DISQUS

ANGRYBROOMSTICK · 9 months ago

wow, this is great. I never even thought of slasher films in the same category as "morality plays" from the Dark Age (when medival theatre troupes were under attack from the Church), but they wrote, directed and performed Christian-influenced morality plays for the audience. There was one tradition called "The Hell's Mouth" where characters would pretend they were being dragged into the Hellfire for being such bad Christians.

you can also compare slasher films to Roman plays-- Roman theatre, quite frankly, was exploitative and degoratory, but at least it taught us something about the Roman Empire... I guess.

here is a good link about history of Middle Age theatre (VERY short read, I promise)

http://stronghold2.heavengames.com/history/drama

ANGRYBROOMSTICK · 9 months ago

and I agree that horror films, for the most part, almost always empower female characters, unlike most MAINSTREAM MOVIES in general. How ironic that women are always portrayed as prostitutes, meek housewives, and battered mistresses in "well-respected" films like The Departed, Casino, The Godfather, Scarface, while female characters are POWERFUL and STRONG in "less-respected" movies like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Resident Evil, etc!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James V. · 9 months ago

A well-reasoned defense of the horror film, but such lengthy diatribes always seem incomplete to me, because there does seem an undeniable disproportion between quality slashers (the number of which I can count on my two hands) and all the rest. The sad truth is that good "slashers" sidestep formula, or they execute the formula with such precision that we ignore the formula. That is because the formula itself is narratively dull and worn-out. Hell, it was worn out with the slasher boom started. Kill, stalk, kill, repeat.

Notions of slashers as a morality play seem disingenuous. Morality plays, in their original form, were about a main character learning from the errors and temptations of others, but final girls in horror films are not cognizant of how their morals impacted their survival. They're too busy screaming and running. A more realistic version of the morality play is a film like "Phone Booth," where the side characters offer perspective and review of a moral lifestyle and provoke change or understanding. Moral undercurrents do not intrinsically make a film a "morality play."

Women are utilized as heroines in horror films, yes, but are they empowered? Let's think of the traditional cliches of slashers. Apart from the final girl, the majority of women are sluts who bare their breasts and engage in sex; then they die. This creates something of a paradox for the charge of women being "empowered." On the one hand, women can be empowered, but only if they bury any type of transgressive desire. On the other hand, those who assert themselves sexually meet a grisly fate.

That's without getting into the hypocrisy of "empowering" women in a movie where sex scenes are created specifically to titillate a dominantly male crowd.

After watching "Going to Pieces," I lost much of what little interest I had in slasher films. There are good ones out there, as I said. "Black Christmas," "Halloween," the first and last "Nightmare" films, "Scream," and "Behind the Mask" strike me as examples that rise above their dubious inspirations. Articles like this read, to me, like justification for the embrace of stupidity.

Cole_Abaius · 9 months ago

Regarding woman's empowerment: showing a strong woman in a film targeted for strong women isn't subversive, but getting young guys watching blood splatter to see a strong female protagonist is.

Regarding morality plays: you make a good point, but at least there is almost always a lesson to learn in slashers - at least the good ones. If you accept the tale as a moral homily, it shows young women and men how not to behave. Do you think of The Twilight Zone as morality plays? Or do you limit the tag to Medieval European plays?

Regarding stupidity: A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.

Wait, am I defending Fure? Nevermind. Scratch all that. Reverse it.

Rob_Hunter · 9 months ago

Great article Fure, but I do take issue with the female empowerment view. Like James says above, there's very little empowering about telling women they need to resist the sexual side of their personality. By that rationale, the Muslim world is doing a bang up job of empowering their women... I would add though that the message is also muted by the issue of quantity. One "strong" woman survives, but several more behave like idiots and get slaughtered in their underwear. The strong woman is apparently the exception to the rule.

RobertFure · 9 months ago

I thought 1550 words was enough and cut it off there, but if you want to talk female empowerment... The vast majority of the girls behave as men expect irresponsible teens to behave. They are not necessarily sexually assertive, but rather submitting to the male expectation of them. In that the women act stupid, the popular ones flock together, and they have rampant sex - often with abusive joke boyfriends or the women themselves are shown to be taking part in an affair (whether they're cheating, or the man is). These women are not strong or independent, they're shown to be codependent and sheep-like in following the rules. The strong girl who survives is independent, doesn't cling to her societal (in this satirical society of over exaggeration of qualities) role, and she doesn't involve in meaningless or immoral sex. She can be a sexual being (Laurie Strode in Halloween has a crush on someone, many of the girls have boyfriends [who break the rules and die]) without coming off as a slut. Thus, she survives.

So the horror film, in true empowerment style, says cast off societies expectation, ignore the societal peer pressure of those girls next to you who are demeaning themselves....

RobertFure · 9 months ago

and you win life. Those who do as they're expected are killed. Remember, this is a slasher film which is equal parts basest emotions and societal satire. In taking it back to the morality play (in which 1 character had to learn from what was usually the entire world, or society, or social class), the Survivor represents the individual who stands up for herself while the ditzy soon-to-be-dead girls represent all women who refuse to be independent.

James V. · 9 months ago

"I thought 1550 words was enough and cut it off there."

It's a fascinating topic. To respond to your response: you're right that the women who survive are socially outcast and frequently put down for their refusal to engage in such transgressive desire.

My point is that the transgressive desires are not intrinsically bad, and slasher films paint feminine sexuality as something to be fearful of and avoid. That may seem a broad interpretation, but we're dealing in a broad genre with broad characterizations. A great deconstruction of female empowerment occurs in Tarantino's "Death Proof," where the second round of women survive not because they're virginal, but because they refuse to be diminished by male power (this also occurs in "Scream").

RobertFure · 9 months ago

Its true that sometimes the slasher can simply state Sexual = Death. And Death Proof (which I hated) does seem to be an interesting example, though to advocate the Devil's position, could it not be seen that the women become men, rather than being strong women? They assume masculine traits, such as a willingness to fight, take risks, obsess over dangerous activities and lust after cars. The feminine woman, who cares not for these (Mary Winstead) is left out of the climax. Further, it is perhaps Stuntman Mike who also assumes a transgendered role, as he quickly suffers an emotional breakdown and cries, pleading, a trait that is usually more identified with the feminine side of things.

They very fact we can have such a good back and forth on this topic would help to prove my initial point - Slashers are much more than pornography and deserve more respect than they get. They can be more than just boobs and kills - though when I'm not waxing poetic, those are my favorite parts.