Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Slasher film'

This project details the ways in which the classic slasher films of the 1970s, and their post-9/11 remakes, are representative of the individual and complex world views out of which each set of films were borne. The remakes manipulate gender roles including those of the Final Girl and the mother; genre conventions, including increases in domestic melodrama and pathos; production models, including the use of star actors, directors, and producers; sexuality and presentation of the sexualized female body; and race, especially in fine differences between white and non-white characters. In doing so, the post-9/11 films reveal a conservative cultural climate that strives to show recovery of the nuclear family unit after trauma, unlike the originals which are more nihilistic in tone and portray families as either absent or deeply flawed and unrecoverable.

With twelve films released over the last thirty years, the Friday the 13th series has proved a popular mainstay of the slasher sub-genre of horror, in spite of negative critical reception and minimal academic engagement. The academic discourses that do address the series often frame their arguments based on socio-political function, socioeconomic platforms, psychoanalytic traditions, and cultural relevance. While there is some work that attempts to understand the generic positioning and function of the Friday the 13th films, little work has engaged with the film texts in order to understand and explain the form and structure of each instalment in the series. This thesis not only aims to explore and describe the aesthetic form of the slasher sub-genre of horror, but also to argue the central significance of perspective on the aesthetic effect of the slasher. Perspective, a term that builds upon theories of point of view and subjectivity, permeates the formal design of the slasher film. Therefore, this relationship will be the driving focus of the analysis undertaken with regards to the Friday the 13th films, which will include chapters focusing on specific uses of the camera, sound, editing, and sequences creating a narrative understanding of preceding films in the series. Following this analysis, the aesthetic development of the Friday the 13th series will be contextualised within contemporary generic trends, demonstrating to what extent this franchise is representative of the slasher, and where it proves anomalous or progressive. This will not only demonstrate the role the Friday the 13th films play within the slasher, but also how the slasher has aesthetically evolved over more than three decades. Ultimately, the relevance of this analysis and formal historicizing will be suggestive of the wider context of film studies and cinema as a whole.

Decades of horror film research and theorizations have shown us that there is a reason why this particular genre has been an important part of film history from the beginning: namely, the idea that horror both reflects and shapes our historically and culturally specific anxieties. By examining the Final Girl trope in Halloween (the 1978 original versus 2018 version), this paper traces the evolution of female protagonists and whether a more modern film accurately reflects the increasing role of feminism in society, or sticks to traditional conventions of misogyny and male-dominated visual pleasure. Placing the newer film in the context of the #MeToo era, this paper also addresses more contemporary anxieties over trauma, sexual assault and female anger.

In late 1980, eleven films that shared the same basic story-structure were produced by North American independent filmmakers. Each of these films depicted a shadowy blade-wielding killer stalking and murdering a group of hedonistic young people in an everyday setting. As of summer 1980, only four examples of this type of film had ever been shown in US theatres. By the time that most of the eleven films had been distributed in summer 1981, a new filmtype had been widely recognised by industry personnel. the trade and popular press and young theatregoers. This thesis examines the emergence. evolution and establishment of that film-type between 1974 and 1981. I combine textual and industry analyses to explain the developments that caused the first cycle of the teen slasher film to unfold. Whereas scholars and popular writers have typically framed teen slashers as ultra-violent exploitation that was crafted for the drive-in circuit and for male patrons, this thesis demonstrates that production and textual content were governed by different principles. I show that independent filmmakers actually fashioned teen slashers like Black Christmas (1974), Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980) to appeal to major studio distributors. To increase their chances of securing a distribution deal from these companies, filmmakers selfregulated violent content, mobilised textual elements from contemporaneous blockbusters and crafted their films to appeal to female as well as male youth. The thesis builds upon the work of industry historians such as David A. Cook, Peter Kramer and Thomas Schatz to contribute to understandings of Hollywood in the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s. It also looks to enrich understandings of the US and Canadian independent sectors in this period. The case of the teen slasher reveals that these segments of the North American film industry were more heavily intertwined than has been commonly assumed.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2009.
Title from file title page. Margaret Mills Harper, committee chair; Calvin Thomas, Mary Hocks, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 14, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-48); filmography (p. 49-51).

