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"Did you know... a study on slasher films from 1980 to 1993 indicates that women took twice as long as men to die in these films which relates to gender in horror films?"

Gender in horror films sources to add for additional citations:

Lead paragraph

The horror film genre is an expansive movie genre whose primary goal is to invoke responses of trepidation and panic from the audience [cite Dartmouth]. In particular, slasher films, a subgenre of horror films, often include violence towards women.

Critics and researchers claim that these films portray: acts of extreme, graphically detailed violence, focus more on injuring or killing female as opposed to non-female characters, and they contain erotically or sexually charged situations which verge on becoming pornographic.

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Critics and researchers claim that these films depict graphically detailed violence, contain erotically or sexually charged situations which verge on becoming pornographic, and focus more on injuring or killing female as opposed to non-female characters.

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they are labeled as "women-in-danger" or "violence-to-women" films because women are singled out for injury and death and (3) scenes in these films are couples with explicit violence that contain sexual or erotic images encroaching vigorously on the verge of pornography.

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Female characters throughout this genre experience violence and brutality at the hands of male antagonists far more often than male characters in these films. Female characters are also more likely to experience sexual violence, particularly in the rape-and-revenge subgenre.[citation needed] These degrading representations of women are illustrations of misogyny in this film genre.

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Carol Clover's Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film is generally thought of to be the cornerstone work of studying gender in slasher films.

History of the horror film genre
A brief history of the horror film genre aids in informing one's understanding of the role of gender in horror films. French filmmaker, Georges Méliès, is accredited with the creation of the first ever horror film, Le Manoir du Diable in 1896. In Méliès later years, he created multiple adaptations of the Faust legend into his films. These films involved a male protagonist making a pact with the devil. http://pages.emerson.edu/organizations/fas/latent_image/issues/1990-05/horror.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnpWepNtLs

Further information regarding the history of the horror film genre can be found at the link to the Wikipedia article provided.

For the slasher film paragraph

Slasher films are a subgenre of horror films featuring acts of violence portrayed in graphic detail. In his book entitled Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986, author Adam Rockoff states, "The slasher film typically involves a killer who stalks and graphically murders a series of victims in a typically random, unprovoked fashion. The victims are usually teenagers or young adults who are separated from mainstream civilization or unable to easily assess help. These films typically begin with the murder of a young woman and end with a one female survivor who manages to subdue the killer, only to discover that the problem has not been completely solved". Carol Clover's Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film is generally thought of to be the cornerstone work of studying gender in slasher films. Slasher films can include "scenes of explicit violence primarily directed toward women, often occurring during or juxtaposed to mildly erotic scenes". Research has been unable to show if female characters are killed more often in an explicitly sexual way than male characters.

Slasher films possible additional citations

Weaver, James B. III (1991). "Are 'Slasher' Horror Films Sexually Violent? A Content Analysis". Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 35 (3): 385–392. URL

''All of the teen slasher paragraph should be removed since it is not relevant to this article. Not related to gender but instead societal relationships portrayed in this article.''

Teen slasher films
Teen slasher films feature teen protagonists who portray the stereotypical American family. Films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Carrie (1976), show the relationship between society and horror films. Pat Gill states that, "teen slasher films both resolutely mock and yearn for the middle-class American dream, the promised comfort and contentment of a loving, supportive bourgeois family." These films portray parents who are incapable of helping their children when the latter are in dire need of help. Psychologists have concluded that an "ethical shift in the meaning and value of family responsibility" has occurred, which is characterized by a change from an obligation to others towards to a focus on oneself. According to some research, divorce is the main reason for this shift, and it has been suggested that horror films tend to portray what is going on in society. According to Gill, this change in meaning and values explains why teenagers in horror films are left to fend for themselves and the boundaries of their homes have become "entirely permeable to evil".

Citation info [2] Gill, Pat. "The Monstrous Years: Teens, Slasher Films, And The Family." Journal of Film & Video54.4 (2002): 16-30. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

With the production of the movie Halloween in 1978, the sub-genre of horror films known as teen slasher films began (cite with PAT, Gill). Earlier films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Carrie (1976 film) contained teen protagonists; however, the plot-line of Halloween sets itself apart from these earlier works by emphasizing the teenagers' isolation from their family and any aid. This is a pillar of the teen slasher genre where teenage protagonist face threats alone or with minimal support.



Torture films[edit]
Some critics suggest that the torture represented in the torture horror genre reflects contemporary U.S. society. The methods of torture in these films are adapted from the discussion of terrorism. During the "War on Terror", the film industry had trouble distinguishing between the characters of "torturer, victim, villain, and hero." Writers and directors of horror films had difficulty allowing their torturers and villains to survive after doing such heinous acts. Mashia Wester sees films such as The Descent, Saw, and High Tension as depicting "average Americans both as tortured victim and torturing hero." The heroes within these torture films do not actively torture but contribute to their own and others' suffering.

Eli Roth, the creator of the Hostel films, taps into an "undercurrent of anxiety about the place of gendered bodies in relation to torture as well as the connection between gender equality, torture, global capitalist venture, and the passive American consumer." Maisha Wester's states in her article, "Torture Porn And Uneasy Feminisms: Re-Thinking (Wo)Men in Eli Roth's Hostel Films", that the popularity of the Hostelfilms makes the questioning of gendered dominance "both elusive and inescapable in the face of capitalism since, within such a system, we are all commodifiable and consuming bodies."

Some critics suggest that the torture represented in the torture horror genre reflects contemporary U.S. society. The methods of torture in these films are adapted from the discussion of terrorism. During the "War on Terror", the film industry had trouble distinguishing between the characters of "torturer, victim, villain, and hero." Writers and directors of horror films had difficulty allowing their torturers and villains to survive after doing such heinous acts. Mashia Wester sees films such as The Descent, Saw, and High Tension as depicting "average Americans both as tortured victim and torturing hero." The heroes within these torture films do not actively torture but contribute to their own and others' suffering.

