Journal of Student Research 2019

Journal of Student Research 98 concepts that I was trying to get across were not hitting correctly. I kept rewriting my script until it was more understandable for my male audience, but to assure the integrity of the film, I also worked closely with Dr. Lee. My approach to sexism and furthermore, making conversations about sexism approachable to my male audience, was not a traditionally feminist path, but instead, something that I felt helped to make the story terrifying and to make male audiences rethink their own actions. I had to make the male character realistic to modern men, so that my audience may be able to see some of their own characteristics within him. I could not vilify him immediately, as that would push male audiences away or even make them feel attacked. The character needed to go through either a change, or to have more about his quality of character revealed over time. My solution: The faulty narrator. The faulty narrator is a trope where the narrator or the protagonist of the story is not a trustworthy character and it would later be revealed that they had been misguiding the audience. I made my male character the main protagonist and framed the woman to be the antagonist. I wanted my audience to fall into sexist tendencies in order to flip their expectations at the end when the male character is revealed to be the true antagonist. I wanted to show my audience that it is easy to fall into sexist tendencies, as they can be so ingrained in our culture and lifestyles, however; I needed to ultimately underline the idea that even though it may be easy to do, that sexism is harmful and has consequences. While addressing sexual relationships, I did not want to shy away from sex as a topic as it is natural to human nature and needs not be demonized further. More importantly, however, I did not want to needlessly sexualize my female character. One of the major keys to knowing why and how the male gaze works was for me to then use it in a way that knowingly conveys a message I want to get through. My female character is sexualized within the film; however, I did this with intention and purpose. The only time she is objectified and sexualized is in the male character’s literal dreams. This was done to show how his sexualizing her was harmful to their real relationship and caused a dispute between them. While I could justify sexualizing my female character, I could not allow her to be beaten on screen as the real-world ramifications are too high. I was heavily influenced by The Shining and its treatment of violence because as stated before, it does not show the violence outright. The Shining is regarded as one of the most terrifying films of all time, and yet it was able to break away from the voyeuristic look that so many other films of the same genre fall back onto as a crutch. It was reassuring to find that in a 1999 study (Berry, et al), when cutting film violence, and that audience enjoyment did not vary. The result showed that “cutting the movie significantly increased its enjoyability for the women; for the men, there was no significant difference (Berry, et al, 567).” Films do not need violence to be entertaining, and less violence makes the experience more enjoyable for some audiences. What this meant

99 Navigating Modern Horror Films with a Feminist Perspective for me was that I could make a horror film that has the potential to be successfully terrifying without unnecessary violence. All the actions of harming the female character happen just off-screen. The audience knows that the male character is harming the female character, but it does not indulge the fantasy of seeing the woman suffering. Once the script was finished after months of rewriting and research, I began to cast my actor and actresses as well as build my crew. It was important to me to cast a diversity of people as it is important to bring in new perspectives and talents to cinema as well as more representation. The rest of the process was rather streamlined and quick as it was set building and filming. Filming has recently wrapped and it will soon be fully edited, but from the raw footage alone, I believe that my team and I have succeeded in creating a film that makes people feel awkward when watching unsolicited advances and casual sexism on the screen while also being eerie and unsettling without showing prolonged violence against women. Creating a horror film that does not utilize violence was hard to achieve as it is ingrained in horror cinema culture, but if I have done my job correctly, I have succeeded. Even if my film is not the most successful at exposing sexism and the need for change, it did prove something important: that the change I seek is possible to obtain. This cause continues to drive me forward within my own filmmaking career. Following the completion, I intend to bring the film back into an academic setting. This film, Le Ossa , was created stemming from feminist ideas, various studies, and previous films. However, that does not guarantee that the film will be well received as it goes against what modern cinema has attributed horror to be. I intend to replicate the Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod 1984 experiment in a modern setting to see if the results are still applicable. I would have a group of male volunteers watch 3 various horror films, like the previous experiment, but with all modern, blockbuster, horror films. I would also place my own film among the films watched to gage their response by issuing surveys after competition of each film. The group would watch the first two horror films together then for the last screening day, the group would be divided into two. One group would watch my horror film and the other would watch another film like the previous two they viewed. It may be that the modern man has become even more desensitized to violence against women as the content is far more accessible now. If that is the case, then hopefully my study will help to create more dialog surrounding violence in films.

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