1996.
Dir. Alan Smithee and Kevin Yager. Prod.Dimensioon Films and Miramax Productions.
Scream 1996.
Dir. Wes Craven. Prod. Woods Entertainment and Dimension Films.
Scream 2 1997.
Dir. Wes Craven. Prod. Craven-Maddalena Films, Konrad Pictures, Dimension Films, and
Miramax Productions.
Scream 3 2000.
Dir. Wes Craven. Prod. Craven-maddalena Films, Konrad Pictures and Dimension Films.
66
Thrillers
Silence of the Lambs 1991.
Dir. Jonathan Demme. Prod. Orion Pictures.
When the Bough Breaks 1993.
Dir. Michael Cohn. Prod. Osmosis, Osmosis Productions Inc. and Prism Pictures.
Copycat 1995.
Dir. Jon Amiel. Prod. New regency Pictures, Regency Enterprises and Warner Brothers.
Kiss the Girls 1997.
Dir. Gary Fleder. Prod. Paramount Pictures and Rysher Entertainment.
In Dreams 1999.
Dir. Neil Jordan. Prod. DreamWorks SKG.
Mercy 1999.
Dir. Damian Harris. Prod. Jazz Pictures and Franchise Pictures.
67
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Endnotes
1
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 60-61).
2
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 13.
3
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 7-11. Robin Wood explains that the most significant development in film criticism
and progressive ideas has been the increasing conflux of the intellectual traditions of Marx and Freud. We
derive form Marx an awareness of dominant ideology, bourgeois capitalism, as an all-pervasive force capable of
concealment, negotiation, and assimilation to secure the continuation of its hegemonic structure. Psychoanalytic
theory, greatly in debt to Freud, give us an awareness that the most effective means of examining the ways in
which ideology is transmitted and perpetuated through the institutionalization of patriarchal family structure.
Wood also draws on the psychoanalytic theories developed out of Freud by Herbert Marcuse and definitively
reformulated by Gad Horowitz, to explain that horror addresses both basic repression that makes us capable of
directing our own lives and co-existing with others and surplus repression that makes us into monogamous,
heterosexual, and patriarchal capitalists. The result is both neurotic and revolutionary. Horror makes real what is
repressed, that which is unacceptable to the conscious mind, as well as with forms of oppression that are
external and that become internalized, thus becoming repression. What in our society is repressed? Sexual
energy, bisexuality, female sexuality, creativity, and the denial of traditionally conceived masculine character
traits, such as: activeness, aggression, self-assertion, and organizational power. Also repressed is children’s
sexuality, as children are encouraged to repress emotional, sexual drives to become oppressed by marriage, as
well as idea conception of the Other as external to culture, what is repressed and projected outward to be hated
and disowned, that may be conceived in the forms mentioned above as well as in alternative ideologies and
other cultures and ethnic groups.
4
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996), Carol J Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern
Horror Film (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween,
Friday the 13th and the Films of the Stalker Cycle (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1990),
Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, (South Brunswick and New
York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1977), Mark Jancovich, Rational Fears: American Horror of the 1950s (New
York: Manchester University Press, 1996), David Pirie, A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema
1946-1972 (New York: Avon Books. 1973), Cathal Tohill and Pete Thomas. Immoral Tales: European Sex and
Horror Movies 1956-1984 (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994).
5
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 17.
6
Michael R. Real. Exploring Media Culture: A Guide (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.,
1996), 131-133.
7
John G. Cawelti. The Six-Gun Mystique (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular
Press, 1971), 31-33.
8
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 17.
9
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 8. This statement is part of a quote from J.Kitses,
Horizons West (London, 1972), 20.
10
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 7-8.
11
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 15.
12
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 15.
13
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 7-17.
14
Barbara Creed, The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. (New York and London:
Routledge, 1990), Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of
Domination (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 94, here Benjamin address male and female children’s fear of
the repressive mother. The boy as a fear that he is unable to satisfy, that he will be overwhelmed by his mothers
vagina, pulled back into it. The girl’s desire for a penis, like her father, is an expression of her desire to beat
back maternal power.
15
Cathal Tohill and Pete Thomas. Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 (New
York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), 9.
16
Cathal Tohill and Pete Thomas. Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 (New
York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), 10.
17
Cathal Tohill and Pete Thomas. Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 (New
York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), 9-11.
18
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 22.
19
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 10.
20
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 7.
21
Cathal Tohill and Pete Thomas. Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 (New
York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), 9-10. Peter Haining, A Pictorial History of Horror Stories: 200 years of
Spine-Chilling Illustration from Pulp Magazine (London: Treasure Press, 1985), 13-22. Rhonda Berenstein,
Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York: Columbia University Press,
1996), Barbara Creed, The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. (New York and London:
Routledge, 1990).
22
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996), 1.
23
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 20.
24
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 21-22.
25
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 60-61.
26
Stephen Neale. Genre (British Film Institute, 1980), 61.
27
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996), 16.
28
Carol J Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 105. Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality
and Spectatorship (New York: Columbia University Press, 10.
29
Carol J Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 13-14.