Eli Roth, the creator of the Hostel films, taps into an "undercurrent of anxiety about the place of gendered bodies in relation to torture as well as the connection between gender equality, torture, global capitalist venture, and the passive American consumer." Maisha Wester's states in her article, "Torture Porn And Uneasy Feminisms: Re-Thinking (Wo)Men in Eli Roth's Hostel Films", that the popularity of the Hostel films makes the questioning of gendered dominance "both elusive and inescapable in the face of capitalism since, within such a system, we are all commodifiable and consuming bodies."

Female Roles

Women and the female body as monsters

Horror films use the female body as a form of an abject. Aviva Briefel states in her article, Monster Pains: Masochism, Menstruation, and Identification in the Horror Film, that menstruation is the start of monstrosity. Once a girl has reached puberty she is seen to be monstrous. Horror films feed into the female monsters identity through her menstruation, since this is a point of contrast from male anatomy and physiology. This pronouncement in horror films implies there is weakness in menstruation. Additionally, Briefel separates the suffering of gendered monsters in horror films into two types: masochism and menstruation. Masochism is central to the identification of male monsters "who initiate their sadistic rampages with acts of self-mutilation." By contrast, female monsters do not commit acts of self-mutilation out of pleasure but instead "commit acts of violence out of revenge for earlier abuse by parents, partners, rapists, and other offenders." Female monsters will engage in masochistic acts when coerced or attempting to terminate her monstrosity. Briefel provides examples of such masochistic acts by female monsters with films like Carrie (1976), The Exorcist (1973), Stigmata (1999), The Hunger (1983), and Alien 3 (1992).

Shelley Stamp Lindsey states "Carrie is not about liberation from sexual repression, but about the failure of repression to contain the monstrous feminine". Audiences are not supposed to identify with Carrie White whilst she becomes the monster, instead they are supposed to be scared of her ability and destructive potential. Carrie is purposely portrayed in this manner because the character Carrie White demonstrates what happens when women gain power and are no longer repressed. Carrie ultimately tells its audience that they must live in a patriarchal world and if they do successfully integrate then this is what will come of it.

Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight reiterates these stereotypes in present-day filmmaking, styling the major female character, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), as a blood-soaked twin of Carrie, or as the glutinous slimy monster of The Thing. Daisy is imaged arbitrarily as a monstrous force, rather than being human. There has been much debate about the conservative nature of this symbolism and the openly negative attitude to women in The Hateful Eight. Harvey Weinstein and others have vigorously defended the filmmaker from these charges, given that the film has received mixed reception and has not matched the commercial success of Tarantino's previous titles, whilst discussion about the treatment of Daisy has opened up criticism of the film that was unforeseen by both producers and director. Though her portrayal as "Female Monster" is no doubt deserved due to her committing multiple acts of murder both during and before the film's story, turning her eventual death at the hands of Warren and Mannix - two men - into well-deserved punishment.

THINGS REMOVED

The horror genre seems to be the genre within cinema that has the most space to comment on issues of race and gender due to its extremist nature and access to allegorical imagery.

Monster
Carol Clover states that the monster in horror films possesses emasculated rage that portrays the male idea of the monstrous female identity. Wester states that the hero and the monster have blurred lines making their characteristics very similar. Both the hero and the monster are dependent on the female body whilst taking part of the patriarchal world and degrading women. Monsters in horror films attempt to hide their sexual frustration by masking their identity and human self. This mask allows the monster to kill and release the tension from his sexual repression.

The female monster
Shelley Stamp Lindsey states "Carrie is not about liberation from sexual repression, but about the failure of repression to contain the monstrous feminine". Audiences are not supposed to identify with Carrie White whilst she becomes the monster, instead they are supposed to be scared of her ability and destructive potential. Carrie is purposely portrayed in this manner because she demonstrates what happens when women gain power and are no longer repressed. Carrie ultimately tells its audience that they must live as a patriarchal world and if they do not then this is what will come of it.

Aviva Briefel states that menstruation is the start of monstrosity. Once a girl has reached puberty she is seen to be monstrous. Horror films feed into the female monsters identity through her menstruation. This then states that having your period makes you weaker. The overall objective in Briefel's article, "Monster Pains: Masochism, Menstruation, and Identification in the Horror Film", is that the female monster is unable to control her emotions when pain occurs, whereas male monsters are unable to feel pain.

Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight reiterates these stereotypes in present-day filmmaking, styling the major female character, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), as a blood-soaked twin of Carrie, or as the glutinous slimy monster of The Thing. Daisy is imaged arbitrarily as a monstrous force, rather than being human. There has been much debate about the conservative nature of this symbolism and the openly negative attitude to women in The Hateful Eight. Harvey Weinstein and others have vigorously defended the filmmaker from these charges, given that the film has received mixed reception and has not matched the commercial success of Tarantino's previous titles, whilst discussion about the treatment of Daisy has opened up criticism of the film that was unforeseen by both producers and director. Though her portrayal as "Female Monster" is no doubt deserved due to her committing multiple acts of murder both during and before the film's story, turning her eventual death at the hands of Warren and Mannix - two men - into well-deserved punishment.

Carol Clover states that the monster in horror films possesses emasculated rage that portrays the male idea of the monstrous female identity. Wester states that the hero and the monster have blurred lines making their characteristics very similar. Both the hero and the monster are dependent on the female body whilst taking part of the patriarchal world and degrading women. Monsters in horror films attempt to hide their sexual frustration by masking their identity and human self. This mask allows the monster to kill and release the tension from his sexual repression.