Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol J. Clover

However, during the films, there is a transition where the narrative flips and the audience starts to identify with and root for the Final Girl. This Gaze is usually the killers, perhaps best depicted by how Michael Myers stalks Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) in “Halloween” (1978). The Final Girl has been given a “privilege” of survival because of her implied moral superiority (for example, she is the only one who refuses sex, drugs, or other such behaviors, unlike her friends).Īlice Hardy ( Adrienne King) the Final Girl of “Friday the 13th” (1980)Ĭlover states that the Final Girl is first presented to us through the use of the Male Gaze (see here for previous “Feminist Film Theory 101 which goes into some depth about the Male Gaze). The Final Girl is the one who gets a final confrontation with the villain and she either kills him herself or she is saved at the last minute by someone else, such as a police officer. Clover studied slasher films from the 1970s and 1980s and defined the Final Girl as a female who is the sole survivor of the group of young people.

Clover’s “ Men, Women, and Chain Saws”has offered a groundbreaking perspective on the creativity and influence of horror cinema has on our popular culture since the mid-1970s. Who is the Final Girl, and is she a true feminist icon?įrom its first publication in 1992, Carol J. As it’s Halloween this month, it only seems apporiate for this month’s “Feminist Film Theory 101” to focus on Carol J.Clover’s “ Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.” and the “Final Girl”.

Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol J. Clover