Homework Read “The Monster with a Thousand Faces” and “Feminist Horror Film Theory” Watch a horror film and consider its representation of males and females in relation to this article – take notes (approx words) so you can discuss them in class

Continue to watch film clips and take notes using worksheet Sub-genre? How did it make you feel? What elements made you feel like this? Conventions used?

Recap homework In pairs summarise your work

Recap - what distinguishes a horror film? The “repetoire of elements” 1. Narrative 2. Iconography 3. Ideology

Ideology Psychoanalysis – Is this where it all starts!? –Freud (e.g. Oedipal masochistic impulse)

Early ideology – Spectator in masculine position Repression theory - Robin Wood (late 1970’s) –“The true subject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses or oppresses“ –He argued that the manner in which any given horror narrative resolves this conflict reveals its ideological orientation, and further, that most movies will be conservative, repressing desire within the self and disavowing it by projecting it outward as a monstrous Other –Monster as return of repressed – applies especially to horror films and features premise of “beast within” like Wolfman (1941 and 2010)

Later ideology – Spectator in feminine position Carol Clover: “Men, Women, and Chainsaw” (1992) –Takes the classic Laura Mulvey male-centered identification process of sadistic-voyeur –And flips it around to a masochistic-voyeur (by having the identification process shift to the usually female victim/”Final Girl”) – horror as empowering for women –The viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film. –The final girl is typically sexually unavailable or virginal, avoiding the vices of the victims (sex, narcotic usage, etc.). She sometimes has a unisex name (e.g., Teddy, Billie, Georgie, Sidney). –Occasionally the Final Girl will have a shared history with the killer. The final girl is the "investigating consciousness" of the film, moving the narrative forward and as such, she exhibits intelligence, curiosity, and vigilance. –However, it has been argued that Clover's image of supposedly progressive final girls are never entirely victorious at the end of a film nor do they manage to eschew the male order of things as Clover argues (e.g. if final girl rescued by a male – such as Dr Loomis in Halloween)

Todorov Bulgarian – publishing influential work on narrative since the 1960’s Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - Other events - New equilibrium Concentration on how this is set up

Propp’s 8 spheres of action Vladimir Propp was a Russian writer who through reading hundreds of European folktales and stories came to the conclusion there were 8 main character types that a story would revolve around… The hero The anti hero or false hero. The villain The princess The helper (e.g. detective/policeman) The donor or giver The wise man The father Not all of these character types can necessarily be applied to every folktale.