Journal of Student Research 2019

Journal of Student Research 92 of consumers, which often happens with violence against women on screen. I began my script writing process with background research on the genre of horror film as it relates to the roles of the women, so I would have a fundamental idea of what to avoid. This was crucial as there are some tropes that are easily identifiable, but there are also the subtler micro-aggressions that I needed to be aware of. I studied both horror films (classic and modern) and feminist theory to obtain a solid database that retains to the sort of film I wish to produce. I cannot claim to have a database that covers the entirety of horror films, but rather horror films that are deemed as classics and must-sees. My goal is to evaluate what someone with a base level of interest in horror films would think when prompted about the subject, and to then build off of those popularized concepts and techniques to make a healthier film. In 1989, a study was conducted to gauge the response of female audiences to horror films as opposed to male audiences (Norbert Mundorf, et al., 1989). The researchers within this study asked a group of men and women to view clips from various horror films with different events taking place: a scene of a woman being tortured and mocked, a scene of women being murdered, a scene of men being murdered, and finally a scene with both a man and a woman being killed. The research conducted by Mundorf, Weaver, and Zillmann showed that women found graphically violent motion pictures less enjoyable than men, thus limiting the audience of horror films significantly. The women were more uncomfortable when viewing scenes with female victims but were also uncomfortable with male victims. This might be in part because “a person’s level of fear of victimization and mutilation could prove a crucial factor mediating responses to horror” (Mundorf, 659). Mundorf, et al, means that because women face more fear of rape and abuse than their male counterparts, horror films may be acting upon those daily fears and possibly perpetuating them. Conditioned social roles may be a factor in why some women do not enjoy horror films and men do as “young men are taught to exhibit fearlessness and show mastery in the face of dangerous, fight-inducing situations” (Mundorf, 656) as opposed to women who are “taught to express fear in frightening situations, and presumably, signal the need for protection to men” (Mundorf, 657). If filmmakers continue to enforce these types of stigmas onto female audiences, they will continue to push away a bigger demographic in favor of making horror films ‘a boy’s club.’ There is a large female audience for the horror films even though they admit to being uncomfortable with aspects of the genre. “What disturbed them [the teenage women interviewed] most were the adults who they felt continually underestimated their intelligence. This group included not only authority figures, but filmmakers and producers, as well” (Kathleen, Kendall, 82). Female fans of the genre described having filmmakers talk down to female audiences about how women should act. This mistreatment of the female audience has inspired some young women to become

Navigating Modern Horror Films with a Feminist Perspective filmmakers. Two adolescent female filmmakers state, they “wouldn’t have wanted the male to win” and cite as their inspiration, Buffy the Vampire Slayer . In fact, they felt that most of the characters in the television series of the same name are “quite strong, really intelligent and show that you can be more than just a bimbo” (Kendall, 86). They and other female filmmakers are beginning to make films that challenge the stereotypes and tests what a woman can and cannot be on the silver screen. They stated that they “were employing irony and humor to confront stereotypes about producers of horror, including assumptions about themselves” (Kendall, 86). It’s by having these new narratives that feminism will prevail in the horror genre as it explores past male narratives and opens more story telling opportunities. Female audiences have been subjected to a lot of discomforts, yet these fans are making films and stories that fit within the horror genre in spite of the clichés and stereotypes. These female creators are creating not out of spite for the genre, but instead to be the change that they would like to see. I fall into this group of young female filmmakers, and I too grew up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Creating such an iconic female lead who was powerful but not without her flaws was crucial to my development as a feminist, and I want to see more female characters develop both within my personal work and in others’. When I set out to make my film approachable to female audiences, it was clear that I would have to reevaluate my own misconceptions and be self-critical. The intelligence of a woman must be fully considered, but also her physical state, as on-screen violence has real-world repercussions. There has always been violence toward women in film, but it is most apparent in the treatment of women in the slasher genre, which is a subset of the horror genre. The 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Dir. Tobe Hooper) is a key example of how women are treated as opposed to men. The first victim in the film, Kirk, is beaten to death with a sledge hammer. The killer, Leatherface, kills him with two blows to the head without any additional interaction between them, aside from Leatherface dragging Kirk’s corpse away. The total interaction time between the two in the scene is 20 seconds. The second victim, Pam (who is Kirk’s girlfriend), is chased out of the house before she is pulled back in and is brought kicking and screaming back onto house, then to a torture room. From there, Leatherface hangs her from a meathook by spearing the hook through her back. As she dangles in the air, Leatherface starts a chainsaw and begins to dismember her boyfriend in front of her. The scene ends on her prolonged torture and abuse, as opposed to the quick death of every man prior. The third victim, Jerry, is exploring the house, searching for his missing friends, when he comes face to face with Leatherface. Jerry first opens a freezer, to which reveals the living Pam inside who is slowly being frozen to death. She springs up as Leatherface enters. Jerry’s death, an ax to the head, takes 4 seconds. Leatherface then pushes Pam back into the freezer, effectively sealing her to her death. Even in death, she will

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