Men, Women, & Chain Saws – Gender in the Modern Horror Film: Gender in Modern Horror Film

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The worst part, though, is when she tries to force a terrible connection between "Indians" [sic] and rapists/evil-doers. I would LOVE a modern re-evaluation of a lot of the gender concepts in this as a nonbinary reader in 2022, but it was excellent for its time and mostly now too, really interesting and riveting to listen to.

Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

A paradox is that, since the late 1970s, the victim-hero is usually female and the audience predominantly male. awesome read, chock-full with slasher knowledge and backed with a lot of film theory (especially affect and audience/spectator theories). John Carpenter responded to this claim by stating that Laurie was able to fight against Micheal because she has a lot of repressed sexual energy, not because she’s a virgin.Okay, so at the moment, I'm actually halfway through it, but I'm enjoying it immensely, not least because it combines my love of horror movies with my love of analyzing the crap out of everything for its feminist implications. Put pithily as it is, this is a crucial point from Clover that tears apart a prevailing view of horror.

Men women and chainsaws : gender in the modern horror film Men women and chainsaws : gender in the modern horror film

She describes the slasher film a a pre-technological genre because of its attachment to weapons like chainsaws, daggers, and knives, the absence of guns, as well as the consistent failing of technologies like elevators, phones, cars, etc. It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking book, and really it’s concerned with much larger issues of violence in movies and not just with particular genres of horror. Bleeding into a magical car for too many nights, gambling on ghosts, and hoping nobody asks too many questions. Carol Clover's compelling [book] challenges simplistic assumptions about the relationship between gender and culture.Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Not only was she one of the more well known actors in the film, but the marketing of the film made it appear that she could have been the final girl (admittedly, Neve Campbell does show up quite a bit in the trailer as well). men, women, and chainsaws is an incisive piece of psychoanalytic film scholarship that codifies and interprets three sub-genres of "low" horror: slasher, possession, and rape-revenge movies. They certainly spoke to something people wanted to see, and I don't think it was women-in-danger or women punished for sexual activity or any of the things Siskel and Ebert suggested.

Men, Women, and Chain Saws - De Gruyter Men, Women, and Chain Saws - De Gruyter

The supernatural element here pays homage to a long line of horrors featuring (possibly) possessed (or otherwise ) cars. Of course, it’s been quite a few years since Clover wrote this book and horror has undergone some interesting changes in the between time. Although academic, Clovers style is smooth enough for even non-academic readers to follow, as long as there's a willingness to learn some terminology in the process. Although such movies have been traditionally understood as offering only sadistic pleasures to their mostly male audiences, Clover demonstrates that they align spectators not with the male tormentor, but with the females tormented—notably the slasher movie's "final girls"—as they endure fear and degradation before rising to save themselves.On the other side of the coin, this is also a bit of an outdated read and far too much time was spent on Freud for comfort. stars rounded down, primarily because I've only seen a handful of the films examined in the text (of note, Carrie and the original I Spit On Your Grave), so it was a bit difficult to really get into it. There are several good points that I had never considered, but there are probably just as many Bad Takes. Clover is credited with developing the " final girl" theory in the horror genre, which has changed both popular and academic conceptions of gender in horror films.

Men, Women, - JSTOR Men, Women, - JSTOR

These places can appear to be a safe space in which the victim/final girl can seek shelter, however, there is always a “penetration scene” in which the killer fights or sneaks his way into the terrible place. She also raises interesting points about the city/country opposition in horror movies, and about the way big-budget mainstream movies are so often simply watered down versions of themes that have already been explored in considerable detail in independent films.Castration; Witchboard; Male gaze; Pornography; Frankenhooker; Blood Diner; Incubus; Great Male Renunciation; Redneck; Body Double; Mad scientist; Tootsie; Libido; Incest; His Woman; Videodrome; Sam Peckinpah; Leonard Maltin; Hunter's Blood; Butcher knife; Robert Siodmak; David Lynch; From Reverence to Rape; Psychoanalysis; David Cronenberg; Brian De Palma; Pumpkinhead (film series); Scanners; Susan Brownmiller; Carrie White; Jacques Lacan; Cannibalism; Castration anxiety; Penis; Gaze; Some Men; Act of Violence; Splatter film; Strait-Jacket; Those Who Trespass; The Eye Creatures; Diegesis; Vampyr; Ghoulies; Rape culture; The Two Mrs. Our resources are crucial for knowledge lovers everywhere—so if you find all these bits and bytes useful, please pitch in. The "last girl" trope, male gaze, and other common elements are discussed, their place in the history of horror cinema, their origin and purpose.