Le slasher est un sous-genre du film d'horreur reposant sur une figure de tueur masqué punissant en apparence la sexualité adolescente. Très populaire auprès du public adolescent de 1978 à 1984, il serait, selon de nombreux critiques, une expression de sadisme « gratuit ». Cependant, toute production culturelle possède une légitimité qui peut lui être conférée en trouvant une clé de lecture adéquate. Cette clé est selon-nous un archétype culturel que nous nommons foolkiller, et qui figure une victime marginale sanctionnant les actes irresponsables mettant en danger les membres les plus faibles de la communauté. Cet archétype convoque l'imaginaire médiéval du charivari, un rite de justice folklorique punissant les manquements à la morale. Pour parvenir à cette référence, il est nécessaire de montrer que le slasher a masqué un genre plus large qui gravite autour d'une victime humiliée se vengeant de ses persécuteurs et qui inclue des films comme Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), ou encore Fade to Black (1980). Or, on peut trouver une formulation prototypique de cette histoire dans Hop-Frog (1849), une nouvelle d'Edgar Poe racontant la vengeance d'un bouffon difforme persécuté par un roi sadique. Nous envisageons cette nouvelle comme un artefact prototypique de l'archétype culturel du foolkiller dont le genre masqué par le slasher est une expression contemporaine. L'étude de cette nouvelle et de ses références culturelles permet de comprendre le fonctionnement de l'archétype et son apparition en réponse à une crise sacrificielle au sens où l'entend René Girard. Une crise du même genre est repérable dans la culture américaine des années 1970, ce qui explique la résurgence de l'archétype à cette période
The slasher movie is a horror film sub-genre featuring a masked killer supposedly punishing teenage sexuality. Extremely popular among teens from 1978 to 1984, it is generally discarded by serious critics as a spectacle of gratuitous violence. However, the genre can be granted some legitimacy once it is seen as a contemporary form of a cultural archetype which we call "foolkiller". This archetype revolves around a freak avenging its own humiliation at the hands of bullies and punishing irresponsible acts endangering the weakest people in a community. Culturally speaking, this archetype has roots in the medieval practice of "rough music", a masked demonstration organized to humiliate some wrongdoer and to punish moral transgressions in the community. In order to access this cultural reference, it is necessary to show that the attention given the slasher film has concealed the existence of another genre, comprising slasher films but also movies such as Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), and Fade to Black (1980), whose protagonist is a victim avenging its persecution. This plot can also be found in "Hop-Frog", a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. It tells the story of a jester dwarf bullied by a cruel king. We argue that this tale is a prototypical artifact of the foolkiller archetype, which also informs the genre concealed by the slasher film. The cultural frame of this short story enables us to understand how the archetype functions and its relationship to what René Girard calls a "sacrificial crisis". Such a crisis is at work within 1970's American culture, which explains why the archetype reappears during this time.The slasher movie is a horror film sub-genre featuring a masked killer supposedly punishing teenage sexuality. Extremely popular among teens from 1978 to 1984, it is generally discarded by serious critics as a spectacle of gratuitous violence. However, the genre can be granted some legitimacy once it is seen as a contemporary form of a cultural archetype which we call "foolkiller". This archetype revolves around a freak avenging its own humiliation at the hands of bullies and punishing irresponsible acts endangering the weakest people in a community. Culturally speaking, this archetype has roots in the medieval practice of “rough music”, a masked demonstration organized to humiliate some wrongdoer and to punish moral transgressions in the community. In order to access this cultural reference, it is necessary to show that the attention given the slasher film has concealed the existence of another genre, comprising slasher films but also movies such as Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), and Fade to Black (1980), whose protagonist is a victim avenging its persecution. This plot can also be found in "Hop-Frog", a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. It tells the story of a jester dwarf bullied by a cruel king. We argue that this tale is a prototypical artifact of the foolkiller archetype, which also informs the genre concealed by the slasher film. The cultural frame of this short story enables us to understand how the archetype functions and its relationship to what René Girard calls a "sacrificial crisis". Such a crisis is at work within 1970's American culture, which explains why the archetype reappears during this time

Questa tesi si pone l’obiettivo di indagare le letture che la Feminist Film Theory ha fornito rispetto al cinema horror statunitense e a contestualizzare tale interesse in ambito culturale, attraverso casi studio concentrati nel periodo tra anni Sessanta e Settanta. La prima parte prevede un’inquadramento teorico della critica cinematografica femminista, del cinema horror e del contesto produttivo americano del periodo, anche dal punto di vista degli studi culturali. Nella seconda parte verranno prese in esame letture della critica femminista di determinate opere: partendo da Psycho, per passare ad esempi di cinema istituzionale (new horror) e di controcultura (slasher, exploitation).

