1. The Male Gaze in Scream
Through my exploration of the movie Scream (Craven, 1996)
I plan to discus how the male gaze is present within the script
and the typical horror movie conventions this movie portrays.
I will explore the film using macro analysis and micro
analysis for the micro analysis I will focus on Billie’s
confession scene. Once I have applied micro and macro
analysis, I will then apply my chosen theory.
The male gaze is “In narrative cinema, women play a
‘traditional exhibitionistic role’ – her body is held up as a
passive erotic object for the gaze of male spectators, so that
they can project their fantasies on to her. She connotes ‘to-be-
looked-at-ness’ (Mulvey 1989c: 19). The men on screen, on
the other hand, are agents of the look, with whom spectators
Identify to enjoy vicarious control and possession of the
woman. We can see, in almost any classic Hollywood film,
that the heroine is an object to be looked at: she is filmed in
soft focus, ‘coded for strong visual and erotic impact’. (Laura
Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis, Barbara Creed,
2006)
Wes Craven is famous for his slasher horror films, slashers
are notorious for tropes like “the last woman standing” and
graphic death scenes for women these are both tropes that
depict the male gaze. The movie scream was made to be satire
highlighting the cliches within the genera attempting to
subvert these horror movie stereotypes while successfully
portraying many of them and being one of the best examples
of the male gaze in cinema. “In Scream (1996), Neve
Campbell plays Sidney Prescott who is portrayed as the
2. perfect innocent girl next door. From the male’s perspective,
Sidney is a sexual object for the pleasure of the male viewer.
Typically in slasher films, there is what is known as the Final
Girl who is both female victim and heroine. Sidney is a great
example of this because she is the one to overcome the killers
and make it out alive. There is one scene in particular that
explains everything one needs to know about how to be the
Final Girl. In Scream (1996), Randy Meeks, played by Jamie
Kennedy, explains the rules one needs to follow in order to
survive a horror film. To quote Randy, “Number one, you can
never have sex. Number two, you can never drink or do drugs.
And number three, never ever ever, under any circumstances,
say I’ll be right back.” Rule number one says it all. Women
are sexualized to the point where the few ones who don’t have
sex are the only ones who can survive. “In the American
horror film, women are usually murdered because of their
having had sex, or desiring sex,” according to the author of
“The Final Girl: A Few Thoughts on Feminism and Horror”
in Offscreen.
Women’s sexuality should be up to them, and it should not
fall into the hands of a man for him to be the one in control. It
is almost like a woman’s virginity is her protective shield
against the killer or the man. Once she loses her virginity, she
loses her only weapon against the killer. This depicts
women’s sexuality to be seen as a derogatory feature about a
woman when it should be something that is celebrated. As
Randy mentioned, before, the Final Girl is completely
sexualized to fulfil the man’s desire. The Final Girl is
supposed to be a virgin, and Sidney starts the movie as one,
but does not end the movie as one. So, how can she still come
out as the heroine? She did not follow the rules Randy clearly
explained.
3. Often in culture today, sex is a big part of changing from
adolescences to womanhood. Having sex does not
automatically make you a
woman, but many people feel that is a part of growing up.
Overall, the male gaze is a tool for men to make women feel
powerless especially in horror films. Women are just seen as
objects and are more often than not the targets of so many of
these films. So, why is the male gaze still a thing today? We
still have progress to be made on treating women equal to
men. As much as I love the horror genre, they tend to be
extremely sexist towards women. Sidney Prescott is only one
example of this. Many other slasher films are
built on the same basis. Sex does not define a woman but
looking through the male gaze one would think that it does.”
The movie scream is known for changing the horror movie
industry, since 1996 horror has become a feminist friendly
genre having more complex female characters playing the
hero.
In the scene where Billy confesses to the murder of Sidney’s
mum the camera is at a low angle pointing up towards Billy
but the camera points down towards Sidney. This asserts
billy’s dominance over Sidney showing the power he has had
over her life for the past year. This scene is a great example of
the male gaze as in this scene Billy explains in detail that he
was the one who really killed Sidney’s mum and his reason
for the murder was because Sidney’s mum was sleeping with
his dad so she is the reason his mum left and abandoned him,
this shows the demonisation of female sexuality. Billy then
goes on to tell Sidney how he can now kill her as she is no
longer a virgin having lost her virginity to him earlier in the
film. “Women aren’t his only victims, but they are the ones
Ghostface seems to enjoy torturing. We see this when he
4. electrocutes Tatum Riley (rose McGowan) and crushes her
neck with a garage doo. We see it when he terrorizes Sidney
throughout the film. We see it when he reveals his violent,
misogynistic motive and that he was the one who murdered
Sidney’s mother”.
Another scene that heavily portrays the male gaze is the
opening scene of the movie. Where Casey Becker played by
Drew Barrymore is brutally murdered making her ghost faces
third victim. In the scene Casey answers an unknown number,
the caller then proceeds to quiz Casey on her horror movie
knowledge in order to save her boyfriend. When Casey gets
an answer wrong Ghostface quickly kills her boyfriend only
showing his dead body briefly. Ghostface then breaks into
Casey’s house chasing after her through the house and into the
garden where we see a very graphic brutal murder scene. The
scene ends with her parents coming across her dead body
hanging from a tree. The camera then zooms in on her
mangled bloodied body so you can get a better view. This
scene is a great example of the male gaze because this is the
most graphic imagery in the whole film. They drag out and
make Casey’s death scene making it very graphic and gory
unlike the other deaths in the movie. This perfectly captures
the trope of “active male and passive female” as it caters
towards the films male audience depicting Casey as an object
of desire to Ghostface.
For my Final Major Project, I am also making a horror movie
I will be applying the male gaze theory by using ‘the last
woman standing’ trope and making the woman the main or
only victim. In my film there will only be one character who
is a woman so she will be the target throughout the film
5. catering to the ‘male gaze’ with the damsel in distress
triggering the hero complex in the male viewers. Giving the
sense that she will need saving presumably by a man. I will go
against the male gaze “active male and passive female” by
having the victim endangered by themselves instead of hunted
by a man, so she isn’t viewed as and object or a prize to her
perpetrator.
In conclusion the male gaze has been so normalized as
standard entertainment in not only the horror genera but
media in general. Although it is most frequently and more
obviously used in horror, as the plot of all the most famous
horrors heavily rely on or are entirely based around the male
gaze theory like scream (craven,1996). Only in resent years
has the horror genera strayed away from being so heavily
impacted and influenced by the male gaze. The big turning
point for the horror genera was the movie scream (Craven,
1996) where Sidney Prescott went against all the main horror
stereotypes for the leading lady by not being the only “last
woman standing”, having lost her virginity before the end of
the film to Billy Loomis but making it out alive and killing
both of the serial killers Billy Loomis and Stu Macher who
while living to tell the tale. Scream (Craven, 1996) inspired
the horror genera to have more female lead movies that
weren’t entirely based around a female being hunted down by
a man and having to keep her innocence to make it out alive
breaking the social norms that is the male gaze.
6. Feminist Film Theorists - Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis, Barbara Creed
Film Theory 101 – Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze Theory
https://www.theotherfolk.blog/dissections/scream
Male Gaze in the Horror Genre — Scene+Heard (sceneandheardnu.com)
