Finals Week: 'Gender Roles in Scary Movies'

Welcome to Finals Week, inspired by real life college finals! We'll have a new academic paper on horror films every day this week!

Gender Roles within Scary Movies by Alex Boles

“What’s your favorite scary movie, Sidney?”

These words haunted American society for at least five years when Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 were released in 1996, 1997 and 2000 respectively. At least, the words haunted middle-aged women home alone in their big houses in the middle of nowhere scared to answer the phone at night. The fear and portrayal of women also allowed stereotypes and other characters to form for the future of women roles in scary movies. Sidney, played by Neve Campbell, says at the beginning of the first Scream film after receiving a phone call from one of the killers, that there is no point in watching scary movies because they all display the same representation of women...

"What's the point? They're all the same, some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door, it's insulting.”

The director, Wes Craven, then shows Sidney running up the stairs while attempting to escape from her killer, which just enforces the stereotype criticized by the main character. The director could have been, however, putting the stereotype on display for his audience in order to reinforce that he will be breaking the mold later in the film by making Sidney the victor instead of a male dominant lead character. In general, horror films expressed a manipulated plot that placed women in the role of the weaker sex, but all that began to change as films such as Scream were released. A woman primarily is killed off first and rarely is there a women killer; however, women or a young couple tend to be the soul survivors of these films. If the male is killed off, it usually is while protecting or defending the female lead. Some films, however, break the mold, but Hollywood is known for type-casting and following the same mold for the specific genre. A forum on www.killermovies.com posed the question of why there are so many female leads in horror films. Answers and responses ranged from, ‘because mostly guys go to horror films and want to see hot girls,’ to ‘people want to see women defending themselves against evil, not some big burly man.’ All of the answers had some truth to them. Men go to see horror films to watch scantily dressed women running away from a masked killer, and women go to see the woman lead role stand up to the men and be defiant. Female characters are generally put on screen to either be helpless or to defend someone close to them, whether it is a family member or loved one. Scream is one example, with Sidney killing Stu and Billy to save her dad and friends, but the Halloween series is also a good example, which will be discussed later.

A large number of articles have been written discussing what role gender plays within horror films. Scream will be the main focus of my analysis on gender roles in horror films, but other films will be used as examples throughout.

The movie takes place one year after the brutal death of Sidney’s mother. Two of Sidney’s classmates are murdered at the opening of the movie. A man calls Casey Becker’s (Drew Barrymore) home while she is cooking popcorn on the stove and waiting for her boyfriend, Steve, to arrive to watch scary movies. The voice asks her what her favorite scary movie is and the conversation makes a horrible turn when Casey ends up having to answer questions about scary movies correctly in order to save Steve. When she gets one wrong ('who is the killer in the first Friday the 13th film?'), the unseen killer murders Steve on Casey’s back patio. Eventually, the killer catches up with Casey as well, and her parents find her body hanging from the tree in her front yard, viciously murdered.

