The debate has gone on for quite a while when it comes to women in horror. Though it is the only genre where women are seen on-screen more than men are, according to the this Google article, horror has specific rules when it comes to its female characters, mainly which ones survive and which ones die. These rules are most explicitly shown within the “final girl” trope- the quiet, shy girl who just so happens to be a virgin- and who always survives until the end of the movie. Though she most often appears in “slasher” films, such as Halloween (1978), the first slasher film, even in more recent films like The Cabin in the Woods (2011), she is the central focus of both the story and her entire gender as well. It is her that represents women, as they are and as they should be, and the audiences hopes and fears that follow close behind her.
What Is the Inclusion Criteria?
The films were selected from RottenTomatoes Top 100 Horror Movies page. Once selected, the diversity statistics of the films were analyzed, primarily in terms of the distribution of film leadership roles. The cast/crew roles included in the data analyses include director, writer, lead actors, producers, and executive producers. The data was also formatted into the racial categories of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Middle Eastern, and the gender categories of Male and Female. This was all sorted into two separate pie charts for each movie.
How Inclusive Is Halloween (1978) ?
Halloween (1978) drew a 96% rating from critics and an 89% rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Within its leadership, 100% of the cast/crew roles of the film were occupied by White members. In its gender diversity, 33% of the cast/crew comprises female members, with a remaining 67% of male members.
If one movie perfectly represents the horror classic, it’s Halloween (1978). The movie is credited as the original slasher, where it opens on 6-year old Michael Myers as he murders his 17-year old sister in cold blood one Halloween night. After being locked up for 15 years, he escapes and heads back to Haddonfield to find his next victim, with his psychiatrist Dr. Loomis in pursuit. He finds it in Laurie Strode, a teenager he follows around during all of Halloween, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. After killing her friends, he attempts to kill her but is shot down by Dr. Loomis. But the horror is not over for either of them because Michael Myers is still on the loose, ready to murder whoever gets in his way.
As mentioned before, Laurie Strode was the first “final girl” to be featured in a horror film: she faces the same boogeyman that her friends did but lives long enough for the end credits to roll. But there is more to her character than survival; Laurie is not just quiet and shy; but also modest and focuses on her responsibilities rather than romantic and sexual interests. It is very telling that practically all the rest of her friends who are killed off either have sex during the film or are planning on doing so; they are immodest, loud, and otherwise subvert gender norms. In this way, Michael Myers seems like a punisher for these women and what they have done.
How Can We Analyze the Data?
This detailed analysis seems somewhat supported by the diversity of the background cast/crew: 33% of the leadership is made up of women, including not just Jamie Lee Curtis as lead actress, but also Debra Hill as writer/producer. It is especially with Hill’s presence within the leadership that this analysis is not entirely sound; even with Laurie’s puritanical characteristics, she almost ends up dying at the hands of Michael Myers. She is the one that guides the audience through the intricate story, a role that is usually given to the men in the film. There is more to the final girl than what is presented in this movie, reaching beyond the 1970s and into the 2010s.
How Inclusive Is The Cabin in the Woods ?
The Cabin in the Woods (2011) drew a 92% rating from critics and a 74% rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Within its leadership, 100% of the cast/crew roles of the film were occupied by White members. In its gender diversity, 20% of the cast/crew comprises female members, with a remaining 80% of male members.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011) is a film that takes you down the usual path only to drag you away to a completely different destination. In the typical horror movie tradition, five college friends take a vacation trip down to a cabin in the woods, where they find a mysterious book whose ancient writings summon a family of zombies. But even as the teenagers fall victim to the zombies, something seems off; they begin to act differently and find themselves unable to leave the woods. Eventually, after protagonist Dana is the only one left, it becomes apparent that there are other forces at work; an underground lab staffed with scientists managing similar horror situations worldwide is the source of all the violence. Dana regroups with Marty, a member of the original group, and together, they decide that enough is enough- no matter the stakes, the lab must go down. And with it, the world.
Even as the film begins, the teenagers are already cast into their pre-existing roles: the jock, the popular girl, the wise guy, the nerd, and the shy girl. Dana is explicitly cast as the shy girl; she has romantic interests but generally strays away from characteristics that fall outside the trope. But this phenomenon is not due to the characters themselves; in fact, the scientists working to make this horror scene come to life control all variables and manipulate the teenagers through drugs and external props to act just like these roles. None of them originally fit these roles – they are real people who do not fit into the box.
What Is the Inclusivity In the Leadership Roles?
In addition, Jules, the character cast into the popular girl role, experiences one of the most horrific deaths in the film, a usual occurrence for the women in horror other than the final girl. Though the film is a satire of the typical cast and narrative of horror films, the fact that the only woman present within the leadership is lead actress Kristen Connelly makes these details even more poignant. Just as other slashers have been created solely at the hands of men, so has this satire, whose gender-based analysis makes the presence of gender norms explicit.
What Can We Conclude?
Both Dana and Laurie Strode meet the cookie-cutter image of the final girl: shy, modest, and virginal, traits that carry them to the very end. These characters create an ideal that seems to reflect the societal and moral views that horror is supposed to reject; after all, her character has been carried from the beginnings with Halloween (1978) to an inner look at herself in The Cabin in the Woods (2011). But there is also another side to the final girl; with more on-screen time than men, it is her that the audience resonates with. She is the one that they must live and experience the horrors through, which differs dramatically with almost all other genres: the audience is put into the shoes of a woman. In the end, it is still unclear whether or not the horror genre holds misogynistic and puritanical standards or if it does more for women than any other kind of movie.
