Horror Genre Study Essay.

The horror genre flourished and adapted to changing audiences over the first 100 years of cinema, and along with the films themselves, so did the conventions that those films adhered to. One of those conventions was the portrayal of main female characters . Early films a la Jane in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), Elizabeth in Frankenstein (1931) and Barbra in Night of the Living Dead (1968) showed the lead as an incapable victim, with no ability to fend for themselves or act logically. Barbra spent much of the movie in a catatonic state after seeing her brother be murdered by a zombie, she has to be looked after by the lead male character, Ben. As time progressed and woman became closer to being equal counterparts of men in everyday life, their characters in films also evolved and they became more powerful. They were more often than not shown as characters that could outsmart the killers, examples where this is prominent are Rosemary in Rosemary's Baby (1968), Laurie in Halloween (1978) and Sidney in Scream (1996). Rosemary, while ultimately being strong and under-covering the plot against her was seen for most of the film as a delusional character like in previous films. She thought the lovely old couple living next door had a conspiracy against her to try and hurt her baby when they were shown as being caring and wanting the best for her. This was released the same year as Barbra's Night of the Living Dead and was at the turning point for woman's portrayal.

The early films used the Female character to give reason or justify the actions of the lead male characters in the destruction of the evil present in the film. Francis goes out to defeat Cesare after Cesare kidnaps Jane in Caligari, and Frankenstein goes to defeat his monster after it attacks his wife-to-be, Elizabeth in Frankenstein. The use of the female characters in this way shows the director's inclusion was only to progress the storyline in a simple way that can be connected with by the audience. The Man must always protect his woman and hence any harm coming to their woman must result in a retaliation against that that has harmed, as in real life. As time passed woman became counterparts of men. This began with a fresh wave of feminist uprising in the 1960s continuing in varying shapes and forms until today which has meant films have adapted to show the female as an equal to the male characters, and even when the killer is a male, above them. As audiences and target demographics of the horror genre moved from sophisticated adult audiences to thrill-seeking teenagers (Halloween, Scream) the director had to appeal to as much of the possible audience as they could. If the tradition of having a weak female lead continued the films would not appeal to the female audiences. Females would prefer to watch a film where they can watch another female overcome the evil themselves than be killed off because they are effectively brainless. Scream has two of these strong females as seen in Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers. Gale Weathers ultimately kills the murderers of with a gun after Sidney outsmarts them inside. This is even unlike in Halloween where the murderer is only rid of after Dr. Loomis comes the strong characters are strongly females.
So, while newer (mid-60's onwards) horror films break from the female lead traditions of the first 50 years they have mostly now followed the newer established tradition seen in Halloween and Scream.
There is however one horror sub-genre that has not fully continued to follow the modern traditions and that is the R18 type nothing but killing off all of the characters with no character development or believable storyline slasher genre. This is greatly attributed to the fact that in the 21st century it is a male demographic orientated sub-genre. Females do not share the same want to watch someone waltz around and take out 80% of the original characters. The female characters in the blood and guts slashers are young, sexually active and attractive people that spend most of the movie either flashing their unnaturally enhanced breasts in a mandatory sex scene or being cornered and blubbering in a corner before being killed off.
Feminist scholar Carol J. Clover says that films such as Halloween showed woman as heroines. Clover discusses how Laurie established the 'final girl' aspect of the genre and how she managed to triumph in the end even though Loomis did ultimately get rid of the murdered. Had the murderer been a normal human Laurie's multiple attacks would have more than killed him. Critics of this view such as John Kenneth Muir point out that Laurie does not survive due to her 'good planning, or own resourcefulness, but sheer luck.' Scream has the Sidney about to be killed by the killers before Gale Weathers comes and shoots him through the head. This is however another female character and shows them as equally powerful female characters. One could argue that if the lead got a clear shot and was fully resourced from the start that these kind of movies would be rather short.

In conclusion, the horror genre has grown into its own kind of uncontrollable monster during its first 100 years and the conventions we expect to see in the films have grown with them. Females are no longer weak and worthless but strong and significant. While there will always be notable exceptions to the norm most movies now follow this convention.