Emerging out of a tradition of dystopic and apocalyptic cinema, the survivalist film has arisen as a new subgenre owing to a collision of several divergent modes of cinema. While the scholarly discourse has been preoccupied largely with the task of setting up the parameters of this new cinematic line little attention has been paid to unraveling what the new modes of masculine performance within the films mean in the post-9/11 moment in which they have emerged. This paper looks at the ways in which the gendered heroics on the screen are indebted to the slasher and zombie subgenres in offering alternatives to performing and reclaiming masculinity in the modern survivalist film. Looking towards the collapse of society within these films and the historical preoccupation with these film's ancestral sources at moments when masculinity is threatened in new ways, I argue that when society collapses on the screen so too collapses the character's understanding of "proper" gender performance as well as the audiences expectations of appropriate response to this subversion. I find that survivalist films offer a new mode for exploring gender through the ways in which masculinity is performed, received, and reclaimed. Owing largely to the meeting of horror subgenres within these films masculinity can be encountered by the audience in a way that has until now not been possible for the spectator, presenting an opportunity to reevaluate how we recognize and regulate expectations of gender both on and off screen.

This qualitative thesis examines levels of pessimism as they relate to modern and postmodern horror cinema. Beyond assumed differences in levels of pessimism between the two genres, the study also examines implicit and explicit moralization of these categories. Specifically, the study questions if postmodern horror cinema's characteristic increase in pessimism is simply a change in the genre's convention, yet a change that is irrespective of either genre's capabilities to moralize. First, the study singularly examines the conventions of each genre as it relates to levels of pessimism. Second, the study discusses works that bridge the two genres. And third, the study speculates on the future of pessimism in postmodern horror cinema, specifically examining the genre's increased reliance on a combination of narrative and documentary techniques. In addition, this study uses content analysis as its methodological framework, whereby representative works of horror cinema (the data) are subjected to in-depth personal reading and textual analysis given the levels of pessimism between the two genres (the coding) via text immersion. Nonetheless, this study should be viewed more as a guided and informed exploration of certain characteristics regarding the genres and less of a defense since the data will not be quantified.

Thesis of Blood, a one-act, dance-theater meta-commentary, brings conceptual, compositional, and narrative elements from the cinematic horror genre, specifically the classical and post-modern periods of the slasher film sub-genre, to the concert dance stage. The work explores how those elements can generate original choreographic material, translate into live theater through reimplementation via staging and stagecraft, and challenge standardized concert audience expectations. Thesis of Blood examines and combines the different forms of spectacle used in musical theater jazz and cinematic horror, their use of the eroticized female form, and how their different approaches and depictions of violence can reframe and question how and why the contemporary audience consumes violence as a form of entertainment.

Stigma proves to be a serious barrier for individuals living with mental illness, and research has shown that the media heavily contribute to and support damaging stereotypes about individuals with mental illness. This study examined how current films feed into fears about mental illness, especially the stereotype that individuals with serious mental illness are violent. A population of films released from 1990--2010 containing a character with schizophrenia or a related disorder was compiled and 30 films were randomly selected for viewing from this list. The films were scored for acts of violence committed by characters with and without mental illness, and the acts of violence were coded for severity. This study found that characters with mental illness committed significantly more acts of violence than characters without mental illness did. The significance of these findings along with recurring themes found in the movies are discussed in this paper.

