Horror and the Representation of Women

In this essay I am going to be talking about the representation of women in horror films. I will be writing about how they are treated and act in horror films and whether these actions are conventional in horror films. I am going to be writing about the way they are represented as this will help give a better understanding to how audiences view horror films, and how they view women in these films. This information about the women in horror films will help the audience understand the female character roles more and have an understanding of why they are treated the way they are.

The films that I am going to be relating to about the way women are represented in horror films are The Crazies, Halloween, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film and Scream 4. The Crazies is a 2010 film directed by Breck Eisner. Halloween is a 1978 film directed by John Carpenter. The Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film is a 2006 film. Scream 4 is a 2011 film directed by Wes Craven. In 1992, Carol Clover published ‘Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the modern horror film’ and it revolutionized the landscape of feminist horror film theory. One of her most common contributions was the Final Girl Theory. Clover does not argue that every horror film is a feminist one. Instead, she argues that the genre is not the epitome of misogyny as previously thought. Clover asks not “is there violence depicted against women?” but why violence is depicted, by whom, against whom and whom does it create sympathy for? The Final Girl is the last female character in the film to be targeted as a victim by the killer. In these films it used to be largely that the audience focuses on the male killer, however the clover theory in these films shows that the audience are more focused on the girl who is the victim of the attack but yet the hero. This theory is relative to these movies as the viewers of these movies indentify the fright of the female being attacked, as opposed to the gratification or satisfaction of the murderer as he attacks in these movies. Gender fluidity is relevant to these movies, for example in Halloween, Mike Myers kills in response to his sister having sex. He uses a phallic weapon to deal with his repressed sexuality, the same situation happens in Scream 4, as it is always the weapon which indicates a phallic symbol towards a female, this instantly makes the audience feel sorry for the female victim because of the way they are being treated by the male character. Also the ‘Final Girl’ seems to be identified by the male-dominated audience even more than before throughout the movies. Clovers theory seems to be relevant to these movies as the ‘Final Girl’ is the only one of her friends who has masculine traits and is often similar to the adolescent boy, this is typical of Halloween and Scream 4 as the girl that is targeted last in these movies is the one that always survives, after being tortured and tormented by the male killer. Another part of the clover theory is Empowered Women, this is well shown in particularly in the film Halloween as Lurie is the first girl to fight back against Mike Meyers, however  Meyers almost unbelievably rises yet again with Dr.Loomis alerted by the children and shoots him in the back. This is a perfect example for this clover theory as this combines the endings of A (she is saved) and ending B (she fights back). This theory has become more noticeable and understandable more in recent Horror film such as The Crazies and Scream 4, examples have also been shown in the rise and fall of slasher movie aswell.


I feel that both theories are relative to horror films and are understandable when watching a horror film, they both change the way the audience view the film and explain the causes of what makes them act and think in this way. I also feel that both Mulvey and Clover give a good understanding of the representation of women in horror films, and they both explain that it is mainly that the female is always the victim of the attack as they are seen as an object and les s important and are also the victim of a sexual attack as the weapon they are being targeted by is a phallic symbol. From researching both of these theories I agree with Clover, in the way that she represents the way that women are treated in horror films as she gives good reasons.

The ‘Male Gaze’ is what Laura Mulvey’s theory relates to the most, and this features in all Horror films, it is easily recognised once you understand the theory. Many theorists (especially Laura Mulvey) have suggested that commercial cinema put the audience into the position of an ‘appraising heterosexual male’ by adopting camera techniques which present women as objects to be looked at and men as subjects who do the looking. In these four horror films I have watched all relate to Laura Mulvey’s theory as they all contain the ‘Male Gaze’. The techniques that are used in creating the male gaze in these films are point of view shots and reaction shots this helps make the male character the subject, a good example for this mike Meyers in the film Halloween, these shots are used a lot on him. The use of long shots, often show the male point of view of the female this encourages the audience to relate to her as an object, this creates the intimidation of the female characters. Mulvey argues that mainstream film is part of the sexist ‘regime’ of viewing which denies women subjectivity and encourages culture to view women as objects for male pleasure. This theory is what happens in all horror films as the female characters are always targeted  by the males, to indicate the sexual pleasure the male can inflict on the females, this is the way that the audience see horror films now.

Both of these theories show 2 different ways that females are viewed in Horror films, as Clover talks about how the audience indentifies the female character and how they act as being the ‘Final Girl’ being the last person to survive and take on the killer, she also talks about how the attack is normally related in a sexual attack as the weapon that is being used represents a phallic symbol of a male. Whereas, Mulvey talks all about the ‘Male Gaze’ this is basically different uses of camera that have been used to show different aspects in the way females are being viewed in horror films, she basically talks about using different shots to make the audience view her as being an object and less important making her the innocent and the victim of the attack.

Jeremy Tunstall (The media in Britain 1983) looked at a wide range of the existing research that had been carried out on gender representation in the media. He argues that overall , the existing research found that representation of women in the media emphasised women’s domestic, sexual, consumer and marital activities to the exclusion of all else. Women are depicted as by housewives, as contended mothers, as eager consumers and as sex objects.