In my essay, i will use a range of theorists to cover the broad points of comparison. most notably, professors and feminist film theorists. Carol Clover and Laura Mulvey are important figures that conceive several useful ideas to understanding feminist film theory; such as the Final girl trope and the male gaze respectively. However, there are also some other theorists which provide a useful insight into understanding feminism within horror.

Carol Clover – focuses on the final girl, idea that the character is needed in horror films and is “the embodiment of what a woman should be”

Carol Clover – also on final girl, concept that the character does not truly represent feminism because they become “masculinized in their final showdown with the antagonist through phallic appropriation” eg taking up a ‘male’ weapon – chainsaw, large knife

Feminist film theorist Claire Johnston was one of the first theorists who studied feminism in film. In her 1973 article ‘Women’s Cinema as Counter-cinema’ she concluded that women had been stereotyped into film and argues for a cinema which challenges such narrow conventions. She also explains how women are seen as an extension of the male view:

“Despite the enormous emphasis placed on women as spectacle in the cinema. woman as woman is largely absent”

This shows that she believes film as an art form, lacks true female representation. Therefore this supports my idea that females were not represented accurately in film. However, she focuses specifically on the idea of stereotyping women during early film and ever since the silent era

She describes how the work of female directors Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino subverts the patriarchal viewpoint. Both directors were some of the most renowned of their time, shooting silent films during the early 1920’s and 50’s respectively. At a time where males dominated the film industry, these women also served as strong female representation as well as avoiding patriarchy within their films.

British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey studied how female characters are depicted in horror films, coining the term the ‘male gaze’, in her 1975 book ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. This refers to the idea that women are positioned an the ‘object’ of a heterosexual male desire. The concept is based around the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, claiming that film (specifically horror in this case) offers the opportunity for sexual objectification through the patriarchal order of society, claiming ‘the cinema satisfies a primordial wish for pleasurable looking’.

Mulvey explains in her book how there are three ‘looks’ or perspectives which sexually objectify women. The first is perspective of the male character and how he perceives the female character. The second is the perspective of the spectator as they see the female character on screen. Finally, the third perspective joins the former two ‘looks’ together, it is the male audience member’s perspective of the male character in the film. This allows the male audience can relate to himself through looking to the male character in the film.

She calls for a destruction of the contemporary film structure as the only way to get rid of female sexual objectification in film. Removing voyeurism from film will create a necessary distance between the male spectator and the female character. concluding, she suggests that it is women who exist to define the patriarchal society because without women for comparison; a man and his supremacy as the controller of visual pleasure are insignificant. She argues that in order for women to be equally represented in the workplace, women must be portrayed as men are: as lacking sexual objectification. Context heavily influences Mulvey’s viewpoint, as her book “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” was written during the period of second-wave feminism. This is a time where sexual objectification and exploitation was heavily explored and criticized, so such views can influence her argument and how she perceived women in film.

Although feminist film theory, and female representation in horror is arguably influenced mainly by second wave feminism, context is another significant factor which can influence how and why females are represented through horror films

Professor Beth Younger of Drake university claims:

“The representation of women in horror interacts with and reflects whatever is going on in culture at the time”

Context is important for both films, to influence how the feminist film theory is represented.

How social context influences the ‘final girl’ characters

Social context differs greatly for both films, and the 40 year age gap between them can suggest why the characters are different. Social reforms, changes or general state of the society differs greatly between the two films, because they have been produced during different time periods, where the society has changed rapidly overt the 40 years.

The impact of other films as inspiration for female character portrayal

Both films are similar in that they cite other films for reference, both in the visual style of the film but also the plot and basic concept. This also can be influenced by the years of which the films were produced and released, because of the film availability. For example, Alien was released at a time where horror was in its ‘golden age’, specifically with the slasher genre. Many of these films began to introduce a change in female characters, stereotypes and tropes which influenced Alien. Whereas Happy Death Day was released much later, at a time where the female character has developed, and arguably evolved. Many female characters after Alien: Sarah Connor (Terminator), Nancy Connor (Nightmare on Elmstreet) and Sidney Prescott (Scream) influence the character of Tree in HDD due to the typical ‘final girl’ traits with subvert the final girl trope by introducing new elements to the character

The changes from 1979-2017 and how the time difference is significant in how females are represented

Second wave feminism was a major driving force for why the final girl character was created, and how females in film (particularly horror) needed to be changed. During the late 1960’s, early 1970’s; female characters in horror were typically seen as victims who were used only to grow the antagonists kill count and appease the male audience. Whereas as feminism grew and became more mainstream, the characters of females began to evolve in horror.

For example the character of Mari Collingwood in the original ‘The Last House on the Left’ (1972, by Wes Craven) can be considered a victim rather than a survivor or final girl. Whereas with the 2009 reincarnation of the film, directed by Dennis Iliadis, the character has changed drastically. Film theorist Alexandra Heller-Nicholas argues that the remake of the film follows a more generic horror structure as it ‘manifests in the “final girl” elements of Mari’s character that are absent in the original’. The character in the original dies, whereas with the remake: Mari was a fast swimmer so could escape after being shot in the shoulder in the lake. This shows how the character of women in horror has changed over time, with the growth of feminism leading to the need for female characters to be strong and determined rather than meek victims to inspire other women rather than being objectified by the typically male audience during the 1960’s

The most notable example of a feminist film theorist is Carol Clover, who studied the portrayal of females in the horror genre, particularly focusing on the ‘final girl’ and the significance of the idea to the slasher film genre. She argues the necessity of such character to the horror genre, defining them as “the embodiment of what a woman should be”. She justifies the need for protagonists in horror to be female, by suggesting that the surviving character needs to experience abject terror. Therefore the typically male dominated horror audience would reject a horror film showing abject terror as part of a male character.

However, she also argues that the ‘final girl’ isn’t necessarily a true representation of feminism because the characters would becomes masculinized in their final showdown with the antgonist through “phallic appropriation” (taking up a weapon – typically a large knife or chainsaw against their male antagonist).