Analysis on Horror Themes

5x300 Word Analysis on Horror Themes

Task 2: Write a 300 word summary on each of the bullet pointed theories (1500 words in total - embed examples of videos of scene or trailers you have found that demonstrate this)

FINAL GIRL

The 'Final Girl' is a very common trait or convention of horror films, but it is exclusive to the Slasher genre. The Final Girl is essentially self-explanatory, one of the lead characters who happens to be a female, who makes it to the very end of the film, being the final survivor. While the aforementioned traits are the necessities of the 'Final Girl', there can be other, contrasting traits of the Final Girl which are like sub-conventions of the entire 'Final Girl' idea. The first of these less necessary conventions is the idea that the 'Final Girl' has a shared history with the killer/villain, heightening the tension of the narrative. Normally she will have been an ex-lover or maybe someone who has rejected the sexual advances of the antagonist, explaining why the killer is terrorizing the group, and particularly this girl. This will often lead to a highly dramatic climax wherein the pair will confront each other and exchange in intense dialogue before they eventually resume the murderous action. Another commonly-used formality in slasher films relating to the 'Final Girl' idea is the fact that she will use the killer's own (or one of their) phallic weapons to eliminate the Killer completely, I read this as the female taking the masculine power harnessed by the villain and using it against them. The 

entire idea of a 'Final Girl' using masculinity is actually not ironic at all, as they are often very masculinised, sometimes possessing a unisex name such as Sam. The idea of a 'Final Girl' not being typically 'feminine' is very commonplace in Hollywood, as the typical 'feminine' character is often the 'dumb blonde' who is the subject of an impressive sexual drive but an intellect deficiency, and as a result is normally the first one to die out of the group. 

HOW GENRES CHANGE OVER TIME

Over the years, the horror genre and its respective sub-genres have changed to a massive degree. You only have to look at trailers and films from the 1970s and 1980s to notice how permeable the boundaries of genre have been in the history of film. The real incentive for films to change is merely repetition. Nobody wants to see identical copies of films that were doing the rounds in the '70s and '80s, so therefore film directors have to change up the basis of their products to appeal to a modern, mainstream audience. In addition to this, many different sub-genres come into the spotlight in different time periods, for example, Occult-themed possessive films dominated the 1970s, whereas a more jaded, mature 1980s audience preferred the disturbing and intense slasher genre, such as Nightmare on Elm Street (1985) or Friday the 13th (1980). Nowadays, Zombie films such as World War Z (2013) and Zombieland (2009) have developed from a hardcore cult-like audience into a mainstream following in the 2000s and 2010s However, it is not just sub genre popularity that has changed, the actual sub genres themselves have varied to different degrees since they started up in film. For example, many J-Horror movies recently have been remade and westernized, due to American youth's recent interest in Far-East Asian culture.  Many of these remakes will not be successful as the full J-Horror experience will not wash well with a Western audience, as they will not completely understand why they are scary. Another recent change in sub-genres, as highlighted by the likes of Cabin in the Woods (2012), is that film companies will take the usual sub genre-specific tropes and conventions, for the sole purpose of subverting them or poking fun at them. This is done because a modern audience has seen so many horror films and gotten so used to the typical conventions that they are now tired of them, so the subvert or parody of them will go down succesfully with a western market.

THE MALE GAZE

Over the years, the theme of 'The Male Gaze' has varied and been very apparent in horror films and it's respective sub genres. Generally, 'The Male Gaze' is a comment on society which is portrayed through horror films today. Essentially, the Male Gaze is the sexualisation of a female character (usually the lead female who turns into the Final Girl, as exemplified in Cabin in the Woods). For 'the Male Gaze', the camera and/or narrator will give the point of view of this heterosexual male who is the culprit of this sexualisation, who's gaze we're actually looking through. The idea of 'the Male Gaze' is to get the audience, particularly the male members of the audience, to join the male in sexualising the woman and seeing her as nothing more than a sexual object. Another factor that adds to the 'Male Gaze' being typically interesting is the fact that the subject of the 'Male Gaze' is usually a virginal or non-sexual woman who has no idea of the male's ideas or advances. The entire 'Male Gaze' theory was originally coined by Laura Mulvey in her 1975 feminist essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' wherein she explained that 'the Male Gaze' is present in cinema, and the components of 'the Male Gaze', which I've explained above. She is very critical of the entire 'Male Gaze' idea throughout the essay, citing that ''the male gaze denies women their human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance and male sexual desires and fantasies.'' In its simplest form, Laura Mulvey believes that 'the Male Gaze' is simply a way for men to further view women as objects and degrade them to a status below themselves, purely for the sexual fantasies and interests of the male audience.

WHAT ZOMBIES REPRESENT

Zombies are a massive component of a hugely popular sub genre of horror; the Zombie sub genre itself. Developing a cult-following and becoming mainstream in a big way in the '00s and '10s, Zombies have gone from simply being scary monsters that make a convincing foil for the heroes of the film, and have actually become symbolistic creatures/that are placed in by the directors to make a comment on everyday life or modern society as a whole. To begin, the most potent and recognisable symbolism involving Zombies comes from George A. Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead'  (1978). The Zombies are presented as brainless villains who will flock together to attack a Shopping Mall. While, to a casual audience, this may seem like a normal set-piece of the film with no underlying meaning, it's actually revealed to be a metaphor or symbol for human beings and consumerism. When this iconic shot is placed next to a legitimate image of human beings outside a store for the Black Friday sales, the similarities are uncanny. Zombies and Human Beings have a lot in common. In addition to this, Zombies also represent Human Beings with regards to technology and the modern age. Human beings are often lamented and criticised for being dependent on technology to a startling degree. Often we will resemble zombies because of our lack of interaction with others and sole focus lying with the TV or phone screen or whatever it may be. Zombies in film have evolved to represent this, and perhaps to make human beings think twice about what they value highly. Finally, and as perhaps shown best in 'The Walking Dead', zombies represent fear. Fear is ever-present in today's society as murder, terrorism, and other evils are on the rise in the modern western world. These things divide and scare the people, causing us to turn on our own due to fear of 'the enemy within', and the use of zombies replacing these real-life evils is showing us in our media what happens if we do give in to the fear.

POST-MODERN HORROR

Post-Modern Horror is the final theme to be discussed in this essay. Postmodernism is, by official dictionary definition: 'a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.' Essentially, Post-Modern horror is a newer style of horror movies that break down the old codes and conventions, re-inventing them in either the name of satire or to actually try and form new horror conventions. As mentioned a few times already, Cabin in the Woods is a particularly good example of a post-modern horror film, as it seems to comedically identify the problems in the history of the horror genre whilst also maintaining a semi-serious, horror-filled plot. The idea of post-modern horror is to prove the theory of many film critics correct- the boundaries of  genre are very much permeable, causing horror to constantly be evolving and changing its typical tropes and codes. With a changing audience, horror needs to keep up, and post-modern horror spearheads this change.