Female Victims in Horror Films

 

















1. Describe
The convention female victim is used in the horror films Psycho and Halloween. In Psycho the focus is placed on the vulnerability of women and how easily they can be persuaded. Main female character, Marion becomes extremely vulnerable while on her own, high camera angles emphasize this. The scene where Marion again makes herself vulnerable is when she is persuaded to go into motel manager, Norman's lair. Whereas in Halloween the female victim is vulnerable because of the circumstances she is in, and the focus is instead placed on the heroic qualities of women. Main female character, Laurie is placed in vulnerable circumstances where she is left on her own looking after children, where there is a killer on the loose, in a neighborhood that does not suspect any suspicious activity as it is the night of Halloween. Laurie is a victim of being terrorized by a  psychotic killer, and has near-death experiences several times during the film. What saves her from death is her heroic qualities, which is subsequently the focus in this film. Dominant music emphasizes the scariness of the circumstances she is placed in. Low camera angles are used as Laurie stands over the killer to highlight her bravery.


2.Explain
The female victim convention was used in these films to portray females as defenseless, bimbos. While Laurie proves otherwise by fighting back, other female characters in Halloween were victimized, hence both films still have the focus of having a female victim. The directors are therefore suggesting that all females are vulnerable and/or easily persuaded. In response to this attitude of directors, John Carpenter of Halloween and Alfred Hitchcock of Psycho, the audience were against women as victims. Some feminist critics claim that these movies are "debasing women in as decisive a manner as hard-core pornography." Other critics such as John Kenneth Muir argue that Laurie in Halloween was not a hero and that she only survived because of "sheer luck." Perhaps the audience watching Halloween did not expect women to be framed in such a way where they are so involved in sex and drugs and appear to be useless for anything else, and critic Tony Williams argues that Michael Myers the killer in Halloween and other slashers (such as Norman in Psycho) "slaughtered the youthful children" who at the time, found watching these films traumatizing due to the explicit unexpected content.


3. Analyse
Having a female victim enabled the directors to capitalise on scaring the audience. The female victims were portrayed as incredibly vulnerable and naieve, to the degree that they found themselves in the most ridculous circumstances where the average person would not allow themselves to be. This meant that the killers had more ways of terrorising their victims due to the unusual circumstances (an empty motel on an old highway in Psycho and a normal neighbourhood that did not suspect any unusual happenings as it was Halloween night in Halloween), and subsequently the impact on the audience was greater. Due to the success of this convention, it is still used to this day in horror films. Commercially having a female victim in Pschyo was potentially expected by the audience and may have let the film down, in terms of shock factor. The audience did however, enjoy having a female victim who is later the hero in Halloween, and subsequently the film was a sucess commercially. In terms of budgetting, by only having one female victim in Psycho, costs were cut down, Halloween on the other hand had 3 female victims, making casting more expensive. Even so, costs were still relatively low as the cast in Halloween was not very famous. Halloween's use of the convention; female victim was definitely a controversial success and kicked started careers such as Jamie Lee Curtis'. Psycho began the use of the convention; female victim before Halloween and perhaps contributed to the later success of horror films.