La thèse propose une approche du cinéma fantastique espagnol des années 1990 et 2000, et plus spécifiquement de la période allant de 1993 à 2005. En effet, on assiste alors à l’arrivée d’une nouvelle génération de réalisateurs qui donne un nouvel élan au genre en se le réappropriant. Nous partons du constat initial qu’au sein des diverses approches du genre présentes dans chacun de ces films, le fantastique espagnol semble privilégier l’apparition de trois incarnations du surnaturel : le fantôme, le slasher et le monstre. Notre étude se penche sur chacune d’entre elles afin de dégager quelles sont les lignes de force qui les structurent. Pour cela, nous nous servons de la notion de figure, qui à partir de l’étude de la représentation cinématographique des corps, permet également de déterminer quels sont les enjeux thématiques qui y sont associés, ainsi que la reconfiguration particulière que chacune d’entre elles opère sur le genre fantastique
This thesis tackles Spanish fantastic cinema from the 1990s and 2000s, and more specifically from 1993 to 2005. Indeed, this period of time corresponds to the rising of a new generation of directors who gave a new impetus to the genre by re-appropriating it. We start off with the initial premise that within the various approaches of the genre present in each of these films, the Spanish fantastic seems to favour the emergence of three types of supernatural : the ghost, the slasher and the monster. Our study focuses on each of these types so as to highlight its structuring driving forces. In that respect, we use the notion of figure which, based on the study of the cinematographic representation of bodies, also allows to determine the thematic stakes related to it, as well as the specific reconfiguration that each of them operates on the fantastic genre

Min utgångspunkt i denna uppsats var könsroller i film. Utifrån detta skapade jag mitt syfte som var att undersöka hur valda kvinnliga karaktärer i huvudrollen i tre svenska ungdomsfilmer skildrades, samt analysera huruvida skildringarna av karaktärerna bevarar eller bryter mot etablerade könsroller utifrån aktuell forskning. ¨Mina frågeställningar var:•Vilka utmärkande könsrollsmönster går att utröna i de valda karaktärernas agerande/handlande gentemot andra?•Vilken reaktion bemöts de valda karaktärerna med, utifrån detta agerade/handlande?•Vilka budskap landar filmen i, när det gäller huvudrollsinnehavarnas inordning eller revoltering utifrån de etablerade könsroller?De tre karaktärerna som jag valde att analysera var Sofie i Hipp Hipp Hora, Emma i Fjorton Suger och Ida i Sandor /slash/ Ida. Jag skapade ett analysverktyg bestående utav några nyckelkategorier kring könsroller. Utifrån dessa kategorier kunde jag analysera hur karaktärernas agerande gentemot andra bemöttes, och om karaktärerna bröt eller bevarade etablerade könsrollerna utifrån aktuell forskning. Mitt resultat visar karaktärerna vågar bryta emot de etablerade könsrollerna. Filmerna förmedlar även en bild utav unga smala vackra blonda tjejer som är tuffa och vågar gå sina egna vägar trots att det inte alltid är den lätta eller den rätta vägen.

The following report is the results of a master thesis project performed on the behalf of Boliden Tara Mines. The work includes a numerical modelling study with the main purpose to evaluate the room- and pillar stability for the mining method "drift-and-slash" mining currently used in the Tara Mine when mining in thin, low-rise lenses. Also, the potential of applying the "drift-and-fill" mining method was studied during the project. The numerical modelling work was performed both two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally, using the Itasca software FLAC and FLAC3D.  The study resulted in recommendations regarding the room- and pillar dimensions, mining sequence, rock support, mining method and further studies. It was concluded that the currently used room- and pillar dimensions could be altered to increase the extraction ratio and that the mining sequence and rock support should be determined depending on the room- and pillar dimensions. Also, that it could be possible to change from the drift-and-slash method to the drift-and-fill method from a stability perspective. Lastly, it was recommended to further study the rock strength and to monitor the pillar behaviour.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master in Arts In the Department of Film and Television Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand March 2017
Drawing on Carol Clover’s theory of the male antagonist or "Bogeyman" and the female protagonist or "Final Girl" that define the American Slasher Horror sub-genre, I analyzed two original Slasher films, namely Halloween (Carpenter 1978) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven 1984). I later outlined the evolution of these conventions within the Slasher sub-genre, using the remakes of both films respectively. I then endeavoured to explain the subversion of these conventions in France with the New French Extremity Movement, and analyse how these filmmakers successfully transposed a typical American subgenre to France. Finally, using New French Extremity, I attempted to subvert and transpose these conventions to South Africa by writing, producing and directing a short Slasher film titled The Teddy Bear Man.
MT2018

