October is the month for scariness. With that in mind, we discuss horror movie tropes, and the way women are treated in horror movies.
Both of us love this time of year, and I'm a huge fan of horror movies. In fact, while writing this post, I have Friday the 13th (1980) playing in the background. I can't totally explain why I like horror as much as I do, but I always have. Maura kindly indulged me on this topic.
We do mention at the start of the episode that both of us have acting gigs in Fort Edmonton Park's Halloween event this year. It is called Dark and you can check it out here. We also talk about a show that we saw at The Capitol Theatre by Send in the Girls Burlesque. The show was Shakespeare's Sirens and it took a look at whether or not Shakespeare wrote strong female characters. It was a little bit of inspiration for our look at some horror movies and how female characters are treated.
In the episode we discuss the final girl trope. Hollywood had given us some fabulous final girls over the years. We go into depth about what makes a final girl and that leads us into the topic of death by sex. Now I do want to touch on this topic in the blog a bit more as it's something that seems to be needed in a standard horror movie.
It needs to be said that there are a number of horror movies that don't follow the tropes, but there certainly are many that do. So if you are wondering, death by sex in a horror movie doesn't necessarily mean that the act of intercourse itself will kill you. It is more a statement on morality. Final girls are almost always virgins, or they do not partake in sex during the events of the film. Sidney Prescott from Scream (1996) is one of the few examples of a protagonist participating in bad behaviour and living. The death by sex trope is somewhat of a cautionary tale. It's not just sex. Horror movies usually have teenagers that participate in all sorts of bad behaviours that get them killed. Drinking and drugs can also spell death.
Death by sex can also mean that females, especially the slutty ones, can be doomed to more gruesome deaths. Again this isn't always the case, but it does happen. We talk about the deaths in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). After our conversation I thought thought of some others. There is a scene in Hatchet II (2010) that is pretty over the top. It's gruesome, gratuitous, and although both characters do die, the female does seem to be punished more than the man. I do not recommend watching this scene, if sex, violence, and gore are something you wish to avoid. Other movies that come to mind are Sleepaway Camp (1983). Judy's death in particular. We also talk about how this trope is changing and how movies like It Follows (2014) completely turn their back on tradition.
While horror movies are somewhat rife with misogyny, they do employ more females any other genre. Females have more lines in horror movies as well. We talk about some of our favourite feminist horrror movies. My favourite is Slumber Party Massacre (1982), but we also talk about Black Christmas (1974), Alien (1979), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), Carrie (1976), and Teeth (2007).
One movie that I am remiss that we didn't discuss is Neil Marshall's The Descent (2005). It doesn't follow any of the horror movies tropes. It passes the Bechdel Test with flying colours. The main cast is entirely female and they are strong empowered women. I think this movie is worth more that one view as it can be taken in multiple ways. Even the title can have many meanings; descending into the cave, into madness, into darkness. It has a few jump scares, but the creep factor relies mostly on the atmosphere. I highly recommend this movie, but I will add that the original ending is much more effective than the American ending. Why oh why does everything need a sequel??? I guess that's a discussion for another day.
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