72
30
Carol J Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 13.
31
Dana V. Hiller and Robin Ann Sheets, eds., Women and Men: The Consequences of Power. A
Collection of New Essays (Cincinnati, OH: Office of Women’s Studies University of Cincinnati, 1976).
32
Dana V. Hiller and Robin Ann Sheets, eds., Women and Men: The Consequences of Power. A
Collection of New Essays (Cincinnati, OH: Office of Women’s Studies University of Cincinnati, 1976), 57.
33
Deborah Cherry, Visual Rape. (Paper no. 20, 1990), 2-3.
34
Dana V. Hiller and Robin Ann Sheets, eds., Women and Men: The Consequences of Power. A
Collection of New Essays (Cincinnati, OH: Office of Women’s Studies University of Cincinnati, 1976).
35
Rosemarie Tong, Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction (Boulder, CO and San
Francisco: Westview Press, 1989), 144. Here Tong is relating Betty Friedan who felt that Freud’s ideas where
shaped by his culture. She feels psychoanalysis is another social science whose practitioners see what their
culture wants them to see. Disturbed by his biological determinism, she rejected his methodology and the
conception that for a woman to pursue a role other than motherhood was abnormal. She identified an
overemphasis on sex as one of the forces that keep women out of politics, economy and culture. She asserted
that women do not need sexual freedom, but the power to grow as persons. Encouraging women to see their
discontent in their lack of penis rather than in privileged socioeconomic and cultural status on its possessors,
Freudian theory encourages women to view selves as defective, and that they may alleviate their dissatisfaction
in lieu of a penis, with a baby, thus making sex the purpose for women’s experience.
36
I do not want to delve into the discourse of the complex nature of gender in horror as permeable and
transmutable, rather I would stand on its shoulders to make conjecture on the presence of female authorities
who are inclusive in gender and not themselves sexualized. Although one may infer they are masculinized, will
discuss later that they are instead representative of both male and female attributes, without being resolved to a
particular gender category at the film’s resolution. Because of this, these films are on a different terrain than
previous horror that is bound in conceptions of gender and gender bending. These films are instead exemplary
of a less sexualized perception of self, and the conflict that arise from social relations of power, morality and
self.
37
Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), 35-36,122-123.
38
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press. 1992).
39
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press. 1992), 93.
40
Cathal Tohill and Pete Thomas. Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 (New
York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), 11. This text provides an insightful introduction into the origins of horror in
literature into its film development in American and European cinema.
41
This is a basic Freudian interpretation of female identity. Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love:
Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988). Barbara
Creed, The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. (New York and London: Routledge, 1990).
Rosemarie Tong. Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction (Boulder, CO and San Francisco: Westview
Press, 1989), 139-146.
42
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996), 78-100.
73
43
Dana V. Hiller and Robin Ann Sheets, eds., Women and Men: The Consequences of Power: A
Collection of New Essays (Cincinnati, OH: Office of Women’s Studies University of Cincinnati, 1976), 153157.
44
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996). I am thinking in particular of Dracula’s Daughter where the love interest,
Janet, is also the hero’s secretary. She is in control of all of his planning of events, initiates his activities, jokes
and prank calls him, and continuously ties his tie, as he is unable to do so for himself.
45
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 10.
46
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996), 129.
47
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 10.
Here I am thinking of Dr. X where the camera focuses on a woman’s screaming during a reenactment of a crime, thus covering another real crime that is being committed against a man, and while another
man is fainting.
48
49
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996), 10, 123-126. Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the
Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1992), 105.
50
Rhonda Berenstein, Attack of The Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996), 123.
51
Cathal Tohill and Pete Thomas, Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 (New
York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), 18.
52
Roy Huss and T.J. Ross, eds., Focus on the Horror Film. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.,
1972) 140-143.
53
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 18.
54
David Pirie, A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema 1946-1972 (New York: Avon Books.
1973).
55
Mark Jancovitch, Rational Fears: American Horror in the 1950s (New York: Manchester University
Press, 1996), 4.
56
Mark Jancovitch, Rational Fears: American Horror in the 1950s (New York: Manchester University
Press, 1996), 4.
57
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 18.
58
Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, (South
Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1977).
59
Mark Jancovich, Rational Fears: American Horror of the 1950s (New York: Manchester University
Press, 1996), 227.
74
60
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 19.
61
Andrew Tutor. Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1987).
62
Mark Jancovich, Rational Fears: American Horror of the 1950s (New York: Manchester University
Press, 1996), 227.
63
Mark Jancovich, Rational Fears: American Horror of the 1950s (New York: Manchester University
Press, 1996), 228.
64
Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film (South
Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1977), 18.
65
Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film (South
Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1977), 18.
66
Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film (South
Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1977), 17.
67
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 22-23. Here I am thinking of films such as The Omen, Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Night of the Living Dead.
68
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 23.
69
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1990), 3.
70
Mark Jancovitch, Rational Fears: American Horror of the 1950s (New York: Manchester University
Press, 1996), 229.
71
David Pirie. A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema 1946-1972 (New York: Avon
Books, 1973).
72
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1990), 9.
