Search

Wes Craven directed just four feature films in the final decade and a half of his life. Three of them were mainstream horror movies: Cursed (2005), My Soul to Take (2010) and Scream 4 (2011). Both Cursed and My Soul to Take were received poorly by both critics and audiences alike. While they drew heavily on themes and imagery from Craven's past films, there were also some significant differences, most notably that they both centred primarily on a male rather than female protagonist. The male characters that take centre stage are not the traditional jock-type found in many teen horror movies. This article will examine the role that masculinity and sexuality plays within these two often-neglected films, and how they connect within the wider context of other mainstream teen horror films of the late 1990s and early 2000s that also feature gay characters and/or presentations of non-traditional masculinity. It will demonstrate that the progressive attempts in Cursed and My Soul to Take to feature more prominent and complex characters of this nature are undermined by both the simplistic writing and the apparent disconnect between director and intended audience – a disconnect that had not been present less than a decade earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the representation of the monstrosity of the Hetaera woman/mother and sublime mother in the slasher film genre. It analyzes the depiction of mother/son dyad and the maternal feminine body as well as the deviation from the ideological mandates of patriarchy in Rob Zombie's horror films "Halloween" and "Halloween II." It illustrates the good/castrating mother and stabilizes the phallocentric economy in the slasher film.

The author presents an edited version of her keynote speech at the Slasher Studies Summer Camp Conference organized by UK young scholars Daniel Sheppard and Clayton Wickham in August 2021. Topics include the author's recall of her publications on the subject of the Stalker Film such as "The Stalker Film 1978 to 1981" and "American Horrors" and her analysis of the use of the words Stalker, Games and Terror in the Stalker Film book as well as positioning them in their historical context.

The article analyzes the forms of folk horror in the film "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," produced by John Carpenter and Debra Hill and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. It argues that while British screenwriter Nigel Kneale crafted the film as a folk horror narrative, his conception of the film was eroded by the pressure to conform to franchise and slasher conventions and the choice of filming location. It cites what is shared between Kneale's original screenplay and the theatrical release.

The article presents an analysis of the slasher film "Halloween," directed by John Carpenter, as film noir. Topics covered include how a film can be considered noir, the moments from the film in which Carpenter gestures at noir and the clues which Carpenter leaves through his distinctive characterizations. It also cites the basic assumptions concerning gender in the film and how the film and noir recycle the Oedipal myth to ruminate upon the tragic circularity of human existence.

The article presents an analysis of the slasher film "Halloween," directed by John Carpenter, as film noir. Topics covered include how a film can be considered noir, the moments from the film in which Carpenter gestures at noir and the clues which Carpenter leaves through his distinctive characterizations. It also cites the basic assumptions concerning gender in the film and how the film and noir recycle the Oedipal myth to ruminate upon the tragic circularity of human existence.

The article explores the homophobic and homoerotic attributes of the 1985 slasher film "Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge," directed by Jack Sholder. Topics discussed include the way the film presented the sexual identity crisis of the protagonist named Jesse, the favorable response of gay horror fans to the depiction of masculinity, gender, and sexuality in the film, and the gender dynamic in the said film compared to the 1984 film "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

Since its origins in the mid-1970s, the slasher has been defined as a subgenre of horror in which a serial or mass killer stalks and massacres middle-class youngsters, and preferably attractive young women, using cutting weapons or projectiles. In that regard, the twenty-first century has seen a revival of the slasher, combining the release of original movies with remakes of classic films, adapting the traditional plots to the current context. In this paper, a comparative content analysis is performed on 13 slasher films made during the 1970s and the 1980s and 13 remakes premiered in the new millennium, focusing on the differences stemming from the adaptation of the latter to the new sociocultural context. The results indicate that, although there have been a number of changes, such as higher doses of explicit violence and profanity and in the fight responses of the victims, most of the subgenre's defining traits have remained intact, whereas others, such as those relating to the defining traits of the victims, should be questioned. The limited differences found between the original films and the remakes provide the basis for drawing interesting conclusions about the subgenre itself, as well as to raise discussions about the different contexts of production and reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Get Out does not conform to the general expectations of horror films but instead plays with, inverts, and makes light of horror tropes. The slasher subgenre is a recognizable form that recurs in the public imaginary, but what we see in this film is repetition with a difference that reveals how recurring patterns can be reiterated in destabilizing ways. Here the "return of the repressed" is monstrous whiteness and white supremacy, which have been denied, or disavowed, in a "postracial" culture. When they return, they literally consume Black bodies, commandeering them for white use. Through this reading of Get Out, I intend to rethink the trope of the "Final Girl" as it is positioned within the slasher subgenre and to consider how that position not only provides context for current political moments but also shifts in the horror genre itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the film series "X trilogy" by Ti West, focusing on how it uses the backdrop of 1970s American pornography to reflect on the history of the porn industry and the evolution of horror cinema. It examines the series' engagement with the slasher genre and its commentary on the mainstreaming of pornography, drawing parallels between the "golden age" of porn and the New Hollywood era.

