Women
In Horror Month: Let's Hear It For The
Theorists
Scream
queens, final girls and femmes fatales! I've been reliably informed
that it's Women In Horror month, and so it's time to celebrate the
great work done within the genre by those of the XX persuasion.
Actresses
have always played a pivotal role in horror – from the haunted
expressions of the silent era stars, through the Hitchcock blondes
and the almost dynasty of Leigh / Lee Curtis, to slasher survivors
and Neve Campbell's post-modern turn in the Scream
films. In writing, too, women have come to the fore. Some of the
best-known horror fiction has been written by women – the works of
Mary Shelley, Shirley Jackson and Daphne du Maurier (to name but a
few examples) are rightly regarded as classics, and have indelibly
influenced the genre.
There is, however, another area of
horror at which many notale women have excelled – the field of
academic writing on the subject of horror. Looking through
collections of essays, female names crop up a great deal: Joan
Copjec, Helene Cixous, Mary Russo, Laura Mulvey, Jennifer Wicke,
Julia Kristeva, Tania Modleski... the list could go on.
There
are two books by female theorists that I've read recently which I'd
highly recommend to any horror fan – and they are both
(appropriately enough for the month's theme) about the role of women
in horror films. The two works are Men, Women and Chain
Saws by Carol J Clover and The
Monstrous-Feminine by Barbara
Creed. They differ greatly in their structure, style and
conclusions, but each contribute a great deal to the study of the
horror genre.
Clover's book examines mainly the
slasher sub-genre, and in essays in the book such as “Carrie and
the Boys” and “Her Body, Himself”, she deals with the themes of
audience identification. Clover challenges the assumption that young
males in the audience for a slasher film will automatically identify
with the killer – an assumption that frames these films as a
misogynistic artform. She emphasises the pivotal role of the “final
girl”, saying that “we understand immediately from the attention
paid it that hers is the main storyline.” (Clover p.44) This kind
of cross-gender identification is also demonstrated, in her opinion,
by the camerawork – despite the frequent use of POV shots from the
killer's perspective: “Our closeness to him wanes as our closeness
to the Final Girl waxes... by the end point of view is hers.” (p.
45) In other chapters, Clover discusses male / female narratives in
possession and revenge films, and the role of voyeurism / the eye in
horror films.
Barbara Creed's “The Monstrous
Feminine” is an exploration of the various types of female monster
in horror film, relating these characters to feminist and
psychoanalytic theory. In the first part of the book, Creed takes
the various types of feminine monsters (and notable films in which
they feature) as the focus for each chapter. These themes are:
Archaic Mother (Alien); Possessed Monster (The Exorcist); Monstrous
Womb (The Brood); Vampire (The Hunger); Witch (Carrie). In each of
these chapters Creed investigates the psychological reasons why these
character types occur frequently in horror narratives, and how and
why they inspire such
fear. The second part is more
focused on psychoanalytic theory – Creed reinterprets at length
Freud's case study of “Little Hans”, which formed the basis
Freud's theory of the castration complex. Creed argues that the
figure of the mother / female is perceived as terrifying because she
has the power to castrate, opposing Freud's theory that the fearful
aspect is the female's apparent lack / castration. This is very much
the theme throughout the second half, and as such the remainder of
the book will certainly be more enjoyable if the reader has a high
tolerance for lengthy discussions of castration, vagina dentata,
femmes castratrices and modern-day Medusas. The
Monstrous-Feminine is certainly a fascinating read, and enables
the reader to see many of the classic horrors in a new light.
Anyone wishing to delve into the
theoretical side of the role of women in horror could do a great deal
worse than taking a look at these two books. Don't just take my word
for it – there's this recommendation on the back cover of Men,
Women and Chain Saws from one Joe Bob Briggs (drive-in movie
critic of Grapevine, Texas): “I like this book so much that I
almost don't wanna recommend it, because what if everybody says 'Oh,
don't read that, Joe Bob likes it!' Joe Bob says check it out.” I
reckon Joe Bob would get quite a kick out of Creed's work, too.
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