After All Is Said And Done...

[dotinthesky]

Most girls and women I know hate horror movies. I'd say almost all women don't like horror and make a point of never watching scary movies. It's also interesting to notice that almost all good scary movies (slashers included) have a female protagonist who goes through hell, is traumatized, sees all her friends/family die, before she manages to defeat the monster and survive. A lot of them end up in psychiatric wards afterwards.

My question: are most women turned off by horror because they feel, when watching these movies, that they are being called upon to relate to the main character and go through her ordeal?

In contrast, men don't seem to mind horror. I quite like a scary movie. But, if you look at the victim's list, men seem to die in the following manner:

- very quickly
- having sex with someone very hot
- saving the heroine/protagonist

And what about women who do enjoy watching horror? Are they smarter, or stronger, and can enjoy the genre without getting subconsciously sucked into it? Are they survivers themselves in real life, thus the movie parallels real traumas they suffered in life?

Comments

[missarrow.livejournal.com]

There is some sort of formula for Horror flicks, and having a woman protaganist is a part of it, as you've noted.

I think this serves two purposes:
1. Makes a "getaway" harder since the monster/bad guy is probably a man, and therefore "stronger" and more "powerful".

2. Adds a bit of latent sexuality to each film, through shots of flesh and agony. Sick, I know, but latent.

I like horror movies, but mostly in an ironic way. I never really get scared, though, so maybe that disqualifies me.

:)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Has there never been a horror movie that scared you? Or gave you nightmares?

I think you are very right about the sexuality bit... those slashers, carrying huge knifes which can cut through you - it's such a corny example of the phallic destroying the woman. I'm surprised they don't have more scenes of killers inserting their spears into a woman's genitals, or chopping their breasts off. I think in Japanese culture, there is more expression of this kind of horror in their Mangas.

And it's also very interesting that all killers are usually men, or genderless/genital-deficient monsters (like the Aliens one.)

[missarrow.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's sort of classic "Strongest v. Weakest" most of the time.

There was one.."Don't Answer the Phone" it creeped me out but I wouldn't say I was scared. :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Was that the one where two girls would prank call people and say: "I know what you did, and I know who you are..."?

[missarrow.livejournal.com]

Nah it was an escaped convict who snuck in a house when a babysitter was there...then it was the whole "The call is coming from inside the house" thing...the original. It was goofy and took place in the early 80's so in that sense it was awesomely bad, but the end got truly creepy. ;)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

i don't think I saw that one... the 80s had more crap horror movies than it was humanely possible to watch.