The killings begin conveniently around the one-year anniversary of Sidney’s mother’s death. Sidney told investigator’s that she saw a man named Cotton Weary leave her house the night of her mother’s death, but a tabloid reporter, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), is determined to prove Sidney wrong, because she is determined to reveal Weary’s innocence. Weathers follows the two early deaths closely, questioning deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette) at the High School Sidney attends. The whole school is questioned by police the day following the murders, including Sidney, and she then decides to stay with her best friend Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) because her dad previously went out of town on business and she does not want to be alone. While waiting for Tatum to come pick her up that evening, Sidney is attacked by the masked killer. He uses the same method as the first murders. He calls her first and then jumps out of the closet forcing her to flee up the stairs instead of going out the locked front door. She barely escapes her attacker by locking herself in her bedroom when her boyfriend, Billy Loomis, shows up to comfort her screams he mysteriously heard while walking by the house. He drops a cell phone on the ground on accident and Sidney assumes he was the one making the calls, so she runs out the front door to be confronted by the police. An investigation follows and Sidney stays with Tatum where she receives another call from the killer, who obviously couldn’t be her boyfriend since he was in jail. They return to school, where Sidney is again attacked in the bathroom but narrowly escapes that, too, and the principal calls off school until the perpetrator is caught. Tatum’s boyfriend, Stu Macher, decides to throw a party at his house due to school being cancelled and begs Sidney and Tatum to come and bring food, which they agree to. They all agree that a party is just what she needs to get her mind off of recent events and reassure her that she will be safe in a house full of people. The party ends up being a scheme to get Sidney and all her friends in one place, so that the killers can reveal themselves. Tatum is killed in the garage while sporting a mini skirt and revealing top, Dewey is stabbed in the back; Gale runs the news van into a tree after her camera man’s throat is slit and then, the killers reveal themselves. The murderers are Sidney and Tatum’s boyfriends, Billy and Stu, who strategically used their persuasive boyfriend powers to get the girls to come to the party that night. Billy tells Sidney that his motive was the Millennium, and then he confesses that his real motive is to get revenge at Sidney’s family because her mother was having an affair with his father and that is the reason for his mother abandoning him. Their plan was to pin the murders on Sidney’s dad, kill her and stab themselves to make it look like they were left for dead, but complications arose as Sidney tried to escape. She ends up transforming from the helpless victim in the beginning to help kill both Stu and Billy and saving at least three people and herself in the end. She is able to overcome her fears and insecurities due to watching her mom be brutally murdered (who we find out was Billy and Stu, not Cotton Weary) in order to save her dad and friends. Sidney plays the role of the female helpless victim turned triumphant in order to protect her family, but not all female characters kill to save their family, some are cast as the killers. For example, Carrie in the movie Carrie.

Shelley Duvall in 'The Shining'

Robert Kilker in his article, “All Roads Lead to the Abject: The Monstrous Feminine and Gender: Boundaries in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining,” compares and contrasts the two films, The Shining and Carrie based on gender and why the main character in each film went “mad.” He focuses on the maternal power in the beginning of the article and states that children progress from a maternal order to a patriarchal order.

“It is well within reason to consider shining an especially maternal power,” Kilker states.

Kilker analyzes the act of “shining” in the first film. Shining is seen by the little boy, an innocent, throughout the hotel in which the film takes place. The hotel is said to be built above an Indian burial ground causing all of the ghostly characters to persuade Jack to kill his family. Shining is the basis of the movie and is said to be a maternal symbol, which makes one wonder if that is why the patriarchal character, Jack, went mad and the two survivors were a mother and child. Shining is something of a maternal power and in Stephen King’s novel he writes, “I think all mothers shine a little, you know, at least until their kids grow up enough to watch out for themselves,” (Kilker 56). The mother in the movie was desperate to save her son, who kept repeating ‘Redrum’ throughout the movie, which spells ‘murder’ backwards signaling the intentions of the male attacker. This movie is a perfect comparison for how women lead characters tend to be willing to do just about anything to save their family or loved ones, even if it means killing or injuring themselves. It also reinforces the maternal power and that even though Jack is her husband, the bond between a mother and child is inseparable.

“The Shining is ultimately a movie about a male monster,” Kilker adds.

Kilker does not exactly justify Jack’s rage, but defines it as him being pressured by American culture acting upon him. He is persuaded by a ghostly waiter, Delbert Grady, that he must kill his family (Kilker, 55). Kilker states that Jack is driven to fulfill the American Dream of success at whatever psychic cost to himself or others (Kilker, 55). According to a review of the movie noted in Kilker’s article, when Jack is interviewed by an upper class white male, there is an American flag strategically placed on his desk, symbolizing the oppression of racial minorities, women and anything that does not benefit straight, white men (Kilker, 55).

