Final Girl

Within most of the ‘horror genre’ woman are preserved to be the innocent, the victim, the vulnerable or perhaps all three. In most films there will always be a masculine figure ( the hero) who will have to save the vulnerable woman (the princess) from whatever ‘horror’ confronts him ( the quest). Throughout time the way horrors have been used, come as more of a lesson, seeing a lot of the more promiscuous woman, that we see in films, often being the ones who die first, leaving the virginal woman till last, with them more likely surviving.

Freud’s theory of film looks at us, as film watchers, being scared of unknown and says it is represented within film in three different ways:

Sadism- the idea of deriving gratification from other peoples pain.

Masochism-deriving gratification from ones own pain.

Voyeurism- deriving gratification from watching others.

The voyeurism that Freud talks about, links well with Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze, with classical cinema, it was often known that a beautiful woman would become victim to the ‘Male Gaze’ relating back to this idea of being watched but not knowing it enhancing the vulnerability of the woman.

Carol Clover’s theory looks at our forced relationship, not with the killer but with the ‘resourceful surviving female.’ So therefore we don’t associate with the sadist voyeur (the killer) but however with the masochism voyeur as we are seen to identify with the victim.