Slasher films are known for their graphic depictions of sex, brutalization and death. Many argue that these films sexualize and punish female characters. A content analysis of 48 influential slasher films from the 1960s to 2010s was conducted to evaluate the presentation of women in these films. Sexualization (measured via specific acts and total sexualization), strength, flaws, brutalization, and fate were coded for 252 female characters. Results indicate that purity was significantly related to lower brutalization and lower rates of death for all women. Within each role (hero, killer, and potential/actual victim), unique portrayals of sexuality and related repercussions emerge. Female killers were most commonly portrayed having sex, heroes were most sexually dressed, and actual/potential victims were brutalized and killed most for their sexualization. These messages reinforce ideas of gender roles, stereotypes, and relationship expectations by punishing female sexualization and demonizing female sex. Issues of violence against women, toxic masculinity, rape culture, and the normalization of combining violence and sex are discussed as significant concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Final Girl trope is well established in horror, and the Final Girl's actions leading up to and including the moment of her 'triumph' over the monstrous threat have generated a rich vein of scholarly and popular discourse. However, the life and experiences of the Final Girl beyond the violent events that initially defined her have largely remained unexplored despite the repetitive appearance of characters like Laurie Strode across horror franchises. By pairing John Carpenter's 1978Halloween and David Gordon Green's 2018Halloween – positioned as a direct sequel to the original film – the life of the Final Girl beyond her confrontation with the monstrous threat is made visible, and the experiences and effects of trauma are centred. An analysis of the visual and narrative manifestations of Laurie Strode's experience of trauma makes clear the limits of the traditionally constructed trope by asking what it means to survive within horror franchises. Acknowledging the Final Girl as a survivor of trauma fosters new possibilities for how the Final Girl trope is discussed and calls attention to the ways that representations of trauma within the horror genre can reflect and reify the experiences of survivors in positive and productive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the true nature of the slasher films or women-in-danger movies by analyzing the 1980s slasher film "He Knows You're Alone." Also cited are the other themes of slasher films like women's sexuality and questions on traditional marriage, how sexualized women are linked to violence, and the 1978 film "Halloween."

As is well-known, fairy tales have played a paramount role when educating and delighting the younger members of every Western community. Our ancestors gathered around a comforting fire and enjoyed the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Adults and children alike appreciated the mystery, fantasy and suspense of a story which is linked to our deepest fears and anxieties. In the case of children, this ancient story told them not to abandon the safety of the safe road, never to disobey adults or, even less, trust strangers. With the rise of capitalism families no longer had the time to tell stories and films and TV shows replaced fairy tales. Twentieth century teenagers were no longer delighted, shocked or educated by Little Red Riding Hood but by fantasy and horror films. Nonetheless, many horror films are not but straightforward adaptations of fairy tales. In this paper I analyze how the story of Little Red Riding Hood inspired a very successful movie in 1972: Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left. In this movie spectators find a teenage girl who wears not a red hood but a red blouse; who trusts not a wolf but a group of drug dealers; who is taken to the forest, brutalized and killed, and who is avenged by her father, who does not use an ax as in the original story, but its contemporary equivalent: a chainsaw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slasher films, a popular and lucrative sub-genre of horror movie, are often thought to be characterized by violence, gratuitous sexual content and specific, repetitive tropes; however, although these tropes have been widely discussed and even parodied, there is scant research examining their validity. Thirty top-grossing slasher films (10 each for the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s) were subjected to content analysis at the level of the individual character to examine the factors associated with character deaths or survival. Characters who were shown nude on screen, who dressed in a revealing fashion, who did not engage in fight behaviors against the antagonist and who engaged in fewer types of pro-social behaviors were more likely to be killed. Several common tropes of slasher films (e.g., virgins survive, ethnic minority characters die) were not supported. The implications of these messages of which characters are depicted as "deserving" of survival are discussed in terms of gender, sexual scripts, and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Christian morality in slasher films and sets out with the assumption that this type of morality manifests itself underlyingly in each narrative through the subjects of guilt and punishment. The discussion is based on the critical work of Nietzsche and Bataille, outlining a brief history of the influence of Christian morality in artworks that involve nudity and eroticism. The analysis of the objects - namely, the movies Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978); Friday the 13th (Sean Cunningham, 1982) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) - employs the frame methodology developed by Kilpp (2003) and allow the exemplification of the relationship between the the discoveries of juvenile sexuality and its subsequent doom by the killer characters on the movies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a learning of schizoaffective disorder through the lenses of slasher-cinema studies literature, subjectivity camera theory, and Mad Studies. The author imports wholesale the language of slasher-cinema studies to help articulate his schizoaffective stories through an autosomatography. He recommends that the slasher subgenre of horror can be a progressive text to assist schizoaffective sufferers with understanding aspects of their schizo-symptomologies.