Carrie

Carrie is a good contrast to The Shining but also acts on a similar level. Both Jack and Carrie were pressured by the strains of industrialized repression according to Kilker. Carrie’s insanity starts out with her first menstruation being traumatic. Her mom strikes it down as “Eve’s curse. The film allows us, being women, to hopefully sympathize with Carrie as she deals with people condemning her natural order of things, and when she telekinetically sets the gymnasium on fire, a split screen is used to see both Carrie and the frightened gymnasium. Kilker says this split screen is used as a means to distance ourselves from the character we were hoping would escape repression earlier (Kilker 55). Carrie’s female problems and being forced to not be able to identify with them correctly ultimately leads to her insanity. Audiences were led to believe that Carrie would be a feminine character to celebrate, but they were very wrong.

“Carrie is not about liberation from sexual repression, but about the failure of repression to contain the monstrous feminine,” according to a review cited in Kilker’s article by Shelley Lindsey. Audiences are not supposed to identify with her; instead they are supposed to fear the feminine, which contrasts most of the newer films released. The article states that women, or in this case Carrie, are equally as threatening as any male figure in other horror films. The article suggests that men try to contain or suppress the feminine in other situations. Kilker said that he doubts the producer intended to make a film that so extremely supports the repression of the feminine in favor of a more conventional masculinity (Kilker 62).

Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Halloween:H20'

The article, “Defeating the Male Monster in Halloween and Halloween H20,” Kelly Connelly discusses the progression of Laurie Strode’s (who changed her name to Keri Tate to hide from her murderer brother) character (Jamie Lee Curtis) throughout the Halloween series. She references the book by Carol Clover, “Men, Women and Chainsaws,” with the development of the ‘Final Girl’ character in horror films. Connelly states that it is useful to study roles of females and males in horror films in order to see how they depict society in general (Connelly 14). From 1974 on, the survivor figure of most slasher films were females, according to Clover’s book. The newfound incorporation of the female survivor allowed the female characters to rescue themselves and achieve empowerment (Connelly 14). The author states that Laurie Strode (Curtis) achieved the status of Final Girl throughout the series.
“The lessons that Laurie has learned in Halloween and Halloween II, in addition to her acceptance of her relationship with Michael, will permit her to finally triumph as a Final Girl by defeating the monster in Halloween H20,” Connolly states.

The Final Girl allows females to regain empowerment throughout the films and survive in the end. The author talks a lot about the male gaze and the gaze of the male monster within the Halloween series. She says that it is with the adoption of the male gaze that the females are able to empower themselves. Within Halloween, the male gaze is that of Michael Meyers, the brother of Laurie Strode who has killed off all of her sexually active friends and now turned on her. The mask that Meyers wears limits viewer’s as they are unable to see beyond the limitations of the male gaze through his eyes (Connolly 15).
Connolly states that certain characteristics developed in Hollywood’s make up of the Final Girl that Laurie Strode portrayed in Halloween. The Final Girl must exhibit some sense of intelligence, lack of sexual urge and watchfulness (Connolly 15). The author says that in most traditional horror films, sexually active teenagers are the first to be... punished. Laurie spends most of the movie in a male’s long sleeved white shirt and cotton underwear, suggesting both her masculine personality and developing female sexuality, according to Connolly.

Laurie is unable to adopt the male gaze in the first movie and is therefore unable to defeat Michael on her own. She has to be rescued by a male psychiatrist who treated Michael, Dr. Loomis, and is seen as just another helpless victim who narrowly escaped death. Loomis comes in and shoots Michael six times, but his body still somehow escapes the scene leaving room for a sequel…or three. As Laurie’s character developed throughout the films, another new character type developed: one that was not only able to fight back, but do so with so much ferocity and even kill the attacker on their own without help from a man (Connolly 18).
Laurie, who changed her name to Keri Tate in Halloween H20, molded to that character in the final film and Molly, Tate’s son’s girlfriend, portrayed the role of Laurie in the first film. Molly is the pure, not sexually active, intelligent 17-year old that Laurie was, but this time Laurie (Tate) saves Molly instead of the male character coming to the rescue in the end. Laurie was able to transform from the frightened female to adopt the male gaze and learn from her brother the styling of the male monster in order to defeat him in the end.