Com as famosas palavras “I’m just a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania,” Dr. Frank-N-Furter apresenta-se com orgulho à audiência do musical de terror pós-moderno The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975), enquanto simultaneamente revela uma tendência subliminal enraizada no género de terror desde os seus primórdios: a associação entre o monstro queer e o terror cinematográfico. O presente estudo, intitulado “From Monsters to Monsters: Perverted Predators and Diseased Deviants – Queer Representations in American Slasher Film of the 1980s”, tem como objectivo desenvolver esta ideia, explorando representações queer num subgénero do terror que ganhou popularidade nos filmes dos anos 80, o slasher. Neste sentido, serão descritas e analisadas as imagens negativas apresentadas por Hollywood, que tiveram um impacto tremendo na comunidade LGBT (lésbico, gay, bissexual, transgénero/ transsexual). Ao mesmo tempo, tendo em conta a vantajosa posição de poder aceder à teoria queer contemporânea, este estudo também desenvolve a ideia de que as várias imagens monstruosas não representam necessariamente um mal que vitimiza indivíduos LGBT. Pelo contrário, quando analisadas retrospectivamente, tais falsas representações podem de facto servir como um modo de subverter um heteronormativo conceito de individuo. O enfoque particular na década de 1980 surge não só por causa do aparecimento do subgénero slasher, mas também porque este período representou um enorme retrocesso em relação aos direitos LGBT. O regresso a ideologias ultraconservadoras sob a presidência de Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), e o surgimento e a expansão rápida do vírus HIV/SIDA, bem como a associação imediata da doença com a comunidade homossexual masculina, geraram uma atmosfera geral de homofobia que assolou os Estados Unidos – um medo que foi rapidamente adoptado e explorado pelo género de terror de forma a aterrorizar, de modo particular, a classe média americana. De forma a contextualizar este tema em particular, será desenvolvido primeiro um enquadramento em relação ao Terror enquanto género, mostrando em que medida os conceitos de monstruosidade e queerness podem ser associados. Neste contexto, serão também consideradas as origens históricas desta associação pejorativa encontradas já no século XIX (por exemplo, no Gótico ou o no caso do julgamento de Oscar Wilde). Deste modo, será demonstrado como a ideia de uma “identidade homossexual” entrou na consciência pública, revertendo certos significados e estereótipos que doravante seriam associados a indivíduos queer. A nível cinematográfico, será explorado o modo como as concepções erradas criadas no fin-de-siècle foram rapidamente adoptadas ao longo do século XX, começando com filmes de terror americanos de certo modo pioneiros, como Frankenstein (1931) e Bride of Frankenstein (1935), em direção ao verdadeiro cerne desta dissertação, o filme de terror pós-moderno que eclodiu sobretudo a partir dos anos 60. Através do filme Psycho (1960) de Alfred Hitchcock, será exemplificada a diferença entre os paradigmas do filme de terror clássico e o filme de terror pósmoderno. Psycho é essencial para este estudo, visto que o filme pode não só ser considerado um ponto fulcral em relação a uma certa ruptura com as formas clássicas de produção cinematográfica de terror, mas também por ser considerado por vários estudiosos como a origem do slasher. Além disso, é um dos primeiros filmes que apresentou abertamente uma personagem homossexual. Durante esta análise fílmica, prestar-se-á especial atenção à influência da psicanálise nos Estados Unidos em meados do século, ou melhor, ao modo como as ideias freudianas foram falsamente interpretadas para retratar os “sexualmente desviantes”, enquanto seres estranhos ou doentes. Para destacar ainda mais o subtexto queer do filme, será feita uma breve comparação entre o original de Hitchock e o remake (plano por plano) de Gus Van Sant, de 1998, no sentido de mostrar como a simples mudança de pequenos pormenores pode alterar radicalmente a visão que um filme apresenta do homossexual e da homossexualidade. Antes de iniciar o estudo aprofundado sobre o slasher, será tida em consideração a grande transformação de conteúdos cinematográficos queer depois dos anos 60 por via de eventos históricos e fílmicos fundamentais, tal como a abolição do Código de Produção Fílmica ou o nascimento do movimento de direitos LGBT, que permitiram que personagens queer pudessem, de repente, ser representadas abertamente, sem que no entanto tais representações deixassem de ser pejorativas. De forma a ilustrar os altos níveis de discriminação que a comunidade LGBT sofreu nos anos 80, serão abordados em seguida tópicos como: as ideias desinformadas em relação à SIDA que infiltraram a consciência Norte-Americana, ou a tendência para regressar a configurações físicas e a comportamentos hiper-masculinos, enquanto forma de emular os “heterossexuais”, mas também enquanto afirmação de distanciamento em relação ao queer infectado, fraco e efeminado. Para além disso, o slasher como subgénero do terror, com as suas características distintivas vai ser introduzido no contexto de teoria queer, incluindo uma abordagem histórica do slasher, nomeadamente com referência a filmes e géneros fílmicos que influenciaram o seu desenvolvimento, bem como uma breve análise das circunstâncias sociopolíticas em que o subgénero prosperou. As análises fílmicas deste estudo têm em mente os debates iniciados nos capítulos anteriores, e explicitam a teoria aplicada a quatro filmes de terror dos anos 80 (analisados dois a dois): Dressed to Kill (Brian de Palma, 1980), Cruising (William Friedkin, 1980), Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik, 1983), e A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (Jack Sholder, 1985). Devido ao estado ainda em desenvolvimento evolutivo do subgénero slasher no ano do seu lançamento, os dois primeiros filmes podem ser considerados como protótipos do género. Já os dois últimos incluem todas as componentes de um filme slasher, motivo pelo qual foi necessário organizá-los em dois grupos (e capítulos) separados. Tendo estabelecido a base para a demonização de personagens queer nos anos 80 antes do advento da crise da SIDA, Dressed to Kill e Cruising serão analisados comparativamente: começando com o impacto que os dois filmes tiveram, passando pela reutilização de material hitchcockiano, à presença do olhar voyeurístico ou à crítica de figuras de autoridade corruptas. Ademais, tendo em conta as características definidoras do slasher, determina-se quanto estes filmes podem ser considerados protótipos do subgénero. Ao mesmo tempo as influências de outras formas fílmicas, como o género Italiano giallo, precisam de ser avaliadas, transformando tanto Cruising como Dressed to Kill em dois filmes que traçam os limites de género, sendo fundamentais na evolução do terror pós-moderno. Por fim, ao contrário dos filmes anteriormente discutidos, Sleepaway Camp e A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge foram já produzidos nos primeiros anos da crise da SIDA, numa fase em que a doença ainda era entendida como uma forma de “cancro gay”. Estes filmes revelarão, portanto, múltiplas alusões à epidemia, enquanto também se focam nas dificuldades que os adolescentes queer enfrentaram no dia a dia, reconhecendo identidades, ainda que simplificando reações. Enquanto Sleepaway Camp chama a sua atenção prioritariamente para a monstruosidade de uma identidade sexual, ultrapassando normas de género tradicionais, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge empreende um diferente caminho jogando com alusões homossexuais a um nível mais metafórico. No entanto, ambos utilizam o poder do camp como força transformadora. Tendo em conta que estes filmes são slashers assumidos, é importante demarcar as diferenças entre eles e os protótipos anteriormente estudados. Por isso, serão consideradas preferencialmente as características básicas que definem o slasher, mas também outras questões como a homofobia interiorizada, má parentalidade, a crítica dura às autoridades ou uma certa inclinação para voyeurismo. Apesar da qualidade (ou falta dela) dos filmes selecionados, estas ideias são fundamentais para ilustrar as grandes semelhanças e discrepâncias entre os protótipos mais elaborados e os filmes slasher de série examinados neste estudo. A análise apresentada aqui revelará que estes filmes considerados “inferiores” têm de facto um enorme potencial (queer), especialmente no modo como subvertem ou trabalham temas muitas vezes ignorados noutros géneros e subgéneros cinematográficos.
With the famous words “I’m just a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania,” Dr. Frank-N-Furter proudly introduces himself to the audience of the postmodern horror musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975) while simultaneously pointing out an important subliminal trend engrained in the horror genre since its beginnings: the association between the queer monster and cinematic horror. This MA dissertation, entitled “From Monsters to Monsters: Perverted Predators and Diseased Deviants – Queer Representations in American Slasher Film of the 1980s” aims to follow this reasoning by exploring depictions of queerness in the Slasher Film, a horror subgenre that rose in prominence in the 1980s. More specifically, I will describe the hurtful consequences Hollywood’s continuous horrific portrayal of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/ transsexual) individuals caused the queer community. Basing my argument on queer theory, I will support the idea that monstrous images do not need to necessarily be an evil victimizing LGBT individuals by pointing out that these ‘misrepresentations’ seen from today’s standpoint can indeed also serve as a form of queer subversion. I particularly chose to focus on the 1980s, not only due to the emergence of the slasher subgenre, but also because the decade generated an enormous backlash in regards to LGBT rights. The general atmosphere of homophobia pervading the United States stemmed from a socio-political return to ultra-conservative ideologies under the presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), as well as from the surfacing and rapid spreading of HIV/AIDS and the immediate association of the disease to the male homosexual community – a fear that was quickly adopted and exploited by the horror genre, and especially by the slasher subgenre, as a means to disturb heteronormative middle class America.

