The Sixth Sense

In keeping with the times, M. Knight Shyamalan’s 1999 thriller The Sixth Sense, is a prime example of a typical 90s’ thriller. It relies on simplicity and the act of surprise, which can be seen in the shocking twist at the end of the film.

The film follows a young boy, Cole, who’s most famous line: “I see dead people,” will be repeated over and over again for generations to come. Cole has a sixth sense. He can see and talk to ghosts, which terrifies him. Unlike horror from the previous generations, depicting demonic babies, and possessed children, “the horror film has obliquely moved from the representation of children as terrors to children as terrorized”(Sobchack, Vivian, “Bringing it All Back Home”). The vulnerability of children makes it that much harder to watch as they repeatedly are haunted. Cole’s young age in the film makes the film more gut-wrenching as you watch the little boy quietly run from his bedroom to the bathroom because he is afraid, or jump into Mom’s bed in complete fear.

You cannot help but feel bad for this poor innocent child being completely terrorized by the supernatural.

We watch on rooting for Cole as we see him mature and through the mentor-ship of, psychologist, Vincent, he learns to interact with the ghosts and to help them. The supernatural thriller humanizes the dead that Cole interacts with. Each ghost has a back story, a reason of why they come to Cole, making the movie so much more realistic and creepy. This humanization of the “bad guy” is typical of ’90s horror. Humanization of the bad thing and an emphasis on story line rather than on shock factor is typical of ’90s horror.

Cole communicates with the ghosts in an attempt to help them with their unfinished business on Earth, but the ghost that particularly stuck in my mind is that of a young girl named Kyra. Kyra’s relevance in the movie is particularly important for Cole finds purpose in his ability to see ghosts, but it is also important in the discussion of gender in The Sixth Sense.

Kyra visits Cole in his bedroom one night. The girl is very sick, and Cole wants to help. He finds wear she lived and goes to her house to attend her funeral. At the house Cole notices that Kyra’s younger sister has fallen sick with the same illness, and her father is shown in complete distress. Cole wanders into Kyra’s room where she leads him to a box of tapes, which reveal that the girls’ mother was poisoning them this whole time.

Cole is able to save the younger sister from her evil mother and reveal the truth about Kyra’s death. Cole works as a justice warrior for the dead. It’s important that this film, however, bring up something that is such a spectacle to most, that it is often only shown in horror films: a mother who kills her children because of jealousy. The mother clearly shows signs of Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy.

Mrs. Collins presumably suffers from Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy. She poisons her children for attention.

More so than any jump scare, gaping wounds, or burned faces, this scene from the movie stuck in my memory. It is so unnatural for a mother to kill her offspring, which is what makes Kyra’s story so cringe-worthy. Mrs. Collins is the actual villain in Shymalan’s The Sixth Sense. The idea of a mother who kills is a truly terrifying one.

It is interesting as well to compare Mrs. Collins with the only other mother in the film: Cole’s mother. Cole is raised by his single mother. She is caring and loving and shows deep concern for her son throughout the film. This is a stark contrast with Mrs. Collins who is cynical and narcissistic. I think that the film may be doing something here in showing that the single mother is succeeding in her role as a mother, whereas the nuclear family is falling apart. I think that the movie puts mothers in a new kind of light. Films like The Others and The Babadook  show dysfunctional single mothers. It is not uncommon to see single mothers kill in horror films. The “bad mother” is prevalent in horror, but especially is the “bad single mother” because it is assumed that the pressures of motherhood are too much for a woman to handle on her own. The disapproval and curiosity of single mothers by society is what turns these women into such spectacles in films. Rather than putting the single mother on display as a “bad mother,” however, Shyamalan points the finger at the “unnatural” nuclear family in an interesting turn of events.

Cole’s mother is attentive and caring as opposed to Mrs. Collins.

The sixth sense repaints motherhood and shines a refreshing light on the single mother. The simplicity and almost realistic terror shown in the film reflects thrillers of the ’90s. The “bad guys” (the ghosts) are humanized and the film doesn’t set out to be too flashy.

 

Citations:

• https://www.google.com/search?q=the+sixth+sense&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS568US568&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSmcy_-evTAhWDxSYKHZO0DSkQ_AUICygC&biw=1366&bih=654#tbm=isch&q=the+sixth+sense+cole+and+mother&imgrc=_jGxogpj3ZaZZM:
• http://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Sixth-Sense-Video-Release-Posters_i996252_.htm
• http://www.cinemablography.org/blog/inside-look-the-story-and-cast-of-the-sixth-sense
• http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Mrs._Collins
• Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” Representations, 20 (1987): 187-228.

Misery

 

As our focus in this blog moves away from the recreation of the slasher film in the 1990s, we instead shift to the analysis of ’90s psychological thrillers. The psychological thriller reached a peak in ’90s horror.  The de-emphasis on blood and gore that was so often over played in ’80s horror films, can be made apparent in the large number of psychological thrillers that made their way into the horror scene in the 1990s.

