How does the horror genre represent gender?

Within our media studies lesson, we watched three horror films, and compared them in terms of the way in which they represent gender. The three films we watched were the 1979 Halloween, 1982 The Shining , and the 2008 film Eden Lake. We noted to see whether the representation of gender had changed throughout the years, and how it had changed if so. We also looked at a theory, and compared it against each film, with the theory being that women were still represented in the traditional stereotypical way.

Firstly we looked at the visibility contrast of gender within the films. The first film we closely looked at was the 1979 original film, Halloween. We noted down each character that particularly had a speaking line in the film, and that were seen as they ‘main characters.’ We come to a conclusion that the women were equally visible on the screen to men, and gave us a 50:50 result. This then implied to us in terms of the theory we studied that women were not represented in the stereotypical way. We then went through, and again noted down the speaking characters from The Shining. We easily recognised that there were more males within the film to females, and that the main casting were 2/3 men, leaving us with a 60:40 result. Then lastly we watched Eden Lake, and we straight away recognised that there were many more males in the film to females. However, the lead female character Jenny takes up a vast majority of screen time, which enables us to see her ‘final girl’ route, but, there is still evidence that there is a lack of females within the film, approximately 3:8.

Next, we went on to look at the roles of the women in the three films. We decided upon whether their roles were domestic, sexual, consumer or familial. In the film Halloween, we discovered that Laurie, the main protagonist was domestic in that she was babysitting in the film for her younger brother and throughout the films she was cooking and cleaning. We also see two other characters Annie and Lynda being portrayed in a sexual way, therefore taking on the sexual role within the film. Lastly, the familial role is taken on by Annie, as her father is the sheriff within the film, and by the character Judith, who appeared for a short while at the beginning of the film, as she is a sister to Mike Myers, the main killer/creature of Halloween.  We then looked at the roles of the women within The Shining. Wendy is the leading female within the film, and also the final girl, and within this she is very domesticated in that her life consists of her being a housewife, and yet she is also familial as she is a wife and mother. She is also very submissive and weak, and this could possibly imply that she takes on a sexual role. When Jack enters room 237, he has the strange visual of the woman from the bath, who at first appears in a sexual and lustful way to the audience, although, as we see in the film, she forms into a dead body, however, this could also state that she takes on a sexual role. We can also relate to familial concept to the film in that Grady’s wife and twin daughters are shown within the film for this role to be expressed a little further. Lastly, in Eden Lake, Jenny is the main protagonist and takes on a domestic role due to her career as a primary school teacher, and also adapts the sexual role in that she is on a holiday with her boyfriend, and is going to become his fiancé, currently unknown to her. The woman that the couple meet in the cafe is also domestic in that again, her job allows her to follow this role, and she is also familial in that she refers to her son’s as “my boys.”

Next we focused on the gaze within each film, and whether the females were seen as being objectified or as being identified. In Halloween, on one hand, Laurie is seen as being identified as she has a gender neutral name, and she doesn’t wear any make-up, and doesn’t particularly dress girly. On the other hand, there is a male gaze aimed towards both Judith and Lynda, as Judith’s first scene within the film is her being objectified by her boyfriend, and Lynda is seen in the laundry room, not long before she is killed, in just a thin shirt over the top of her underwear, and is almost being watched by Mike Myers. In terms of the stereotypical theory, this seems to even out as we have two cases, with one implying women as being identified with, and the other that women are being objectified. In The Shining, the male gaze is again used with the scene of the woman in the bath. Relating back to my point made earlier, the woman is seen sexually by the audience, through Jacks eyes, and appears to be sexually appraised as she is being objectified. However, when she turns into the corpse, it almost undermines the objectification process, making the male viewer ashamed of the way in which he looked at her beforehand. Wendy is seen within the film as being identified as she is the final girl. This proves the theory correct and that women are seen as bring stereotypically objectified by the male gaze to men. Lastly in Eden Lake, there is a male gaze towards Jenny, in particular when she laid on the beach from a males point of view, but as she is approached by the gang, who are immediately implied as ‘bad,’ we understand that she is very uncomfortable, helping the audience to understand how she is feeling throughout the majority of the film. This again, proves the theory that there is a strong male gaze, and that Jenny is objectified in this film.

Lastly we studied the narrative of each film, focusing on the females in particular again. Within Halloween, 3 females die, and 2 males die, meaning it is relatively equal at 2:3, but the death of the females are more mainly focused on throughout the film, however the surviving girl is not, she is virginal and survives, so this implies that maybe there is a reactionary sexual agenda to Halloween. This leads the film to disagree with the set theory. Similar conclusions are applied with The Shining as 3 females die, and 2 males die. However, all of the main females shown within this film die, apart from Wendy who is the final surviving girl. Finally within Eden Lake, 2 out of 3 females die, which is the majority of them, yet 4 out of 8 males die, which is only half. There is not really a reactionary sexual agenda within Eden Lake due to the fact that the final girl does not survive.

In conclusion there was a great mixture of combination within each film, and each category to whether females are still applied in the traditional stereotypical way. The Shining is the film which received the majority of conclusions that it did not match the theory, implying that this is the film where the women are identified with more than being objectified. I would say that lastly Halloween wad the film in which the woman were mainly objectified with rather than identified with.