2. The theory during the 1970s and 80s was that the motivation for
the crazed psycho killer was the negative feelings that he
associated with a relationship with a woman. This woman was
most commonly his mother, sister or a romantic interest who has
rejected him
The female is thus seen as
entirely responsible for the
creation of the rage and is
punished throughout the film
for its creation
Feminism is a social movement which has had an enormous impact on film theory and criticism
Introduction
3. Carol Clover
Personal Details
Born July 31 1940
American professor of
film studies, rhetoric
language & Scandinavian
mythology.
Developed the “Final girl” theory, which changed
both popular and academic conceptions of gender
in horror films.
Final G
irl
Theory
She is typically
sexually unavailable
or virginal.
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.
During the final girl’s
confrontation with the killer,
Clover argues, she
becomes masculinised by
taking up a weapon
Female normally possess asexual
names,-so when they challenge and
defeat a villain, a female character
does would be identified as
masculine.
Scream Trilogy’s Sydney, The
Exorcist’s Chris, or Alien’s Ripley
Normally present in slasher
Films.
In 1992, she published Men,
Women and Chainsaws; Gender in
the Modern Horror Film.
Clover’s Arguments For The Theory.
1. Audience Identification
2. Gender Fluidity and/or
Repressed Sexuality of the
Murderer:This links the
murderer with the final girl and
stops the male audience from
identifying with the character.
3. Gender Fluidity of the Final
Girl: This enables the final girl
to be identified with by the
male-dominated audience.
The final girl is the only one of
her friends who has masculine
traits and is often similar to an
adolescent boy.
4. Horror and Homogeneity:
Slaggy friend always dies first.
Final girl is the same
throughout film.
5. The Final Girl: Empowered
Woman or Damsel in
Distress: The final girl always
fights back in the end.
4. Films which conform to
the “final girl”
theory.
Alien
Teeth
Halloween
Scream
Jennifer’s
Body
Texas chainsaw massacre
Friday 13th
•Clover suggests that in these films, the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a
shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.
5. “if the young men in the audience were
there to watch women be terrorized and
killed, then why is it satisfying for
them to watch a woman triumph at the
The male audience of these films were sexually aroused by the bloody deaths of
these women.
Freud’s Theory- Sadistic
Voyeurism.Sadist- Watching pain being inflicted on
others.
Masochist- Pain being inflicted on yourself.
6. “if the young men in the audience were
there to watch women be terrorized and
killed, then why is it satisfying for
them to watch a woman triumph at the
The male audience of these films were sexually aroused by the bloody deaths of
these women.
Freud’s Theory- Sadistic
Voyeurism.Sadist- Watching pain being inflicted on
others.
Masochist- Pain being inflicted on yourself.