For our purposes today, we are going to analyze the 1990 psychological thriller Misery based on Stephen King’s 1987 novel of the same name. Coming out just at the beginning of a new decade, Misery sets a fairly basic and simple example for thrillers yet to come.

Misery doesn’t set out to woe the audience with high tech special effects, or frighten us with various jump scares, gross us out with excess blood, or even disturb us to our very core. Misery is a simple, black and white horror film, and although Annie’s various attempts to torture Paul make us cringe, and their continuous, nonstop game of cat and mouse keeps us at the edge of out seats, the movie is not setting out to hide any sort of mind-boggling, sinister undertone. This film is horror in its simplest form– nothing flashy, just plain old messed up!

Annie Wilke’s  infatuation with, romance writer, Paul Sheldon, goes from cute and harmless and takes a turn for the psychotic in about the blink of an eye. She has a fatal attraction– an overt obsession with Paul as she continually succeeds in harming and torturing him so that he can never escape her “loving” embrace.

Annie represents a different kind of monstrous female, for she doesn’t depict the “fear of female sexuality… traditionally displaced in the classic monster film”(Hollinger, Karen, “The  Monster as Woman”). Annie is a big-boned, conservative woman with a strong and unforgiving personality. She loves romance novels, and loathes swear words. Annie represents the complete opposite of threatening female sexuality.

Annie is kind, friendly and innocent looking, which makes her an unsuspecting murderer.

Rather than using her sexuality to her advantage, Annie, is perhaps an even more threatening female villain, for she uses sheer strength and a brazen approach. She hides behind a facade of childlike femininity and cutesy phrases like “Oh poo.” This is what makes Annie so frighting– she disguises the makings of a male killer under the personality and body of a female who couldn’t hurt a fly.

Annie ties Paul down so that he cannot escape. She is afraid that if he could, he would leave. She ties him to the bed so that her intentions are made clear.

“Biggest fan turned psychotic caretaker”– this should be the title of Paul’s new novel, for Annie’s infatuation with Paul turns into a really unromanticized version of 50 Shades, as she ties Paul to a bed, and takes a hammer to his ankles. Annie’s obsessive desire for Paul’s presence causes her to do anything in her power to make him stay: “Given the infinity of human desire, and the equally infinite possibilities for human misery, it is difficult to know what to do”(Conlon, James, “The Place of Passion”). Annie’s desire for Paul is so intense that she is willing to go to great lengths to secure him a permanent spot in her life.

 

When the town sheriff comes just too close to finding out that Annie is torturing and hiding a famous author in her house, she realizes that she cannot keep up this charade forever and that she has to move quickly. Annie comes up with a Romeo and Juliet-esque plan using the two bullets that she has left in her gun to commit suicide together with Paul. *cue ooohs and awwws*

Annie’s deranged and intense desire for Paul makes her do crazy things for “love.” She uses this desire to inflict misery on Paul, for she knows that if she doesn’t, he will leave and she will be left by herself. Annie’s infatuation with Paul causes her to act out violently in attempt to keep him to herself and in her final leap to secure a lasting love with Paul, she sacrifices herself. Annie finds herself a woman conflicted between her obsession with Paul and her desire to keep him to herself and forever. In this fatal attraction, Annie suggests death in order to gain eternal companionship.

Misery depicts a very male-like, female villain. Annie’s characterization as the movie’s villain shows female killers in a different light. By using power and strength to overcome Paul, rather than her sexuality and manipulation, Annie shows that women can be assertive. Although Annie is insane and evil, her personality gives a new insight on the female monster.

 

Citations:

• http://stephenking.wikia.com/wiki/Misery_(film)
• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/491596115545720995/
• https://www.bookstr.com/article/the-secret-behind-the-angry-bookstore-customer-viral-video/643
• Conlon, James. “The Place of Passion: Reflections OnFatal Attraction.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 16.4 (1989): 148-54. Web.
• Hollinger, Karen. “The Monster as Woman: Two Generations of Cat People.” Film Criticism, 13.2, (1989) pp. 36–46.,

 

I Know What You Did Last Summer

A very similar cult classic, I Know What You Did Last Summer, is born in 1997 as another ’90s revival of the slasher film. I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream are the same in a lot of ways. Both movies are written by the same man, Kevin Williamson, which explains a lot of the similarities between the two films. They are both very self aware slashers and they paved a path for more postmodern slashers to come.

Many argue that I Know What You Did Last Summer was a failed knockoff attempt at Scream.  Whether I agree with this or not, I do think that both movies played very important roles in the revival of the slasher.

Julie James is the first to receive the note when she comes back from college for the summer. This makes sense, since it puts Julie as the protagonist for the rest of the film, setting her up as the film’s final girl. 

I Know What You Did Last Summer follows four recent high school graduates who accidentally kill a man in a car accident while driving back from a bonfire celebration at the beach. Because some of the group is underage drinking, however, they decide that it’s better to dispose of the body and avoid potential arrest. Each character is up against high stakes with college looming just around the corner. The incident doesn’t just disappear, however, it comes back to bite, a year later, when protagonist, Julie James, receives a haunting letter reading “I know what you did last summer.”

Here Julie is portrayed in a very defensive position. This picture is a showing off Julie as a strong character, although throughout the movie she is portrayed, mostly, as the damsel in distress, this moment shows Julie standing up for herself.

Julie is depicted as the brains of the bunch. She’s the “good girl.” Where Scream uses Randy as the horror film connoisseur, and the character that points out how self aware Scream is as a slasher film, I Know What You Did Last Summer, uses Julie to point out the typical horror movie tropes. In one scene at the beach the group argues about the “real” ending of a local “urban legend.” Julie, with her quick wit, and brains chimes in and puts everyone in their place saying “its a fictional story created to warn young girls the dangers of having premarital sex.” Julie is headstrong and one of the most logical characters in the movie, however, she still suffers from final girl syndrome– seeing as her traits confine her in the very narrow box Carol J. Clover establishes in 1987.

Julie is modest in most of the movie’s scenes, unlike her friend, Helen. Julie’s body is rarely on display, aside from the final scene where she is shown wearing a low cut shirt, with her midriff showing. It may also be assumed that Julie is a virgin, since, unlike Helen who is very touchy with her boyfriend Barry, Julie and her boyfriend, Ray, are not very hands on. Julie proves to be a very traditional final girl.

Unlike Sydney in the postmodern slasher Scream, Julie’s character is very reminiscent of the final girls from the ’80s. Buzzfeed’s “The 25 Fiercest Final Girls of Horror” by Louis Peitzman, ranks Julie last of the 25 fiercest. Peitzman describes Julie as a “relatively weak final girl.” Julie is often overlooked and ignored by the men in the film. Despite her smarts, she fails to stand up for herself and often finds herself at the whim and command of men. She argues for her friends to call the police when they first hit the man the night of their graduation, but is talked out of doing what is right. When Julie starts to worry about the note that she receives, no one takes her seriously, and in the final chase scene at the end she is only saved when her boyfriend comes to the rescue. Julie doesn’t try to fight back. She only runs from the killer, although I will give her props for knowing how to properly load a gun to try and defend herself, until it, unfortunately slips right through her hands (really Julie you couldn’t have had a tighter grip than that??).

This picture points out the dichotomy between the two girls. Julie is very modestly dressed, whereas Helen, on the other hand, is shown walking beside her in very short shorts and a tank top. 

Each character has a clear, stereotypical personality and I think that this is done on purpose, since the movie is so self aware. Each character has a very distinct personality and relationship. Helen Shivers is the “dumb blonde” character. She’s a pageant queen and her boyfriend is the dumb jock, Barry. Their personalities are very purposefully thought out. This leaves very little room for character development, however. The characters, especially the boys are very one dimensional. I think that the girls are at the forefront of this movie, which may be one reason why female audiences take a liking to the film.

Researchers have found that “frightening films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer… are very popular among female viewers”(Mary Beth Oliver and Meghan Sanders, “The Appeal of Horror and Suspense”).  Oliver and Sanders theorized that this increase in female viewers is due to “a deemphasis on violence and a greater attention to interesting plot lines.” This could very well be true since I Know What You Did Last Summer isn’t really interested in blood and gore. This movie more so focuses on jump scares and an increasing aura of suspense. This coupled with the realization that the female characters are much more developed and take on the main focal point of the movie could explain why female viewers have been drawn to this film and many others like this.

I Know What You Did Last Summer, not only uses a self aware plot in creating a suspenseful thriller and story line, but it also helped in recreating the slasher film. The two female characters in the film go through the most character development, and they are also the most investigative characters. Although Julie is not the strongest final girl, she is the smartest of the bunch and points out the sexism that is intertwined in a lot of slasher films, and even though, Helen is supposed to be the “dumb blonde,” she has, arguably, the most intense chase scenes of the entire film. Helen kicks ass in the final scene. She fights back against the killer and survives a brutal jump from a second story window. Helen proves that beauty queens can be tough. Helen and Julie propelled the film into one of the more feminist slasher films even still today.

 

Citations:

1. https://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/the-25-fiercest-final-girls-of-horror?utm_term=.lhwmkXPKm#.fnmNOKxQN
2. http://hollywoodvisage.blogspot.com/2016/05/jennifer-love-hewitt-i-know-what-you.html
3. http://bloody-disgusting.com/tag/i-know-what-you-did-last-summer/
4. https://www.buzzfeed.com/dorsey/how-well-do-you-remember-i-know-what-you-did-last-summer
5. Prince, Stephen. The Horror Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

The Men in Scream

While the women in Scream are progressive and don’t fall into the stereotypes of females so often seen in horror, the roles of the men are also being transformed in this 1996 horror film.

Because this film is so self aware and interested in turning the whole slasher film sub genre upside down in order to surprise an expectant audience, the deaths of male and female characters are equal and almost always done with Ghostface’s signature hunting knife. Ghostface isn’t sexist when it comes to who he kills and how he kills. An equal amount of males to females are killed in Scream. This movie isn’t interested in following the “formula” that recognizes that the “victims are mostly women”(Carol J. Clover, “Her Body, Himself”). Although, Scream does seem to entertain the idea that “the death of a male is always swift”(Clover, “Her Body, Himself”), however, this is mostly because the men in this film are often sitting ducks, whereas the women are ready to fight back.

Steve Orth’s death is gory, and while the kill itself happens fast, Steve is helpless for a good while as his girlfriend, Casey, bargains for his life.

 

In the case of Steve, Casey, holds full power over his life. The roles are reversed in this opening scene. Steve sits helpless and vulnerable as his girlfriend fights for him to live. He is the damsel in distress as he waits defenselessly for her to come to his rescue.

No only do the deaths of the victims occur differently from your typical slasher, but the attributes of the men themselves are also significantly changed. We are introduced to four significant male characters in Scream. With the exception of Billy, most of the men in the film are feminized in some ways. Here, I will analyze the three males that are being donned with feminine characteristics.

Randy is held in the middle while Billy forcefully holds him up by the shirt, and Stu holds on in a very girly and childish manner. 

Randy. Randy is the dorky, virginal, horror movie expert. Randy knows who the killer is from the very beginning and basically narrates the whole film, spelling out the events that will soon ensue. He knows every horror movie trope, which proves essential as the film quite literally turns every stereotype on its head. Randy is taunted and emasculated by Billy and Stu. In one scene at the video store where he works, Randy becomes stuck in Billy and Stu’s grasp and is ultimately submissive to their constant taunting. Randy’s fear and submission can be seen as primarily female characteristics. Randy is saved by Gale Weather’s at the end of the movie, and proudly announces that he “never thought [he’d] be so happy to be a virgin.” Randy is ultimately saved by a woman, and like most final girls, he is the virgin that lives.

Dewey. Dewey is Tatum’s whiny older brother. He is a police officer in town and often tries to assert himself as an authority figure, consistently to no avail. Tatum act like he is her younger brother rather than her elder. Gale is also shown as acting superior to Dewey. She even comments on how young he looks. She is quite tactful in getting her way over Dewey. Dewey is easily influenced by Gale and lets her come along often throughout the film while he is on duty. Dewey’s role in the film is most clearly demonstrated in a scene with his superior at the police
station. As Dewey gets back to the

In this scene, it is made clear where Dewey’s place is in terms of masculinity. 

station after dropping Tatum and Sidney off at the grocery store, the Sheriff, is smoking a cigarette as Dewey eats an ice cream cone. This scene is the most significant for quite clearly pointing out Dewey’s emasculated character.

 

Stu adores himself in the mirror at his girlfriends locker, which points out his feminine qualities. 

Stu. Stu is the most feminized character. This is especially portrayed in one scene where he is shown standing at Tatum’s locker checking himself out in her mirror. Stu possesses a lot of feminine characteristics. He is very talkative, dependent and easily influenced by Billy and by the horror movies he watches. He is also very emotional and sensitive, as he later admits.

Throughout the entire film Stu jokes around and doesn’t take anything seriously. He doesn’t see the harm in what he’s doing, until the final scene when things get real and he realizes that he’s going to get in trouble. As he’s doubled over in pain from his stab wound by Billy, he cries that his “mom and dad are going to be so mad” at him. Stu even comes out and says that he is “far too sensitive” and that Billy “peer pressure[d]” him into killing. Whether peer pressure is a legitimate reason or not, Billy does act like the man behind the scenes pulling on Stu’s strings. Stu is just obedient to him, however, without a real motive, “peer pressure” is the only motive that we can go off of.

 

Scream reinvented the modern slasher. It reversed gender roles for both the males and females in the film, and it gave the slasher genre that much more depth and spontaneity in terms of plot and gender. This film was the first for many more like it to come.

 

Citations:

• Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” Representations 20 (1987): 187-228. Web.
• http://theredlist.com/media/database/films/cinema/1990/scream/028-scream-theredlist.jpg
• http://images4.fanpop.com/image/polls/656000/656301_1299366872235_full.jpghttps://1990horror.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/b2408-tumblr_nb9pjlnond1qij1mgo1_500.gif
• https://giphy.com/gifs/90s-scream-1996-RIGNMLbwqaeC4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCREAM

In the beginning to mid 1990s the slasher genre was on its way out the door when it suddenly made a comeback in the late ’90s with Wes Craven’s Scream. Scream revived the slasher, making the girls essential to the plot, smart and pretty damn badass.

