women in film-media studies

Welcome to A2K, startingline. I'm not a big fan of slasher movies, and one of the reasons is the usual lack of character development. I would say yes to your first question, but I don't quite understand your other questions. What do you mean by "end girl" and "final girl"? And I'm not sure how femininity and masculinity fit in here.

What do you think?

I believe she is talking about "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Halloween," and other films where we have a heroine who manages to escape by accident and prowess. Of course, I think the classic example isn't a slasher film (which I also tend to avoid) but Ripley in the "Alien" series even while biting the dust in III and is resurrected as a clone in IV. She's a complicate character which is really what made the films intriguing. Of course, in slasher films we have some crazed killer who may or may not be supernatural and it's the "woman in peril" mindset. I think that lures the women to go to these films and the aforementioned male is ogling the female flesh. It's a formula and it sells. End of semi-rant. A new version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is due out in the next few weeks which I believe is based on a true story and it is a woman who escapes. Could you guess?

And welcome, startingline to A2K!

By the 'end/final girl' i mean the only girl to survive. Notice how even the males get slaughtered and their efforts are hopeless. The final girl is argued not to be 'fully feminine' as she knows how to fix things, acts agressively and even kills the killer or saves herself. What do you think?

It's a trade-off for the formula -- the feminine side is actually the side the man gallantly wants to see saved (although the males in these flicks always seem to have the IQ of a dead flashlight battery). Of course, because psychologists know we have both a feminine and a masculine side regardless of sex, these films are meant purely to bring in box office so they've thought of a way to appeal to both. Everyone knows its strictly a fantasy. Serial killers which these slashers basically represent just keep killing off females (or males in Jeffrey Daumer's case) until they get caught. It seems to work so they just keep repeating it ad nauseum.

When the camera is subjective in the point of view of the final girl, how does a largely male audience identify with her when she is 'female'?

Do you think is is possible that there is a female 'gaze'. That it isnot purely a male fetish?

When the 'final girl' defeats the killer this is sometimes called the 'castration' of the killer so she 'unmans' the killer and she 'mans' herself.............comments.......

startingline, welcome. Umm, to be honest, I think slasher flicks are pretty much empty entertainment, and perhaps you are reading too much into them. I agree with everything Lightwizard said as well. Your thesis could be squeezed around the genre, but I don't really think that slasher films are taken seriously enough by anyone to warrant your proposal. Just my opinion. That's not to say that theoretically, your ideas are unsound, just maybe ill-served by the model you chose.

If one could really read into the triumph of the female characters as castrating the slasher, then you'd have to believe the male in the audience has identified with the slasher. That's scarier than any slasher movie. I would rather believe that the male in the audience ends up identifying as a third party who has protected his date and she has survived. I sometimes enjoy playing armchair psychiatrist but I seldom expound upon it. It can be too much like irresponsible gossip. I don't think anyone trying to read psychological profiles in these films is doing anything more than misinterpreting what is simply the filmmaker's gimmick to draw audiences. There's really nothing subliminal there. I'm not assuming that startingline is doing anything more here than playing with the concept but I'm afraid that it's headed for a dead end (sic).