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1. How is the theory of “male gaze” relevant
when analysing the Friday the 13th
Franchise?
Friday the 13th is an American slasher movie released in 1980. Since then, there have been
eleven sequels that have grossed over $468 million at the box-office, making it one of the
most successful horror franchises in history. The franchise has always been severely
criticised for its portrayal of female characters. Many critics have referenced the work of
Laura Mulvey and her theory of the “male gaze” (“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”,
1975). According to Mulvey, women in film are represented as sex objects and the audience
is positioned as male through identification with the male protagonist only.
Women, then, stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by
a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and obsessions through
linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of a woman still tied to her
place as the bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning. (Mulvey: Visual and Other
Pleasures (1989))
So, how is the theory of “male gaze” relevant when analysing the Friday the Thirteenth
franchise? By studying the film’s story, character, plot, film techniques, camera, editing, and
lighting, we can examine if and how the ‘male gaze’ is created.
In ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (1975), Laura Mulvey introduced the theory of the
‘male gaze’. She argued that women were objectified in Hollywood movies because men
were in control of the production process and decided how women were “encoded”.
Women were transformed into passive objects to be enjoyed by men. Mulvey said we were
caught in a “patriarchal order” with mainstream films reinforcing traditional gender roles
that taught women to view themselves through the male gaze. Mulvey’s work has been
criticised by those who question whether the gaze is always male – especially in today's
cinema. They argue that Mulvey didn’t acknowledge that there could be a female or
homosexual gaze. Some have also argued that Mulvey didn’t take race into account. In
other words, Mulvey viewed the audience as too passive and manipulatable. As film
director David Lynch points out:
“Every viewer is going to get a different thing. That’s the thing about painting,
photography and cinema.” (Lynch: The Guardian (1989))
The Slasher Film, a subgenre of the horror genre, became popular in the late 1970s. They
usually depict teenagers in mundane, often middle-class, settings (e.g., suburbs, summer
camps, high schools etc) being stalked by homicidal maniacs. John Carpenter's 1978 low-
budget slasher “Halloween” sparked off the popularity of the slasher film. The low budget
and high box-office returns made the slasher film a very attractive proposition to film
studios and producers who were eager to profit from their popularity. Friday the 13th (1980)
was produced to cash in on the popularity of Halloween. Writer-producer-director Sean S

2. Cunningham’s film was a more gory and sexually explicit take on John Carpenter’s original
work, and it was a huge hit with younger audiences. Benjamin Lee notes:
“Cunningham’s film boiled down the burgeoning slasher subgenre to the basest of
elements – attractive young characters and grisly death scenes- and on a shoestring
budget, (he) showed that there was a hungry, underserved audience for such a basic
formula.” (“Friday the 13th at 40”; the Guardian, 2020)
Many academics have pointed to the misogynistic tone of the slasher genre and especially
Friday the 13th. Most victims are female, especially those who are seen to be sexually
active. The only way of surviving the killer is to be the lone virgin in the group (“The Final
Girl”: Clover, 1992). Some argue that the reason the slasher emerged in this form in the 70s
was a result of a cultural backlash against the emergence of female equal rights at the time.
More women were going out to work, fighting for equal pay and the contraceptive pill had
allowed women to be more sexually liberated. Mark Jankovic notes that slashers “act to
contain female sexuality by presenting the sexually active women who are killed as merely
‘getting what they deserve.’” (American Horror from 1951 to present, 1994).
In the original Friday the 13th (1980), Pamela Voorhees stalks and murders teenage camp
counsellors who are preparing Camp Crystal Lake for reopening. Pamela is determined to
ensure that the camp does not reopen because her son, Jason, drowned in the lake because
two staff members were having sex. Pamela stalks and brutally murders the camp
counsellors who are also frequently having sex when she kills them. One counsellor, Alice
Hardy, survives and, in the final fight, uses a machete to decapitate Pamela. However, it
turns out that Jason, who everyone thought was dead, has somehow managed to survive
for years in the campground and drags Alice into the lake. The audience then sees Alice
coming around in a hospital bed and trying to persuade police that Pamela’s son, Jason, is
still at large, but she is disbelieved and thus the audience is set up for the next 11 sequels
featuring Jason on the rampage. In the first shot of the film, we see the moon being hidden
by a cloud which immediately gives the film a menacing feel and the audience a sense of
foreboding. We also see that the cabin where the counsellors sleep is extremely isolated
which, again, builds the sense of jeopardy. The camera work is often from the killer's point
of view with much use of shaky handheld cam, long takes and tracking shots. We don’t see
the killer but are often shown the clueless victims through windows, doors and in the
distance. This all builds tension as the audience is aware of the killer's intentions long before
the intended victims. These point of view shots are then juxtaposed with extreme closeups
of the victim’s screaming faces when the killings ensue. The horror is emphasised using
slow-motion in many of the killings. Most of the action takes place at night. The outside
shots are in virtual pitch-black darkness, building tension, while the inside shots have bright,
artificial light showing the contrast between killer and victim. Friday the 13th has one of the
most recognizable scores in horror history. The theme music, “Ki Ki Ki, Ma Ma Ma”, was
composed by Harry Manfredini and mirrors Pamela’s often recited mantra “kill her
Mommy” as if she is being directed to kill by her dead son. The music has an almost
hypnotic rhythm and has an echo added to create fear. A bit like “Jaws”, this theme begins
whenever the killer is near, and this builds suspense.
Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze can be used to study Friday the 13th. Her argument
that women are presented as “erotic objects” (Mulvey: Visual and Other Pleasures (1989)
can be seen in the strip monopoly scene in the film. This scene does not really have any plot

