User:Pollyhoover/sandbox/Gender in Horror

Slasher films, such as Friday the 13th, He Knows You're Alone, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Prom Night, feature acts of extreme violence portrayed in graphic detail. "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 away from mainstream civilization or far away from 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". Critics and researchers have claimed that these films portray: (1) Acts of extreme violence displayed in graphic detail (2) 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. 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. This lead needs a more general introduction with a brief discussion of gender in horror films (including transgender, cisgender issues, and updated citations,