碩士
國立政治大學
英國語文研究所
93
Horror films have been an important and popular form of mainstream Hollywood films. In the late seventies, a special type of horror films, stalker/slasher films, characterized by their demonstration of extreme violence and sex, immediately attracted a huge amount of spectators despite that males are always depicted as powerful agents whereas females the powerless and eroticized objects. Previous critics analyze stalker/slasher films by adopting Laura Mulvey’s concepts, indicating that only males can require visual pleasure through the films. However, the interpretation obviously fails to account for the fact that females comprise a significant amount of stalker/slasher films spectators. As a result, the thesis aims to indicate the defects of those critics and, moreover, to search for a theory that provides a better interpretation of spectators’ visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces how stalker/slasher films dramatize gender differences and how the previous critics analyze their conventional elements. Chapter Two discusses how Mulvey criticizes mainstream Hollywood cinema as a mechanism that spreads patriarchal ideology and how stalker/slasher films manifest the patriarchal ideology. Chapter Three, on the other hand, points out how Mulvey selectively adopts Freud’s theory because of her political nature and how her theory fails to account for a spectatorship with which both men and women can acquire visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films. Most importantly, Chapter Four, introduces the concept of fantasy, indicating that spectatorship should not be demarcated along biological gender lines; within the realm of fantasy both men and women are the active agents acquiring visual pleasure through adopting multiple and fluid spectating positions. Finally, Chapter Five concludes that fantasy may be a better perspective that accounts for not only males’ but also females’ visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films.

