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Representation Of Women In Horror Films Essay

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Representation Of Women In Horror Films Essay
How woman are represented in the horror genre?
In this essay I am going to look how woman are represented in the horror genre and how much of an impact it has on the success of the movie.
In my research I seen that woman cover two main roles in the movies, the villain e.g. The Exorcist or the victim e.g. The others. When woman are the main villain in horror genre I found it mainly was teenage girls e.g. The Ring, The Exorcist, The Grudge and The Orphan. I think the reason many horror movies use young woman as villain is to make the audience feel sorry for them. In all three examples I use the villain have a back story that is not their fault. The Exorcist the young girl taken over by a demon. The Grudge another young girl that the farther killed her whole family and then the curse of the young girl is made. All these backstories get use to feel sorry for them. I believe by using young women and portraying them and the killer is psychological and confuses the audience because young innocent women in normal life are far from being murderous killers and that is why they become so scary.
…show more content…
The Others, The Desents and The Mist. In The Mist the whole plot is based round trying to get to the wife indicating she is weak and needs help. Though out the movie many female characters are introduced but by the end of the movie every significant female character is died. By using the portrayal of woman being weak and need help will give the hero, and in most cases it’s a male the feel of being strong and brave because they have to save the “damsel in distress”. This relates to the audience and gratification theory of escapism because most of the males in the audience will want to escape from life and become the strong and brave

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