The Representation of Women in Horror: the Final Girl Trope.

By Emily Costello.

Case study: Sydney Prescott in Scream and Jennifer Check in Jennifer’s Body.

It is in my most humble opinion that horror is the most universally understood genre of cinema. It often transcends language, gender, race, sexuality, which is what makes it such an interesting study. When looking at identity politics, horror is particularly fascinating. Often culturally understood as being popular with young men, Horror as a genre is criticised for being misogynistic and with little complexity or depth for its female characters. The murderers are always physically imposing men/supernatural beings and scenes of them brutally and gratituously slaughtering women and also taking advantage of them sexually is commonplace for both early and contemporary horror.

Pscyho (Hitchcock, 1960) frame inside over a knife, Paramount Pictures.

Women have always been very present in horror. From the very beginnings of the slasher genre, like Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd. Wikipedia. to ‘elevated horror’ with more complex and developed female characters, like Dani in Ari Aster’s Midsommar (Aster, 2019) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd. Wikipedia. , the female body and mind is in itself a horror trope. Yet these women are more often than not portrayed as weak, or useless and when they do display strength, it is masculine in style. Think Laurie Strode in Halloween (Carpenter, 1978) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd. Wikipedia. , the babysitter toturted and chased by a masked man with a knife. So why does horror obsess with abusing women and pushing them to the brink? In Men, Women, and Chainsaws Carol J. Clover discusses how the ‘final girl’ embodys phallic weaponry and defeats the bad guy by utilising masculine power. This undoubtedly reflects our patriarchal society, where women can often only be seen as worthy if they are displaying typically male traits.

Shot from Scream (1996, Craven) inside of a shovel, Miramax.

In Scream (1996, Craven) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd. Wikipedia. , Wes Craven’s masterpiece and love letter to slasher films, Sydney Prescott represents the final girl to a tee. She is beaten, abused, taken advantage .off and stil rises to the top, defeating Ghostface, the main villain, who is (spoiler alert) two idiotic teenage boys with an obsession with horror films. The question is, is Scream a more positive representation of women than the films it holds so dear? Sydney survives, but she is brought back and subjected to more murder attempts and stalking in screams many sequels. She is an admirable character though and the film's cynical criticism of horror fanboys who take sick pleasure in. The female exploitation of the genre is not completely lost in its fondness of classic horror. In the end, Billy and Stu who claim “horror movies don’t create psychos, they just make them more creative” are both just humans, unlike Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. In doing this, Craven makes Sydney's suffering all the more poignant, not subjected to the violence of a supernatural entity but by her classmates. At the end of the film they are both dead, perhaps creating a more positive representation of the female character, as Sydney's efforts have not all been for nothing. She does utilise male power, proving Clover’s example right, by using a pistol, typically a male weapon, in the final scene.

Jennifer's Body (Kusama, 2009) Frame inside of an axe, chop chop - Fox Atomic Dune Entertainment.

Whilst not technically a slasher film, Jennifer's Body (Kusama, 2009) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd. Wikipedia. has a final girl, Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and embodies classic horror tropes of slasher films, especially with its graphic scenes. Directed by a woman, the film is an interesting portrayal as it has a woman as both the heroine and the villain, as well as most of the violence being inflicted on men. Jennifer’s Body was not popular when it was released, perhaps because it was marketed towards men who are a fan of horror, expecting the film to cater to the male gaze by showing graphic scenes of violence against women and sexualising them and not portraying men as the victims of female revenge. The film made only $6.8 million on its opening weekend but had become a cult film especially popular with female horror fans (like myself) and is praised for its interesting feminist takes on the horror genre. Though I do think Jennifer’s Body has revolutionary role reversal elements, I feel it does still sexualise Jennifer (played by Megan Fox) and therefore caters to the male gaze, even though it doesn’t intend to.

In conclusion, the portrayal of women in horror has devolped from their use as pointless plot points and for graitious sexual violence scenes but the genre would benefit from more female contributors, to help create more complex and interesting characters

By Emily Costello.