Female Representation in Horror Films

With the representation of social groups, we specifically want to target the representations of females in horror movies as we believe this is key in most horror movies.

Scream Film Series (1996-2011)- There is a female protagonist is being chased/stalked by a masked killer. We want to portray our female protagonist/victim (undecided) in our opening as being quite vulnerable and scared which is conventional for most horror films. But we are breaking the stereotype by casting someone who is not typically seen as the female protagonist/victim. What is common to the audience is a blonde haired, blue eyed girl. We might mix things up by having a female of a different ethnicity.

Kirby is a typical example of a female victim in a horror movie. Not only appearance wise but personality wise. Her character is quite quirky and sassy but interdependent and defenceless. Furthermore she is gullible and naive. We might incorporate some of these traits for our main character so the audience can be easily familiar with them but introduce some new characteristics so it will be something new and fresh.

Sydney is also another representation of a female of the horror genre. However her character is a lot more fierce and a 'won't take no for an answer' sort of woman. After being terrorized, she takes the role of an investigator and tries to find out once and for all who is Ghostface. This is a possible trait we would like to mirror in our character.

The Shining (1980)- In this film, Wendy is what is labelled as "the final girl" who is the last female alive and confronts the killer/spirit etc. The girl in our opening sequence, we intend for her to survive and be "the final girl". There are points when Wendy is shown as strong but her weaknesses are also revealed. This shows that women in horror films can be portrayed differently which is what we want to achieve.

Wendy also does not fit in with the stereotyped view of the female. One of the selling points of women/girls in horror movies is their lustrous appearance. With Wendy, a more realistic and relatable side to females is shown. The main focus is on her actions (protecting herself, over coming the killer...)

However in our clip we want to show that our female character is deeply psychologically disturbed, portraying yet another side to females that may not have been as widely explored. An example of a character we would draw inspiration from is Carrie White from the film "Carrie". She has telekinetic powers which controls her life but in the case of our character, she keeps drawing pictures of a monster/entity that is ruling over her mind.