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Women in Contemporary Horror Films

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Women in Contemporary Horror Films
FEMINITY IN CONTEMPORARY HORROR FILM

One might say that horror film- genre has been invented by feminists. Horror films seem to be one of the only genres that have women as heroines instead of dominated side characters. In horror genre women are the ones fighting against evil and men are the ones dying trying to help these heroines. Or perhaps the horror genre uses heroines to differ it self from hero dominant action genre. Or maybe horror films were created to represent the ultimate horror of the dominant masculine society: a strong woman who can survive by herself. This essay will analyse genders used in contemporary horror genre and it will delve in to the difference of masculinity and femininity presented in present horror films.
As a part of our popular culture, film functions as myth for our society. Through film the ideologies of our social structure are expressed and reproduced. In the case of women's role in society, traditional horror heroines demonstrate predominant attitudes of the time towards women. Before splatter horror films were a big hit, as a sub-genre, women were seen as objects of lust and love. For example women in films like King Kong (1933) and Phantom of the Opera (1943) the masculine monster lusted and claimed these women as their possession. Women were an object who with their natural beauty seduces them. This seduction intrigues as much as it scars the monster.
In the late 1970's the female heroine was born in slightly different form, when splatter horror films started to appear on the screens. The Exorcist (1973) and Carrie (1976) are examples of horror films that represented teenage girls which were overtaken by demonic powers. In the Exorcist a 12-old girl, Regan (Linda Blair) from a divorced family is overtaken by devil himself. A young priest nearby church is called to do the exorcism. The Exorcist reflected society's fear at the time, of opened culture. Young woman were not hiding there bodies at home, women started to be
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