This article is an autoethnographic vignette of a schizoaffective sufferer learning about 'saneness' from slasher films. In this paper, theories from popular culture as pedagogy, Mad Studies, and cultivation theory, are used to confirm that saneness in motion pictures (specifically slasher films) can be conceptualized as a site of critical pedagogy. In addition, this paper relates the ways in which sane performativity in slasher films is consumable and made educative by inducting a new notion into adult education and Mad Studies: the pedagogy of saneness. This paper concludes that in order for viewers to steady their shattered psyches they have to learn to live with their 'abnormality' rather than shirk it into oblivion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Judges 4 and 5, Jael viciously murders the Canaanite general Sisera with a tent peg to the head. This article approaches the text through horror, with particular reference to the slasher film and the rape-revenge film. Drawing on Carol Clover's landmark Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Horror Film, I argue that Jael should be read as a "Final Girl" who triumphs over the villainous Sisera. The article further suggests that because of the strong suggestion of sexual violence and Sisera as rapist, Judges 4 and 5 also invokes the genre of the rape-revenge film. Jael thus becomes the avenging female survivor. These parallels to horror illuminate the complex intersections of gender, ethnicity, and audience identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper posits a socioeconomic explanation for the popularity of the slasher film genre. These films created a unique sub-genre in which teenage protagonists had to contend with unstoppable forces, in the form of manic killers, while every aspect of modernity and the middle-class lifestyle failed them. Cars and telephones die, the suburbs offer no sanctuary, and adults are absent or ineffectual. The slasher genre rose in popularity as the American economy spiraled into recession. By examining the big three franchises of Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street this paper analyzes the slasher films of the 1980s and their remakes in the late 2000s. It argues that slasher films symbolized a cathartic release for their mainly adolescent audiences at a time in their lives when impending adulthood and an unfavorable economic climate seemed to conspire against them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on representation of horror conditions in different films. Topics discussed include observation of an eliminated slasher films from horror genre approaches such as the "Friday the 13th" by director Sean Cunningham in 1980; inversion of the foolkiller films through "A Nightmare on Elm Street" film series directed by Wes Craven in1984; and depiction of horror in the films through grotesque deployment.

The article focuses on anti-feminism within the 2010 remake of the 1984 horror film "A Nightmare on Elm Street." The author explores the undertone of anti-feminist ideology in the genre of slasher films from the 1970s and 1980s, examines both the theatrical ending and alternate ending of the 2010 "Nightmare," and analyzes how film audiences interpret gender roles in these horror films.