Both authors Kilker and Connolly develop some sort of thesis explaining how the feminine protect their family and or loved ones and how that urge to protect them allows them to adopt the male-centered revenge and defeat the killers. The Shining shows the mother’s desperation to protect her son just as Halloween H20 shows Keri Tate’s urge to protect her 17-year old son from Michael Meyers. Scream also incorporated this theory into its film by having Sidney react to Billy and Stu’s plan of killing her father with the urge to kill them instead. She was willing to do just about anything, including killing her boyfriend and throwing a TV on top of Stu’s head in order to save her family and the rest of her friends that still had a chance of survival. The Halloween series opened a door for the rest of the slasher movie genre allowing women to take on the role of the “make gaze” and settle the score.

A movie that goes against this theory a little would be Urban Legend. Brenda Bates (Rebecca Gayheart) goes on an urban-legend themed killing spree murdering the friends of Natalie Simon (Alicia Witt) because two years prior she and her friend Michelle Mancini (Natasha Wagner – who is killed first in the movie when the killer hides in her backseat) accidentally were responsible for the death of her then boyfriend. The two girls were playing an urban-legend related prank on Brenda’s boyfriend that made a turn for the worst when he lost control of his car and he died on the scene causing Brenda to seek revenge. It’s similar to the theory of protection in the sense that she adopted the male gaze of empowerment, but the killings were not to avenge, but for revenge instead. This theory brings up a question as to why females are said to have taken on the “male” gaze instead of just wanting to protect their family for their own purposes. Why couldn’t it be called the female gaze? Just a thought.

Another theory that was brought up that relates to more than one film is the role of sexual activity with who is killed off first. Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) in Scream describes the rules of surviving a horror movie and rule number one is that you can never have sex. Ironically enough, Sidney is upstairs with boyfriend, Billy, when Randy explains these rules to the crowded living room of already sexually active teenagers aside from himself. Then, toward the end when Billy and Stu are unveiling their master plan to Sidney, they repeat to her that she is ‘allowed’ to die now because she is no longer a virgin, which makes the audience question whether they will kill her off. In Halloween H20, Holly’s friend talks about it being good that they will be alone while everyone else goes camping, so that they can have an orgy (jokingly), but it shows the audience of her sexual nature and ability to be one of the first ones killed. Molly, who is offended by the talk of sexual acts, ends up surviving in the end. Was it due to her virgin status, intelligence and watchfulness? I guess we’ll leave that up to Hollywood to decide.

Hollywood was able to break the helpless victim mold of women with movie series such as Scream and Halloween. The Final Girl mentality became a popular character type and women were being seen as empowered and courageous, instead of weak and needing to be saved by a man. Also, Scream was able to break the stereotype that since Sidney lost her virginity she had to die. One of Sidney’s famous lines was “Not in my movie,” which can be interpreted in many ways since the movie allowed for many stereotypes and character molds to be broken. Hollywood consistently puts females as the lead roles and sole survivors in films and Halloween H20, produced in 1998 and movies such as The Shining (1980) assisted in the breakthrough for females.

Works Cited

Connelly, Kelly. "Defeating the Male Monster in Halloween and Halloween H20." Journal of Popular Film and Television 35 (2007): 12-21.

"Females as Lead Roles in Horror Movies." Killer Movies. 1999. 18 Nov. 2008

Halloween: H20. Dir. Steve Miner. Perf. Jamie Lee Curtis and Josh Hartnett and Adam Arkin. VHS. 1988.

Kilker, Robert. "All Roads Lead to the Abject: The Monstrous Feminine and Gender: Boundaries in Stanley Kubrick's ‘The Shining’" Literature of Film Quarterly. 34 (2006): 54-63.

Scream. Dir. Wes Craven. Perf. Neve Cambell and David Arquette and Courtney Cox. VHS. 1996.