Gender Depiction in Horror Films Essay - 2371 Words

Gender Depiction in Horror Films There has been a large variety of horror films produced throughout the last fifty years. People are always going to be frightened and scared by different types of horror films. But, what type of horror film scares more people, and were men or women more frightened by these horror films? Each one of the horror films had its own agenda to frighten its audience using several different methods of horror. Some of these methods were more so directed at the female audience than the male audience. Most horror movies show the female as being vulnerable, because in real life females are defenseless against monsters. Are women portrayed as being defenseless? In most horror films women seem to be†¦show more content†¦It all goes back to the Perils of Pauline? If you have a haunted house and you have a woman walking around with a candelabrum, you fear more for her than you would for a husky man? (Clover, p.77). This is a good example of how making women instead of men defenseless in horror films more entertaining. Even if the women are displayed as being more defenseless than men most of the time, in some cases there will be someone that ends up saving them in the end. Are women singled out to be killed more in slasher-films? The first big stalker film stalker film to come out was John Carpenter?s Halloween in 1978. Halloween took a reported $325,000 to be made and grossed over $80 million world wide up until 1987. This gave Halloween one of the highest proportional returns in film history (Waller, p. 87). The first film to copy its narrative and cinematic structure was Friday the 13th . I believe that younger community and women are the target market for stalker films like Halloween. Vera Dika writes, R-rated films were frequented by adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, and these films of excessive violence against women found an audience that was 55 percent female? (Waller, p. 87). Horror movies portray women as vulnerable a lot of the time. Especially in slasher movies, women are often incapable of defending themselves against a stronger horror film-type villain. It is almost like they are waiting to be victimized. OverShow MoreRelatedHorror Movie : Get Out As A Typical Horror Film1101 Words   |  5 PagesGet Out is not the typical horror film but is a horror film. Instead of the classic monster, ghost, goblin or obvious killer, white characters in the film are the monsters. I want to compare Get Out with stereotypical horror films. Get Out is one of the most profound American horror films that sits in a category of its own. The focus on race in the film is horrific for many from both ends. The powerfully blatant gender roles replicate the socialized gender roles that have existed in American societyRead MoreHow Does Godard s Work, Breathless, Use Genre Or Generic Expectations?1401 Words   |  6 Pagesgeneric expectations and to what effect? 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