In this paper, I examine the rise in popularity of pornographic parody, and compare it to slash fan fiction. Parody, an imitation that implicitly critiques an original work, is an important element of contemporary media texts. Through satire, parody offers a subtle, yet powerful critique of contemporary culture. Beyond mainstream media texts, parody is also a staple genre of the pornographic canon. Although multiple types of pornographic parodies exist, I concentrate on heterosexual parodies of mainstream film and television made by professional American pornographic film studios. Another media product that demonstrates parody is slash fan fiction, the writing of highly sexualized fan fiction. By queering traditionally masculine texts, slash creates a systematic comment on the patriarchal sexuality of popular culture. I first discuss pornographic parody, specifically focusing onStar Wars XXX. I next claim that a useful lens through which to define and delimit porn parody comes through Bakhtin's notion of the carnivalesque. I compare both slash fan fiction and porn parody through this lens. I argue that slash fandom has the potential to subvert patriarchy, while the more commercial porn parody hyper-articulates it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, the ‘slasher’ movie, with its violence towards women and the surviving ‘final girl’, has been a constant presence in the horror genre to the delight of some and the perplexed dismay of others. Traditional academic approaches to the genre have tended to make assumptions about who is watching these films and why. This article uses a Jungian-inflected approach to reconsider the potential meaning of the genre, suggesting that the violence in the films is less an exhortation to violence against women, but rather a representation of women's experience of patriarchy, with the ‘final girl’ as a figure of resistance. The article also considers the meaning of the more contemporary ‘final girl as perpetrator’ slasher films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines slasher films, a subgenre of horror films, from an academic perspective based on the theories of Carol J. Clover and Vera Dika. It discusses Clover's theories on the representation of gender and sexuality in slasher films as well as Dika's structuralist approach. The author goes on to cover the history of the genre starting with 1974's "Black Christmas" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

The article presents criticism on the film "Haute Tension," directed by Alexandre Aja. It states that showing a female murderer adds complexity to the horror film. It mentions that the film shows repression which exists in a body of a women and how it takes animal nature in terms of violence and sex. It highlights that the director not only makes the protagonist look like man, he makes her subconsciously think that she is a man.

Both the slasher movie and its more recent counterpart the 'torture porn' film centralize graphic depictions of violence. This article inspects the nature of these portrayals by examining a motif commonly found in the cinema of homicide, dubbed here the 'pure moment of murder': that is, the moment in which two characters' bodies adjoin onscreen in an instance of graphic violence. By exploring a number of these incidents (and their various modes of representation) in American horror films ranging from Psycho (1960) to Saw VI (2009), the article aims to expound how these images of slaughter demonstrate (albeit in an augmented, hyperbolic manner) a number of long-standing problems surrounding selfhood that continue to fuel philosophical discussion. The article argues that the visual adjoining of victim and killer onscreen echoes the conundrum that in order to attain identity, the individual requires and yet simultaneously repudiates the Other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents criticism of several films in The Nightmare on Elm Street American slasher film franchise including "Nightmare on Elm Street," "A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge," and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors." It examines ways in which the plots and characters of this series of horror films contains themes of parent-child conflict, sexual freedom and exploration, and youthful rebellion.

An essay is presented on the concept of feminist character called the Final Girl in slasher horror movies. It describes the Final Girl character type, which was introduced by Carol J. Clover in her book "Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film," and explores other gender-related elements of Clover's work. It further argues that the Final Girl of the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" depicts a stronger model of feminism in classical horror cinema.

Whereas scholars have suggested that early teen slasher films like Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and Prom Night (Paul Lynch, 1980) were made primarily for male youth, this article reveals the extent to which producers and distributors tailored the films and their marketing campaigns to appeal to teenage girls and young women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the studies of Italian films and genre cinema. It states that although many of the Italian genre film scholarships are dedicated to the spaghetti western, some critics have considered the slasher and zombie films. Meanwhile, it mentions that much of the films making up the pastapocalypse genre have been totally rejected in the critical tradition of Italy.

An essay is presented on why torture pornography does not exist in horror films. It says that torture pornography as define by David Edelstein refers to the sheer extremity shown in the film, the proximity in the mainstream culture and the insistence on victims. The author relates spectacle horror as the concept that depicts horror films due to its goal to captivate the audience admiration and terror. It also presents horror films including "Hostel" and "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots".

The article discusses sibling rivalry portrayed in various slasher films. It states that the character of Michael Myers as "Samhain" or the Lord of Death in the slasher film "Halloween II" focuses on his assault on his own sister, which brings great surprise and twist for the growing audience of slasher films. Meanwhile, it mentions that the film "Friday the 13th Part I" demonstrates a battle between teen sister and brother. It says that the implication of slasher films to youth audience of no gender distinctions has been explored by critic Vivian Sobchack.

