BS: Gender in Slasher Horror

"The Devil's Rejects" (Zombie, 2005)


In the late 1960's early 70's women began not to be represented as weak and defenceless which they originally were,  but a 'new woman' was born. The new women in horror films were more independent, they are more able to protect themselves from harm, and more commonly now are the characters who seek out the threat and destroy it. These new women were the heroes.


"Halloween" (Carpenter, 1978)

the term 'final girl' is a concept used to describe the one female survivor from a number of different Slasher films. a final girl character has distinctive characteristics, such as; being smarter than her friends, intelligent, watchful, level-headed, and more often then not she is more pure, she does not indulge in drinking, drug taking or sexual activity whereas her friends do. usually this final girl will realize the threat of danger, and immorality of her group of friends. this character has more 'boyish' characteristics and is the person who seems most powerful when the murders of her friends begin to occur and is the character who plans to stop the masked killer.


"House on Sorority Row" (Rosman, 1983)

the 'stalk and slash' sub-genre of the well known horror was introduced in 1932 with RKO Radio Pictures, Thirteen Women, which was one of the first films of its kind. the majority of slasher films are American productions and all follow the same basic plot; a gang of teenagers travel to secluded and remote areas, they drink alcohol take drugs and engage in sexual activity. soon after the characters take part in activities such as these they begin to be 'picked off' and killed one by one by a mysterious and unknown killer who generally wears a mask or covers their identity. by the end of the film only a few, if not one character remains who kills the murderer and reveals their identity.

 

"Friday The 13th Part 2" (Miner, 1981)

the core audience for the slasher sub-genre are teenage boys, and young men. this is because throughout these films there are often shots of female nudity and sexual scenes, along with graphic depiction of assault, violence and murder. due to these main captivating parts, creators have been lead to find new and increasingly gory ways of killing the teenage cast within these films.

the stalk and slash sub-genre of film over its time has produced 2 of the most iconic horror characters, Jason Voorhees, (Friday 13th) and Freddy Krueger, (the Nightmare on Elm Street series) . this is extremely significant as it popularized this genre of film, and will sustain and keep the Slasher popular for many years to come. Here are some examples: