Sub Genre: Slasher Films

The sub genre of slasher films arguably may be the most popular type of horror film among modern audiences. There are several factors which make the films so popular to audiences. Some experts refer to slasher films and teenage slasher films insinuating they are made for a young audience. Pat Gill author of The Monstrous Years: teens, slasher films, and the family makes not about the sub genres beginning: “In 1978, Halloween heralded a new sub-genre of horror, the teen slasher film. Combining Inventive violenve and a clever, eerily evocative suburban mis-en-scene with engaging, believable, contemporary teen protagonists and a superhuman killer, director and co-writer John Carpenter created a new, effective type of film thriller.” (Gill 16)

            Gill makes a solid point. Halloween is a classic in itself, but also a classic for ushering in this new sub genre. If one can recall all the slasher movies they have ever seen there are several characteristics which could be found in them all.

The first being the film either takes place in a small town, or a suburb of a larger city. This is also a factor which makes the films appeal. Small towns and suburbs are thought of as being far from the dangers associated with the city. These places are where people come to raise family’s in a good environment and the films bring terror to these so called nesting grounds. This makes the film appealing to the everyday teen. Usually that teen lives in a suburb or small town making them identify with the subjects in the film. Also the whole basis of horror genre is making the impossibly frightening possible. This is done by centering a story around a normal group of friends in a normal  town, and then having this normal setting rocked by some type of monster.  

Second there is the idea of this “final girl”. Usually a female is the main character of the story. Usually her attacker is a serial killer/rapist who attacks a long line of females until he comes across out main character who somehow finds the will and strength and ingenuity to get away from her attacker unlike her friends.  Kelley Connelly author of From Final Girl to Final Woman makes a note on the importance of the final girl “The significance of the final girl is not just the development of a new cinematic character that possesses each of these characteristics. The final girl is significant not on because of who she is or how she acts but also because of what she represents”. (Connelly 14) What she represents is the breaking out of the female sex. The progressive movement started in the 1970’s and movies always reflect the opinions and ideologies of a country. It is then safe to assume that while the U.S. was slowly letting its oppressed populations rise up that the metaphor was made in the movies. Women in the U.S. were blooming as a sex and it is evident in films.

Despite the arguments that women in slasher films are depicted as powerful and cunning and able to compete with their male counterpart there is a lot of work and criticism that argues the opposite. Many would argue that throughout slasher films women are objectified for the benefit of the male. Women are shot in ways that demean them. For example the camera shot angles down on them, there are always sexual references made between the killer and their victims and that the male gets his pleasure through the punishment of women. Considering most of these films throughout show several female bodies stalked, attacked, and then mutilated.

I can see where both sides of the argument draw their conclusions from. Throughout the film women are constantly on the down until the final girl saves them. I guess it depends on the way you see the film.