Recently, cinema has been inundated with 1970s/1980s 'slasher' horror canon 're-imaginings,' such as Halloween (2007). Comparing remakes to originals, the remake texts allegorically address contemporary concerns and power structures. Cultural implications of slasher remakes include hyperemphasis of the originals' hegemony and misogyny. Ironically, the remakes contain optimistic endings, pointing to hegemonic, misogynistic futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The slasher horror film has been deplored based on claims that it depicts eroticized violence against predominately female characters as punishment for sexual activities. To test this assertion, a quantitative content analysis was conducted to examine the extent to which gender differences are evident in the association between character survival and engagement in sexual activities. Information pertaining to gender, engagement in sexual activities, and survival was coded for film characters from a simple random sample of 50 English-language, North American slasher films released between 1960 and 2009. Results indicated that sexual female characters were less likely to survive and had significantly longer death scenes as compared to those female characters who did not engage in sexual behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author relates the insights found within early German film critic Siegfried Kracauer's essay "Cult of Distraction" to Carol Clover's study on spectatorships of 1970's and 1980's slasher films. He notes that Kracauer and Clover share an appreciation of the social value of low-brow cinematic forms as reflecting elements of reality more truthfully than high art forms. He further suggests that Clover's emphasis on gendered spectatorship experiences complicates and enriches Kracauer's ideas about the effect of alienation and distraction on film audiences.

The article examines how the film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" affirms and undermines several of the structure components of the slasher subgenre. It discusses the film's resultant ideological consequences in terms of gender, identification, the gaze and monstrosity. The author cites the film's complex structure and theme as what made it stands out from other slasher films. He highlights the difficulty of categorizing the film as a slasher due to its interstitial text, characterized by recognized subgenres without fully adhering to any of them.

The slasher horror film has been the subject of frequent criticism based on the assumption that female characters in these films are more likely to be the victims of serious, graphic violence that is juxtaposed with explicit sexual imagery. The purpose of this study was to address limitations inherent in previous analyses of slasher films and examine whether gender differences exist in the nature of violent presentations. A content analysis of several indicators of violent and sexual content was conducted using a random sample of 50 slasher films that were released in North America between 1960 and 2007. Findings suggested that there are several significant gender differences in the nature of violent presentations found in slasher films. In general, female characters were more likely to be victims of less serious and graphic forms of violence, but were also significantly more likely to be victimized in scenes involving a concomitant presentation of sex and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the psychological and social effects of horror (slasher) movies, focusing on the 2003 thriller feardotcom. The question, “Why do we watch?” is investigated, using narrative and philosophical theories to analyze this and slasher films' far-reaching cultural implications. The visual rhetoric of the postmodern horror movie is also analyzed in relation to its value as a social text, specifically questioning the validity of the Final Girl as an archetype for feminine power. Slasher film critics such as Carol Clover, Daniel Linz, Edward Donnerstein, Fred Molitor and Barry Sapolsky disagree about whether or not slasher films are primarily misogynistic texts and if the most recent depictions of the Final Girl can be read as a step towards feminine empowerment. This article uses narrative theory to interrogate the construction and grammer of the slasher film, among other things, investigating who the male and female audiences are encouraged to identify with while watching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In "The Immorality of Horror Films" (International Journal of Applied Philosophy 20:2 [2006], 278), Gianluca Di Muzio argues that it is immoral to produce, distribute, or watch so-called "slasher" or "gorefest" films. Though I am sympathetic, I don't believe that his arguments warrant his conclusion. In this paper, I will respond to Di Muzio. In particular, I will focus on what I take to be his core argument, which is based on the idea that these films discourage morally appropriate reactions to human suffering. Then I will examine two objections to Di Muzio's position which he himself raises and dismisses, and I will argue that Di Muzio does not adequately refute either of the objections. Finally, I will conclude with some sympathetic remarks, and briefly consider what avenues we might pursue in order to argue for the immorality of at least some horror films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the Scream trilogy and disputes the perception that the series is conservative and reactionary in its politics. She argues that the films reflect specific 1990s American concerns and contends that the distinctive treatment of the slasher villain and final female survivor reflect a progressive, revolutionary stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]