Final girl

The Final Girl extract focuses more on how women are being exploited within slasher genre films than men. Dario Argento: “I would much prefer to watch them being murdered than an ugly girl or man” this shows that film casting only chose beautiful women as they attract male audience. It also suggests that having women walking in the dark alone enhances suspense where the audience fear more for her than for a rough man. The extract emphasises how women get tortured in the film and also how they are brutalised. In many of horror films women are portrayed as weak target for men to victimise them therefore men are shown as dominant and controlling characters. Men’s interests are well served by the traditional pattern of the cinema and the story line presented by the director is in favour of males. However, the girl which is shown in more detail is the one that is the final girl who is intelligent and fully developed and focused on.  This links to the ‘the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and ‘Halloween’ how the well developed and main character survives till the end fighting the evil.

E.Ann Kaplan sums up ‘men gaze at women, who become objects of the gaze’ this can be argued that the way camera shot are offered against women reveal they’re sexuality for men to gaze. For example shows of their legs and shots while their in bathrooms.  Female roles have developed over time as in 1940 women only seem to appear for a short period of time but now they have a more developed and superior scripts and appearance. Other females characters are less developed and are often just classmate or neighbour of the heroine which tend to die earlier in the film.

The killer is often unseen or barely exposed until the final sequences who may not be a ‘man’ they are under masks, or are women dressed at women to mislead an audience which is a good way of suspense.  

  Dario Argento: ‘I like women, esp. beautiful ones, I would much prefer to watch them being murdered than an ugly girl or man

• This quote suggest that women who are pretty are given more importance as the audience would prefer to watch them more then those who are less attractive or any man on show. It can also show that pretty women are an object of pleasure in the way they may be murdered for example: ‘in Psycho, Marian is naked in the shower where she is the most appealing for the ‘male gaze’ and is murdered whilst taking a shower, the camera is invading her privacy.

 Sardou: “torture the women!”The trouble today is that we don’t torture women enough’

•  I totally disagree with this quote because women are being oppressed within the wider industry. As their sexuality is labelled as an object to view via males.  This quote expresses that torturing women is a way to gain more viewer as men think that women are inferior to them and that is a pleasurable moment within the film to be watched as a climax.

Halloween

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre