Journal of Student Research 2019

Journal of Student Research 96 adolescents in [their] region commonly watch movies that depict extreme, graphic, or sexualized violence. Exposure to movie violence is not counted in studies of television violence and could be a major contributor to violent behavior because movie violence is more salient than that shown in television programming. Surveys of media exposure in adolescents find similar overall exposure by gender. In contrast, we found that boys have substantially higher exposure to movie violence, probably because of their preference for action films (Sargent, et al. 451)” which can be daunting as films that depict sexualized violence are more impactful on male audiences and can further divide men and women on issues like assault, either physical or sexual in nature. A group of researchers in 2007 conducted an experiment that recorded results from a variety of film genres (not limited to horror) and they found that their participants “perspectives suggest that these types of images may serve to intensify perceptions of dramatic conflict that viewers do appear to find gratifying” (Mary Beth Oliver, et al. 608). Though men are my main concern in this study as to who is affected by violence desensitization, as I mentioned prior, film desensitization has negative effects on women, albeit in a slightly different way. A 2006 study did show that “women’s sex and violence predilections were moderated to an extent by their exposure to sexually violent media that was based on a true story. Unlike the men, rape myth acceptance was ameliorated to some degree for the women. This finding varies from earlier research on sexually violent media, which suggested that both men and women become desensitized to such fare ( Tara Emmers-Sommerperry, et al, 318).” Women also need to be better advocates for one another, as they too are susceptible to desensitization of violence against women. Recently, modern horror cinema and cinema as a whole has been utilizing intertextuality more predominantly. Intertextuality meaning the relation between two texts, and in this context, I am referring to remake and sequel culture. In addition to remakes and sequels to films such as Star Wars and Jurassic Park , there has been a resurgence of remakes and sequels to horror films such as the 2017’s Jigsaw from the Saw Franchise, 2018 Halloween , the 2018 Insidious: The Last Key , the 2019 continuation of the Chucky franchise with Child Play , film and so many more. This is in part because these franchises are established and already have a decent following, so the investment put into these films has a more guaranteed profit than a new concept. What this means for cinema, however, is that old tropes are being recycled, which makes progress regress. As stated prior, horror/slasher films are no exception to this. In 2010, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise was given a reboot and the film shared the same bathtub scene that its 1984 counterpart had. I do not think there is anything fundamentally wrong with paying homage to a classic film (I even really enjoy when it is done subtly); I do, however, take issue with what it is referencing or if a scene is created one to one that was originally harmful in nature. The female victim in the tub was sexually assaulted by the antagonist when she was a child. This scene sexualizes

97 Navigating Modern Horror Films with a Feminist Perspective her and shows that she is still vulnerable to the antagonist. The way that her legs are spread, framing his hand as it makes its way toward her vaginal region creates a sense that the victim can be easily taken. By having her legs spread in such a manner, even if unintentional due to her being asleep, could possibly be interpreted as her inviting the intrusion/sexual assault. The Evil Dead franchise also received a reboot in 2013 and it also decided to include the original’s scene of the woman being raped by the tree. Regurgitating scenes like this are regressive in nature, as they bring back ideology that was once accepted but has no place in modern society. Bringing these types of scenes back blurs the line to audiences about what “has been” and what is “still being” accepted. That is not to say that progress is not being made. Films such as the Rosemary’s Baby , The Shining , and The Babadook all have strong feminist themes and have even become a bigger part of the horror film discussion outside of small, niche circles. These films reference a lot of mentioned violence, but it is not shown on screen. The Shining references violent acts but more often than not, the audience does not actually see a character get hurt. What these films do is take the sexual aspect of violence against women out of the film entirely, or at least out of the scene directly presented, and instead leave a nuanced idea of what is happening for the viewer to imagine, which almost makes the film more eerie and terrifying as the audience is left to wonder about all the things that could possibly happen to the victim. This can be validated by The Shining being on various horror film lists as one of the most terrifying films to date. These films were heavily influential to my scriptwriting process. It may not be a fair comparison of these films to slasher films, as they apart from one another in sub-genre, but the reason that I continue to compare them is because my focus is on what is commercially known from the horror genre, which I believe becomes itself a subgenre of horror. A majority of these films are pillars to the genre and have the most notoriety, as they are the blockbusters of the genre. When writing the script, I was in frequent contact with UW-Stout professor and anthropologist Tina Lee. She would read over my script and make suggestions for alterations. We went through a revision process multiple times until we came to a script that both she and I were satisfied with. I asked multiple men, including men that I know closely, as well as strangers, to review the script to gauge their reactions. After finishing the writing process, I began the production of the film with a solid understanding of what makes a compelling feminist horror film. I started with knowing that I could not talk down to my male audience, though I felt that the female audience would be able to pick up on the micro aggressions of casual sexism more so than the men could. With that in mind, I worked closely with several male cinema students that are also at Stout in addition to my academic advisor for the project, Peter Galante. Having male influence while also achieving my desired objective proved to be difficult as a decent amount of the

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