73
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 129.
74
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 53.
75
Ken Hanke, A Critical Guide to the Horror Film Series (New York and London: Garland Publishing,
Inc, 1991), 282.
76
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 54.
77
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 54.
75
78
Rosemarie Tong. Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction (Boulder, CO and San
Francisco: Westview Press, 1989).
79
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 55.
80
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 55.
81
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 56.
82
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 59-60.
83
Dika, Vera, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 132.
84
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 133. Here Dika also draws her western critique from John
Calwelti. The Six Gun Mystique (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1984).
85
Vera Dika, Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the Films of the Stalker Cycle
(Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), 134-138.
86
Patricia Searles and Ronald J. Berger, eds., Rape and Society: Readings on the problem of Sexual
Assault (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 4, 1995),210.
87
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 27. For a definition of reactionary horror: seeks to subvert and explore the nature of
the monstrous, arouses sympathy for the monstrous, reaction to conceptions of dominant ideology, and after
invoking fear and panic contain it. Also there is an ambiguity of the monster as a return of the repressed and a
punishment for sexual expression and/or promiscuity.
88
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 123.
89
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 123,139.
90
Deborah Cherry, Visual Rape. (Paper no. 20, 1990), 2-3.
91
Deborah Cherry, Visual Rape. (Paper no. 20, 1990), 4.
92
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 147. Patricia Searles and Ronald J. Berger, eds., Rape and Society: Readings
on the problem of Sexual Assault (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 4, 199), 210. This entire text would be
beneficial as a study of the myths of rape and men’s assumptions of entitlement to unrestricted sexual access to
women and how this functions to undermine women’s freedom of action. Women must live with the fear of
sexual violation and monitor their behavior against aggressive and predatory male sexuality. If women are
unsuccessful, their violation may be regarded as their own fault, or their suffering may be ignored, questioned,
and trivialized.
93
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 146-150.
76
94
Carol J. Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992), 146-150.
95
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe, eds., American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (Toronto:
Festival of Festivals, 1979), 23.
96
In Friday the 13th part V the heroine is characterized by her “bad girl” image, as a sheriff’s
rebellious daughter and in her quick advances on the hero. In general slasher horror became less and less
concerned with the heroine’s sexual activity. Her ability to survive was based more on her strength in character
as a quick, intelligent, survivor and less on her virginity. Scream includes the off screen implication of the
heroine’s “deflowering” in its sequence of events, and in this way emphasizes that it makes no difference if she
has had sex or not, if she is capable she will survive.
97
Dana V. Hiller and Robin Ann Sheets, eds., Women and Men: The Consequences of Power: A
Collection of New Essays (Cincinnati, OH: Office of Women’s Studies University of Cincinnati, 1976), 313.
98
Barbara Creed, The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (New York and London:
Routledge, 1990).
99
Mark Jancovitch, Rational Fears: American Horror of the 1950s (New York: Manchester University
Press, 1996), 227.
100
Mark Jancovitch, Rational Fears: American Horror of the 1950s (New York: Manchester
University Press, 1996).
101
Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1988).
102
Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination.
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 7. This text is a reinvestigation into the problem of domination. Feminist
criticism has provided a means of re-thinking the Freudian psychoanalytic to reveal its foundations in the
acceptance of authority and gender relations. Her main purpose is to examine why these positions continue to
shape relations between the sexes despite our society’s commitment to equality. She shows the structure of
domination in the relationship between mother and infant into adult eroticism and the earliest awareness of
differences between mother and father to the global images of male and female in culture. She examines how
postures of master and slave arise from a boy and girl’s relationships to their mother and father. She hopes to
give us a place from which to question and expose the repression inherent in this system of domination that
denies the irrational, the fantastic, and that seeks to sanitize the erotic. She proposes a new Oedipus where
children may, after post Oedipal separation, look back and critically analyze their parent’s legacy rather than
simply identifying with authority—a coming to terms with difference not shadowed by the paternal figure and
without poses the mother as a contested point in father-son rivalry.
Sandra Lee Bartky, “Feminine Masochism and the Politics of the Personal,” in Alan Sobule, ed.,
The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, Revised 2nd ed., (Savage, MD: Rowman and Littlefield
Publishers, Inc., 1991), 226-227.
103
104
Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 174-175.
105
Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 85-91.
And Sandra Lee Bartky, “Feminine Masochism and the Politics of the Personal,” in Alan Sobule, ed.,
The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, Revised 2nd ed., (Savage, MD: Rowman and Littlefield
Publishers, Inc., 1991). 226-227.
77
106
Jessica Benjamin,. The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 92-146
107
Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 121-123.
108
The following is a chronological list of films either directly discussed in the thesis or that are
relevant to the themes discussed. I have attempted to classify them so as to add to the conception of types of
horror over time, but the descriptions overlap in places—please consider this a rough outline for distinction.
Also, because some films have many sequels I have included those that I feel most represent my themes,
leaving the interested party to discover the sequels unmentioned alone. However, I have listed both the first and
last of any series included and the number of sequels is therefore implied if not individually accounted for.
78