3. significance, but rather seems to be there to titillate heterosexual male fantasies. Most
females are presented in extremely tight-fitting clothes (when they’re wearing them), with
their body parts featuring heavily as a result of long lingering camera shots. However, not all
the women in Friday the 13th are sexualised in this way. One character, Alice, takes on the
role of the “final girl” (a typical trope in the Slasher genre (Clover: Men, Women and Chain
saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film 1992)). Final girls are always the good, virginal
female who avoids the vices of victims such as sex and drugs. Alice is different from the
other girls in the film, she has a boyish hair style and does masculine tasks like repairing a
roof gutter with a hammer. Unlike the other girls, Alice is virginal. Although we see many
shots of the other girl’s bodies, we do not see many body focused shots of Alice. In the strip
monopoly scene, Alice only removes a boot. Rather, we see many close ups of her face
showing her terror and low angle shots to show how vulnerable and weak she is. The
lighting in Friday the 13th is mostly dark around Alice’s “sinning” friends, suggesting their
behaviour is bad and evil. However, bright light often illuminates Alice, showing her to be an
angelic virginal symbol and contrasting her with her friends. Clover (1992) argues that for
the Final girl to be accepted by the male gaze orientated audience, she must go through
unimaginable torture and thus becomes “masculinised” (Clover (1992)). Alice must use a
machete to decapitate Jason Vorhees’ mother and is therefore given male like qualities
(Clover (1992) argues that the weapon is a “phallic” symbol). On the surface, the final girl
may seem like a feminist icon. However, the final girl is not a victorious heroine. In many
slasher movies, including Friday the 13th the ending is ambiguous as we learn that Jason is
still alive and, in the sequel to Friday the 13th, Alice is murdered. A study of Friday the 13th
would seem to fit with Mulvey's theory of the male gaze; the audience is presented with
numerous gratuitous shots of female bodies and sexual behaviour. They are not shown as
people but rather sex objects – we don’t care about them. Alice, the final girl character, is
not presented in this way, but instead given masculine qualities to make her a villain slayer.
I plan to make “How to Survive a Slasher Movie” for my Final Major Project. I will use Friday
the 13th as my inspiration because it uses all the standard slasher film tropes; non-white
teenagers always dying first, stereotypical jocks and stuck up girls the lone white virgin teen
girl survivor (the final girl), gratuitous teenage sex scenes, characters making stupid
decisions about splitting away from the group or investigating obviously dangerous
sounds/places, killer point of view shots, iconic melee weapons, mask wearing killer (Jason’s
hockey mask is one of the most legendary parts of the film), gruesome gory deaths (using
practical effects), a dark isolated setting, the failure to ensure that the killer IS actually dead
at the end of the film, and a recurring killer death theme. The tone of my film will be that of
a spoof slasher drawing attention to the predictable conventions that are used. I will use
elements of plot, camera work, lighting, editing, score etc to emulate the traditional slasher
film. By doing this, my film will critique the often-misogynistic atmosphere of the early and
infamous slashers and I will use the film theories of Laura Mulvey’s and others to satirise the
genre.
The theory of male gaze is very relevant when analysing the Friday the 13th franchise. Laura
Mulvey developed the theory and argued that women are objectified in Hollywood films
because men are in control of the production process and the audience views the film from
the male perspective. Carol Clover applied this theory to Slasher films (Clover: Men,
Women and Chainsaws (1992)) and coined the term the “final girl” highlighting the genre’s
common troupe of one virginal female surviving a masked maniac’s killing rampage and

4. overcoming them in a final confrontation. Friday the 13th presents a sexualised depiction of
its female characters with the exception of Alice who is the lone virgin and lone survivor.
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