Halloween is one of the pioneers of the horror genre and albeit fairly outdated, the majority of techniques and narrative structures are still used to today and still yield the same effect. In “slasher” horror the premise is that a monster with an evil disposition attacks and murders a fleet of victims, usually teenagers. The prevalence of teenagers is useful for the exploitation of gender and leads into ideas of sexual and life-style experimentation. The notion of a reactionary sexual agenda has been proposed to be an underpinning to horror films and gives insight to the dispersal of gender roles within. Females have usually been seen to be the “final girl” or victim-hero in these films. This is useful for targeting the demographic of teenagers, mainly males, because the female heroin may impose on forbidden sexual desires. Aspects of identification are prevalent too as people can identify with a females victim-hero role. The typical target audience for a horror film is teenage males; ironically, these adolescent males come to identify with a victimised female rather than a typically macho male. The female is used to embody a typically “weak” persona, showing scenes of fragility which taps into the insecurities of the audience. Later as the victim becomes the hero, desires of the audience birthed through insecurities can be satisfied.
The ratio of males to females and their roles is a key factor in the representation of gender. The male role is usually emphasised in films such as these and usually take on the roles of antagonists, authority figures or Propp’s ideas of a false-hero. These males usually shape the danger and the dynamism of the storyline or plot. The ratio of males to females in Halloween is even, but the role dispersal is not. Three of female characters are portrayed sexually and later killed, where the remaining female characters are either gender-stereotyped i.e.: a nurse, or virginal. The males characters however are shown to have typically dominant characteristics, either being the antagonist or having overarching roles i.e.: the sheriff, doctor and psychiatrist. Halloween’s gender role ratio compares differently with The Shining and Eden Lake, where there is a prominence of male characters, roughly double the number of males than females. Immediately the weighted male dominance hinders the impact and audience perception of the female character. The smaller number creates an aura of weakness, but this is perhaps what makes the female victim-hero so prominent in her defiance. Again, the male roles are comprised mainly of antagonistic monster type figures and leaders of their class (specifically the parents in Eden Lake). Females however are depicted as either weak, dying or dead, except of course for the final girl. In the instance of The Shining, Wendy is shown to be a submissive domestic agent, other females characters are shown to be dead i.e.: the twin girls and the older woman – who even then is sexualised in her death. In Eden Lake the antagonist is personified with a group of males and an intimidated female; the group dynamic is later mirrored in the parental groupings and suggests the hereditary horror brought on in the film. But still, the female roles are emphatically stereotyped; cafe workers, primary school teachers and carers. Jennie, the victim-hero, is perceived sexually at points during the film, especially in a voyeuristic manner from the antagonist group. This again highlights the need for exposing female sexuality in order to invite horror into a narrative.
The consideration of male to female ratio leads to the dominance of male gaze. Sometimes the female is allowed her own gaze but is often in situations of peril, dismissal and victimisation, rather than heroism. Leading on from previous points of sexualised portrayal, it is clear that the female gender is represented objectively while the male is represented subjectively. The male gaze is represented through several key conventions. Point of view shots are used heavily, often with long shots of the female object with quick cuts of close-ups of the various portions of her physique. This is shown to be true in Halloween with the initial savage killing of Myer’s sister and Lynda. This gaze is used again in Eden Lake by the gang of males while Jennie sunbathes. Males are often the subject, being the killer, policeman, doctor or gang and could be a considered a desirable role; the use of a male subject is used to create a basis of identification in order to interpellate a typically male audience.
However, boundaries of objectification are pushed by the final girl or victim hero. Despite the lesser amount of females in the three noted films, they are mostly killed by the outnumbering weight of male characters. Objectification is shown positively in The Shining when it appears Jack seduces a seemingly attractive woman, however at this point, it is unclear whether she is a ghost or a figment of his imagination.
Males can identify and even revel in Jacks success, but as reality changes and the female is conveyed as a corpse, the male audience immediately questions themselves and their new identification with Jack. The male ego appears to be weakened in this instance, but ties into similar ideas shown in Halloween and Eden Lake. Despite the male dominance and high level of female mortality, both the female characters are shown to literally fight their antagonists. It is said that the victim becomes a monster to defeat the monster and rightly so, but in becoming the monster, these victim-heroes become subjects for the audience – they hold attributes of power and defiance a world where females seem to perish so easily.
Narratives structures can be universally applied with gender in horror films. In terms of Todorov’s ideas; we see equilibrium at the beginning where a female is usually submissive to a male counterpart. There are a se
ries of disruptions that are usually orchestrated by male antagonists or authoritative and powerful characters. The pathway to resolution is the uprising of the female of the female heroin, battling through a masculine based destruction. The new equilibrium arises when the final girl is shown to be the hero defeating the villain. Propp looked at character functions which are essential and often stereotypically used when creating a horror based film. Males are usually villains and false heroes, while females are typically shown to be victims with one kind of hero. But using these character functions is adequately used to create a power balance which can be described by Levi-Strauss’ theories. His ideas of vertical analysis show themes in the form of binary oppositions. In the horror genre these include: males and females, strength and weakness, dominant and submissive, good and evil, objective and subjective and finally, sexual and asexual.Gender is represented in a number of ways in the horror genre. Sexuality appears to one of the main underpinnings, with nearly all horror films objectifying women in some way. Objectification is often linked closely to death and is said to be a reactionary sexual agenda. But death usually comes from the subjective male gaze. The final girl however manages to break the mould in the film a new form of identification for a typically teenage male audience. Early identification with a victim-like antagonist can be perceived perversely, considering the sexual connotations. During the final moments, her heroism is shown and effectively justifies the right for identification. The use of male orientated power feeds into a typically masculine ego, while sexual objectification and female identification entices that ego further. It would seem that horror films are based heavily in satisfying masculine egos and desires.
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