Le cinéma d’horreur, plus particulièrement le slasher, sous-genre qui a émergé dans les années 1980, a souvent été le lieu pour l’exploration d’enjeux sexuels. Les héroïnes qui ont marquées cette décennie ont connu une évolution parallèle aux changements socioculturels. Le présent projet vise à montrer la transformation de cette protagoniste au fil des décennies. Je m’intéresserai d’abord et avant tout à la théorie de Judith Butler qui montre le gender comme une construction sociale. Puis, ma démarche s’appuiera sur le rapport spectatoriel tel que développé par l’auteure Laura Mulvey dans son texte « Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema » ainsi que sur la notion de Final Girl théorisée par Carol J. Clover et qui concerne précisément les personnages de survivantes dans le slasher américain. À la lumière de ces études, j’analyserai trois films d’horreur produits au début des années 2000 : All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), Teeth (2004) et May (2002). En plus de préciser les rouages liés à la construction du gender (féminin) et de l’identité sexuelle, ces études de cas serviront à présenter une nouvelle forme de personnage conscient de sa féminité et de son pouvoir.
Horror cinema, more specifically the slasher, a sub-genre that obtained its popularity during the 1980s, has often been the place for a discourse about sexual politics. The evolution of the heroines from some of the films of this decade is indissociable from the importance of context and culture. This work concentrates on the transformation of this female protagonist during the years. First, I will take a look at Judith Butler’s notion of gender performativity. My approach will also emphasize the gaze of the spectator with “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’’ by Laura Mulvey and the Carol J. Clover’s theory of the Final Girl, the latter regarding those slasher female leading characters. Then, three movies of the new millennium will be analyzed: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), Teeth (2004) and May (2002). These analyses will serve to demonstrate the mechanisms at play in the construction of gender and sexual identity. Furthermore, they will reveal a new kind of female character, one who is both aware of her femininity and her/its power.