I am a HUGE movie buff, and particularly am a fan of horror. Part of the reason I'm not blogging every day right now is because of how much time I'm contributing to my annual horror fest. (Really, with local Frank Vatrano, the Moose and Falcons winless, you would think I would be talking more about that, but no...)
One of the big things in modern horror has been the gender politics. Really, its one of the more interesting things about the genre. That and the fact that the heroes are often the villains, and that often horror is just dark comedy in disguise, but that can be different discussions.
Early on, monster movies were predominantly male driven, often science fiction with damsels in distress, then as we all know the story, Halloween came on to the scene (Though more accurately, Black Christmas and Texas Chainsaw Massacre,) and the Slasher genre was born. Halloween did a lot right, and it set the pace for a formula that would be come the standard about two years later when the Slasher boom was on with Friday the 13th and Prom Night honing in on that formula. More surprising, it became the genre standard even beyond slashers. See: Alien
If we start breaking down a lot of the hit horror movies post Halloween, there is no doubt a huge trend towards the "Final Girl" trope. The Final Girl trope is the trope horror has built its name on now, but it is the house bad horror is built upon. Let's take a look at some of the more successful modern horror titles since and see if the trend can hold.:
Nightmare on Elm Street: 2 Male, 2 Female, Female hero
Evil Dead: 3 Female, 2 Male, Male hero
Faculty: 3 female, 3 male, male hero
Alien: 2 female, 5 male, female hero, male top-billed
Hellraiser: 2 female, 2 male, female hero
The Thing: All male cast
Final Destination: Male hero in one, female in two.
Scream: 3 female, 4 male, female hero
Am I cherry picking a bit? Probably, but the point is good horror isn't necessarily built on the trope. When it is a female lead, it isn't usually a ditz either. Nancy in Nightmare reads up on self defense and home built traps. Ripley is a tough, often by the books co-captain who almost prevents the Xenomorph from ever getting on the ship.
Again, all well known, why is this important?
We are out of the slasher era and moving into an era dictated by remakes (and a huge influx of found footage films). Two films on that list above, The Thing and Evil Dead have shifted the gender of their heroes and cast from male heroes to female heroes and its sexist. Let me revise that, the final girl trope is sexist as a whole. Ok, digging myself deeper. Why don't I just let Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard explain for me:
"The virgin's death is optional, as long as it's last. The main thing is that she suffers."
-Cabin in the Woods
The way Hollywood utilizes the Final Girl trope isn't about empowering female, or writing smart women in general. It's about victimizing women for our entertainment. On top of it, its usually a sign of lazy writing. The Thing reboot was exhibit A. They threw a female lead in there because of genre expectations. Male characters can also be poorly written, but aren't usually subjected to the same psycho-sexual torture female characters are subjected to. (Alien being a great exception and example of this since John Hurt is more or less a rape victim in it, plus phallic Alien. It's kinda a movie about a rape victim beating rape, but not a la I Spit on Your Grave.)
Furthermore, in order to defeat a monster in a horror movie, characters have to over come their flaws and weaknesses. That is what makes a good character in any movie, and by extension a good movie. Male characters often are put in their situation because of transgressions. See: Saw. Female characters are in their situation usually because they're female. Usually an initial encounter is escaped through luck. The flaw they have to overcome is being female. (Halloween was a little guilty of this too.) That isn't good writing, it isn't good horror.
Again, I don't want all male led horror movies. I want horror to take off the training wheels and understand that it can utilize gender better for the messages in its movies, and be real horror. Good horror as gender balance and when it does it right it is perhaps the most progressive genre. It is frustrating to see how all the examples listed above could get it correct, and then they feed it it into the money machine, it changes around and remove that balance, or not see that it has to exist.
Is it really something that is all too important? Not really, silly movies usually. But hey, it's tropes, trends, and something worth noticing and thinking about. The more the audience thinks, the better our movies can get.
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