Horror essay

How does the Horror genre represent gender? (with reference to three study films)

The first film that I studied was Halloween (1978), in which the gender representation appears to be more conservative, although there are more female characters; their roles within the film appear to follow traditionally female gender roles. The visibility of the characters appears to be equally balanced on screen; the roles of both the men and women in the film appear to be fitting to their stereotypical gender roles. The male characters in the film include Loomis, The Sheriff, Mike Myers (as the monster) and the boy Tommy; their roles include a doctor, a sheriff, the monster, and Tommy the needy child. All of the adults in the film are portrayed as having traditional and conservative male roles. The female characters in the film are Laurie, Judith, Lynda, Annie and Lindsey; all but one of the female characters follows the conservative roles; this is Laurie. Judith was the sister of Mike, the monster; Lynda is the girl in the film, who is friends with Laurie and Annie, she makes plans to have sex with her boyfriend (Paul), she is also seen as a sex object in the film and so she is mainly associated with the role of sexual; Lindsey who is one of the young children that Laurie looks after, when she babysits the house, along with Tommy; Annie who is the daughter of the Sheriff, and also friends with Laurie and Lynda, she also fits into the role of sexual, but also into domestic as she is seen making popcorn for herself and the child she is looking after, Annie is also familial too, as she is babysitting and taking on the parental role of looking after a child, even if it is only for a short period of time. Laurie, both follows and challenges gender conventions at the same time, as she is not sexual, which in this film is typically female, but she is domestic and familial as she is babysitting. She does hang around the opposite kind of girls to her, as Laurie does not talk about sex like her two friends, she does rebel by smoking occasionally in the film, which is typically a male act, also that Laurie is also androgynous which means that she portrayed a lot of boyish characteristic, like the way she dresses and also her name which is unisex, and she is also the one who takes on the monster and survives at the end of the film as the final girl. In the film Halloween, the monster Mike Myers seems to draw on previous grievances and punishes the teens for committing sexual acts, or being sexual themselves. Although the visibility of males and females in the film are equal, more females die in the film than males do.

The second film that I studied was The Shining (1982), in which the gender representation is more conservative, there are more males in this film than females, mostly gender conventions are followed but for some of the film these gender roles are challenged. The visibility of the characters is that the men outnumber the women by 2:1; the male characters in the film are, Jack the seemingly loving husband to Wendy and caring father to Danny, until he himself becomes the monster within the family; Danny is Jack and Wendy’s son, he is telepathic and also has an imaginary friend Tony; Halloran is the chef at the hotel, and is also telepathic; Grady is the butler in the gold room as part of Jacks apparitions; also there are some more minor males roles in the film, which include the hotel owner, from the job interview, the barmen, seen only by Jack and the radio operator. The female characters in this film are Wendy is the wife of Jack and the mother of Danny, throughout the film, her character seems to be very weak, but when Jack begins to change, she takes on the male roles in the running of the hotel, to help, but also continues with the domestic and familial roles; The Woman in the bath, this character is also part of Jacks apparitions she is found in the forbidden room of 237, she gets out of the bath in front of Jack as a sexual woman, completely naked with sultry and sexy, come to bed eyes, as she flaunts her body in front of him, tempting him, as they embrace and begin to kiss, the woman begins to almost decompose in his hands; Two little girls, the two female children, were the daughters of the previous caretaker, who lost his mind and killed his family, the two girls are seen in Danny’s visions; also Grady’s wife, who is never seen in the film but is mentioned, by Grady to Jack, there is also minor female character who is the receptionist. For much of the film, the audience identifies with Wendy, but she is not objectified in the film, however the woman from the bath, is the initial objectification undermined by subsequent switch to a dead body. The final girl, Wendy gets away, males and females die throughout the film, but the percentage of female deaths were much higher.

The third film I studied was Eden Lake (2008), the male characters in the film are, Steve, who is the husband of Jenny; Brett who is the leader of the gang that terrorises the unsuspecting couple; five boys that are apart of Brett’s gang; Adam who is Brett’s dad; also the bartender, and the male party goers, towards the end of the film. The female characters in the film are Jenny who is in a relationship with Steve, Jenny although she has got a job, her job is a primary school teacher, which is a stereotypical caring job, she is also familial as she accepts Steve’s engagement ring. Jenny is also sexual to some extent as the boys in Brett’s gang put her in that position. Paige is the only girl member of Brett’s gang, she is aggressive and not stereotypically female, but submissive and controlled within the group. Also the woman from the cafe who insists that the terrorising kids are not hers. Jenny, is the final girl, the point of identification with the female rather than objectification of her, when Jenny is looked at by the gang, the camera shows clearly that Jenny is not comfortable with the looks.