Scream is a post-slasher. It “improved the reputation of the whole subgenre”(Sotiris Petridis, “A Historical Approach to the Slasher Film”). Unlike the slashers of the ’70s and ’80s, the slashers of the ’90s, particularly Scream, took “a turn away from the punishment of sexuality and desire”(Petridis, “A Historical Approach”).

Since Scream is the first of its kind, a new type of Slasher, there is a lot to cover. For this reason I am splitting the movie to cover two blog posts. The first one will just be focused on analyzing the women in the film and the re-imagination of the “final girl.”

 

Drew Barrymore is on the cover of the Scream promo. Although she dies at the beginning, she sets the tone for the entire film.

Casey Becker. The film opens with Drew Barrymore, Casey Becker, being harassed by an unknown caller. She tries hanging up and threatens to call 911 all to no avail when she discovers that the ghostface killer has her boyfriend, Steve Orth, tied up in the backyard. Through a sick, twisted horror trivia game, Ghostface decides whether she lives or dies. When she incorrectly answers the final question Ghostface wreaks havoc. Through a serious game of cat and mouse, Ghostface chases Casey around the house, although she is not afraid to fight back. She is smart and has a killer kick, but in the end Ghostface outwits her. Thus is born the film’s first badass lady.

 

If Drew Barrymore, a megastar of the ’90s and the poster girl isn’t safe than who is? Her presence in the film sets a precedent for the whole movie: “motives are incidental,” and the usual horror movie tropes aren’t applicable. Scream rewrites the genre, and this can all be seen in just the first 15 minutes.

 

Scream is a completely self aware film. This shot is purposeful because, as we all know, the girl with the boob shot always dies. 

Tatum. Tatum is best described as the sidekick. She is Sidney Prescott’s (the protagonist) best friend. She is bubbly and always has “Sid’s” back. Tatum serves as the films “dumb blonde,” but as we later see she is far from it. Tatum is the typical slasher film victim: “beautiful, sexually active woman”(Carol J. Clover, “Her Body, Himself”). Tatum is the girl that is in every slasher, who is used as a pretty face to be brutally murdered. Scream is a different kind of slasher, however. Tatum has a quick wit and isn’t afraid to assert herself.  She teases and picks on her older brother numerous times throughout the film and uses her big personality to get her way. In Tatum’s final death she, like Casey, does not go down without a fight. She’s definitely smart and can hold her own, but as she tries to get away from Ghostface through the cat door in the garage, she can’t fit and ends up as Ghostface’s perfect bait.

 

Tatum is hanged by the garage door, her body on display.

 

 

Gale is cutthroat. Even if she does forget the safety, she makes a pretty good speech beforehand, and ultimately triumphs in the end. 

Gale Weathers. Gale is the local reporter and she’s hungry for fame. Gale rises as one to the two final survivors in Scream. Not only does Scream change the status quo by adding another “final girl,” but Gale is far from the typical final girl; “She is career oriented, selfish, vain, ambitious, and largely amoral”(Valerie Wee, “Resurrecting and Updating the Teen Slasher”). Carol J. Clover describes the final girl as “boyish,” however, Gale does not fit this description. Following along with the conventions of the final girl, Gale does have a gender ambiguous name (a common trait among final girls), and her career focused personality and aggressiveness may be seen as a masculine qualities. Gale, however, is very feminine in her dress, she is flirtatious, and is ready to kick ass whenever necessary. Gale is the final girl for the female audience.

 

Gale stuns in a tiny yellow skirt– I mean she’s Courtney Cox for goodness sake! She is far from “boyish.”

 

Sidney Prescott. Although both Gale and Sidney come together to defeat the killer and they’re both dubbed “the final girls,” if we were to chose one, however, Sidney would be her. We follow the film through Sidney’s point of view; we are rooting for her from the very beginning and she is ultimately the protagonist. Sidney asserts herself right off the bat. When she receives the first call from Ghostface, he asks why she doesn’t like scary movies. Sidney replies that the girl in the movies is usually dumb “She’s always running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door. Its insulting.” Sidney isn’t falling for the bullshit in the horror films, she’s smarter than that.

Sidney is tough and quick on her feet, which is apparent in her escape tactics during her various encounters with Ghostface. Sidney is definitely a strong final girl, but one of her most transgressive qualities– the one that sets her most apart from other final girls is that she has sex! The last girl to live is always a virgin, but not Sidney. Sidney is the ultimate final girl. Voted number one on Buzzfeed’s “The 25 Fiercest Final Girls” she is described as “strong, resilient, sharp, and fearless”(Louis Peitzman) and I couldn’t agree more.

Sidney trumps Clover’s argument that the final girl is “compromised from the outset by her masculine interests, her inevitable sexual reluctance, her apartness from other girls”(Her Body, Himself). Sidney, although reluctant to have sex at first, later admits her interest in starring in a porno right before finally having sex. She definitely doesn’t come off as masculine through the way she dresses and her stoic demeanor, and she isn’t “othered.” Sidney has a close group of friends and although she is set apart because of her mother’s brutal death, she doesn’t have a distinct “apartness” from the other girls. She has a boyfriend and a best friend, Tatum. Tatum always has her back, and just like typical high school besties they’re inseparable. Sidney does not fit into Clover’s argument of the “final girl.” She transcends the boundaries.

Since she is the audience’s point of view, I would make the argument that she is who the film intended on being the final girl, but Gale’s role is imperative and not to be overlooked. Both Gale and Sidney team up to defeat the killer and they both end up living in the end. Scream is the ultimate girl power promoting horror film. Gale and Sidney “save themselves, and each other”(Valerie Wee, “Resurrecting and Updating the Teen Slasher”). Neither of them could do it without the other. Take that patriarchy!

Sidney’s resilience and determination shows in this shot when she gets the first call from Ghostface.

 

Citations:

1. https://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/the-25-fiercest-final-girls-of-horror?utm_term=.xre7knwOp#.ygYPZV5Y1
2. http://www.themarysue.com/scream-feminist-friendly-horror/
3. file:///home/chronos/u06a324947e510a59922ebcd58c862f12fc2b7761/Downloads/Resurecting&UpdatingTheTeenSlasher.pdf
4. https://www.google.com/search?q=tatum+scream&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS568US568&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyzOvUg6zSAhUJ6oMKHdbHB7EQ_AUICCgB&biw=1366&bih=654#imgrc=j_G5hBxVr2OEQM:
5. https://www.google.com/search?q=scream+poster&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS568US568&biw=1366&bih=654&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXnreL56vSAhWpzIMKHR_uAooQ_AUI2gEoAQ#imgrc=_
6. https://www.google.com/search?q=tatum+death+scream&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS568US568&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=654&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPu5TFmazSAhVH3IMKHaGKDBQQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=KjEe6UDKYQkUGM:
7. https://www.google.com/search?q=gale+weathers+in+scream&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS568US568&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=654&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6s8TJmqzSAhVI7YMKHRvKB5sQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=9o9UIM3oTRwjWM:
8. https://www.google.com/search?q=gale+weathers+in+scream&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS568US568&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7g9jO_azSAhVj1oMKHT9QBT4Q_AUICCgB#imgrc=G-J1hcbI_x1WsM:
9. Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” Representations 20 (1987): 187-228.
10. Petridis, Sotiris. “A Historical Approach to the Slasher Film.” Film International 12.1 (2014): 76-84.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

’90s Horror: An Overview

The ’80s glorified blood, gore, and sex, and played up the shock-factor in horror films. As the new decade began, the typified gore of the 1980s made the movies predictable and audiences believed that nothing could come as a surprise anymore- as if!

The ’80s were all about excess, and popularized the slasher film, which included movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. Once the ’90s came around, the slasher genre had started to die down- making way for more “human” villains. The psychological horror and the thriller gained in popularity, which included movies like Se7en, The Sixth Sense, Silence of the Lambs and The Others. These movies also allowed for more diverse  roles for women instead of just another sexualized victim in a slasher film.

Horror in the ’90s took on a human face in villains like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs and Kevin Spacey’s character in Se7en.

The murderer, John Doe (played by Kevin Spacey) in Se7en. This picture shows his humanity and the fact that, unlike, villains from Halloween and Friday the 13th, he is destructible.

Spacey’s lawyer by day/ murderer by night, John Doe, character played on real-life American fears. The murderer was no longer unstoppable and superhuman, he was the average, everyday guy, and he pointed out faults in modern-day America. Spacey could be your neighbor, or co-worker. Not only was Spacey’s character relatable, but he also killed those who committed the seven deadliest sins, thus giving some rationale to his acts. However, the deaths in the film follow a similar pattern seen in horror movies decades before. The woman who embodies “lust” suffers one of the most terrible deaths. It is phallic and gruesome, and unsurprisingly the man who has sex with her leaves unscathed except for some serious trauma. This movie gives the villain a new face, but resorts to tired and familiar female “reprimanding.”

Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins) in Silence of the Lambs.

Similarly, Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs draws on these same overused and oppressive acts of violence towards women. He kills only women and dehumanizes them by calling them “it.”

However, cannibal Hannibal Lecter, in the same film, is painted with humanity as he helps the FBI find Buffalo Bill, which seems to be the way of the ’90s, “he wants to be treated with dignity. And if you don’t, he’ll eat you.” says Jodie Foster who stars in the film as Clarice Starling. Dr. Lecter  gives us a “peak of his humanity underneath” says Foster in an interview with NPR.

Both John Doe in Se7en and Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs portray America in standstill as far as female gender roles in horror films go. America is shown a new type of killer, however; one based in reality. To women and girls everywhere these men were everyday people, which made them even more fearful than any fictitious Freddy Kruguer or Jason Voorhees. Men, however, were also being forced to look at how women can be treated by everyday men instead of ignoring reality by seeing the villain as a monster out of a novel.

Slashers began to once again popularize towards the end of the decade. This can be seen in the popularity of Wes Craven’s Scream in 1996 and I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997. These two movies had a similar theme in common. They both follow a group of teens who have seen slashers themselves, and, in ways, understand what is going to happen next as each friend begins to die off, and make way for two of the most notorious final girls of modern horror.

“Wes Craven’s self aware slasher film Scream in 1996 about a killer among a group of kids that already know all the rules of slasher films rebooted a new Teen Horror cycle which led to I Know What You Did Last Summer directed by Jim Gillespie and Final Destination directed by James Wong”(“A Brief History of Horror,”filmakeriq.com).

I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream created an irony new to the slasher genre. The teenagers are portrayed as growing up watching slasher films and are aware of what is to come while they play their own role in the slasher that they are knowingly in. The audience is also aware of their demise, as we watch each character die off throughout the slasher.

Because of the character’s awareness of the slasher’s sequence of events, Sidney Prescott, Scream’s final girl, “is able to adapt”(Louis Peitzman, “The 25 Fiercest Final Girls of Horror”). She rebels against final girl stereotypes, using her knowledge to her advantage. She is strong and smart and comes out on top. Unfortunately for Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character, Julie, in I Know What You Did Last Summer, however, she isn’t portrayed with the same amount of strength. Julie is ultimately saved by her boyfriend in the end, but is the brains throughout the film, and does manage to outrun and outsmart the killer by herself for a good portion of the movie. These two girls become models for the resurgence of the slasher in the ’90s.

Jennifer Love Hewitt as Julie James in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

The ’90s re-imagines horror from the excess blood and gore shown in ’80s slasher films. The decade explores new roles for female characters and redefines what the horror film can offer.

Citations:

1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89472698
2. http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1990s
3. http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-horror/
4. https://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/the-25-fiercest-final-girls-of-horror?utm_term=.ukYk3269J#.pgaNk4Kjv

• http://theplaylist.net/r-e-m-s-michael-stipe-says-offered-kevin-spaceys-role-david-finchers-se7en-20161109/
• https://www.pinterest.com/bundolo/the-silence-of-the-lambs/
• http://www.fashionnstyle.com/articles/25734/20140916/i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-reboot-news-and-rumors-sony-is-bringing-back-hook-slasher-jennifer-love-hewitt-and-freddie-prinze-jr-returning.htm

The Silence of the Lambs

So far in this blog, I have focused primarily on the revival of the slasher film in the 1990s, however, Psychological thrillers also reach their peak in the 1990s. This included movies like Se7en, The Sixth Sense, Misery, and the award-winning, 1991 horror film, The Silence of the Lambs, which I’ll be discussing further in this blog. 

The Silence of the Lambs has been the only horror film ever to receive an Academy Award. It delves into the lives of serial killers and psychoanalyzes them using psychiatrist/cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, as the go-to in the FBI’s search in finding the notorious Buffalo Bill, who is later revealed as Jame Gumb. At the fore-front of the investigation is, young detective, Clarice Starling. Starling visits Dr. Hannibal Lecter several times in jail to gain more information on the real identity of Buffalo Bill. The movie is in the point of view of the protagonist, Clarice Starling, as she uncovers the real identity of “Buffalo Bill” through interrogating Dr. Lecter, who was previously Gumb’s psychiatrist.

This film deals quite a bit with gender. It takes an interesting look at transsexual people, cross-dressing, and it utilizes a strong female lead. It elicits a new way in looking at gender roles that are no longer black and white. The Silence of the Lambs leaves a lot of room for gray area in terms of gender and explores what this means for different people.

Transexuality in the film:

The main antagonist in the film, James Gumb, aka “Buffalo Bill,” is known for skinning women and wearing their skin as a body suit. Gumb quite literally puts himself inside of multiple women, and takes on their outward appearances.

It is later discovered that Gumb has always identified as a women, but was rejected from sexual reassignment surgery. Because Gumb was entered into an institution for killing his grandparents at age 12, he is denied the surgery on the basis that he is mentally ill. Being rejected from the surgery and from suffering “years of systemic abuse” as a child, according to Dr. Lecter, are what causes Gumb to become the monster that he is. This is typical of “horror movies of psychological disturbance (Barry Keith Grant, The Dread of Difference “Introduction”).” These films “usually offer at least a vague psychoanalytic explanation locating the cause of madness in the character’s earlier developing sense of sexual identity”(Grant, The Dread of Difference “Introduction”). Gumb goes through a sexual identity crisis in the movie, and this “others” him. He becomes a monster because of his “otherness.” The LGBTQ+ community has seen this as problematic because the only transsexual in the film is a viscous killer.  This becomes a misrepresentation of the community as a whole. This isn’t a new concept, however. In Carol J. Clover’s article Her Body, Himself she analyzes this idea and argues that “the notion of a killer propelled by physchosexual fury, more particularly a male in gender distress, has proved a durable one.” Often times in horror films the killer is disturbed due to a gender identity crisis; this proves true for Jame Gumb as well.

Gumb tucks his penis between his legs to feel more confident, and like the woman that he feels he is.

Gender as a Social Construct:

By Gumb putting on the female body suit, he is stepping into the body of a woman. In doing this, the movie shows how gender is interpreted by every person. A person’s sex is merely an outer shell. The inside of a person– his or her values, beliefs, likes and dislikes– is what really what shapes gender. Gumb’s sewing preferences depict “the ways in which gender is always posthuman always a sewing job which stitches identity into a body bag”(Judith Halberstam, “Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Johnathon Demme’s The Silence of The Lambs“). The movie literally shows that the outer body of a person is not what defines the inside, and that the outer shell is only skin deep; people’s inner person is what shapes what they want to be portrayed as on the outside.

Jame Gumb is pictured sewing up his body suit. He is naked in this scene, while he creates the body that he has envisioned for himself.

 

The Film’s Poster:

This is the famous poster for the 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs. The image shows Jodie Foster’s face with unusually red eyes and a moth with skull markings on her lips.

The first image that aired for the movie was this (pictured right) iconic poster picturing Jodie Foster with unusually red eyes, and a moth on her mouth. At a closer glance you can see that at the head of the moth is an image of a skull. At an even closer analysis, the skull pictured on the head of the moth isn’t a human skull at all. In fact, it is a famous photograph entitled In Voluptas Mors by Philippe Halsman, which uses the bodies of seven women all arranged in a way to make the shape of a skull. This photograph is based off of a sketch by surrealist artist, Salvador Dali. The original photo “reveals the skull to be made up of 7 naked women in apparent homage to the master of illusion and the unconscious, Salvador Dali”(Spencer, Hamist, “Silence of the Lambs – an analysis”). 

 

 

 

The original photograph In Voluptas Mors (translated as in voluptuous death), depicts seven naked women in the arrangement of a skull, as Salvador Dali “stands next to the literal human skull, quizzically eyeing the viewer like some sort of dubious ringmaster”(Behind the Scenes of Salvador Dali’s Most Scandalous Photo Shoot”).

This image can be translated easily into the movie as Buffalo Bill quizzically looking over the bodies of seven naked women. For its purposes in the movie, the naked women represent the women that Buffalo Bill has skinned. They are naked and vulnerable, which symbolically represents their loss of the fleshy exterior bodies that Buffalo Bill has skinned off of them, and they are in a skull formation because they have died in this open, susceptible state at the hands of Buffalo Bill.

This is the original Dali painting In Voluptas Mors. Dali looks on skeptically as the naked women form a deathly skull shape.

 

The Butterfly Motif:

The importance of the moth in the original poster is not forgotten. Butterflies and moths are used quite a bit in this film. Their transformation from caterpillar into butterfly is hugely symbolic. This motif is used throughout the movie to represent Buffalo Bill’s transformation from male to female as he creates the female body suit for himself. The most exemplative instance of this occurs when Jame Gumb is dancing with makeup on. He is shown looking at himself in the mirror and just as he tucks his penis in between his legs, he spreads open the shawl that’s draped behind his back. In this instance Gumb has made the transformation.

This image shows that Jame Gumb has made the transformation from caterpillar (male) into a butterfly (female).

 

The types of gender discussions that this movie brings up is quite important and transgressive, especially to a 1990s audience. Whether or not Gumb’s chacter is a problematic, misrepresentation of transsexuals, the film does force these subjects into the homes of the average American, and demands that these topics be looked at. The Silence of the Lambs is a truly iconic horror movie, and the psychological aspects makes it an exquisitely creepy thriller that’ll give audiences the chills for generations to come.

 

Citations:

• http://awesomenator.com/movies/silence-of-the-lambs-hidden-message/
• https://hamishspencer.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/silence-of-the-lambs-an-analysis-by-hamish-spencer/
• http://dontpaniconline.com/magazine/music/the-making-of-in-voluptas-mors-salvador-dali-philippe-halsman
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/dali-in-voluptas-mors_n_4373479.html
• https://miriamcollett.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/issues-with-identity-with-horror-judith-halberstam/
• Grant, Barry Keith. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: U of Texas, 2015. Print.
• Halberstam, Judith. “Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs.” Posthumanism (2000): 56-68. Web.