Warning: the following contains major spoilers for In a Violent Nature.
Most seasoned horror fans have seen their share of slashers. From massive franchises to indie gems, this particular brand of scary movie follows a final girl and her friends as they’re terrorized by a masked killer with an ax to grind. Arguably originating from classics like Halloween and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the sub genre was codified in Carol Clover’s “Her Body, Himself” which opens Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, an academic study of the genre. This landmark essay coined the term “final girl” while identifying four additional slasher components. Clover summarizes “the killer is the psychotic product of a sick family, but still recognizably human; the victim is a beautiful, sexually active woman; the location is not-home, at a Terrible Place; the weapon is something other than a gun...
Most seasoned horror fans have seen their share of slashers. From massive franchises to indie gems, this particular brand of scary movie follows a final girl and her friends as they’re terrorized by a masked killer with an ax to grind. Arguably originating from classics like Halloween and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the sub genre was codified in Carol Clover’s “Her Body, Himself” which opens Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, an academic study of the genre. This landmark essay coined the term “final girl” while identifying four additional slasher components. Clover summarizes “the killer is the psychotic product of a sick family, but still recognizably human; the victim is a beautiful, sexually active woman; the location is not-home, at a Terrible Place; the weapon is something other than a gun...
- 6/5/2024
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
Self-consciously tacky effort recalls the classic horror films that made a spectacle of women being murdered and abused
This is frankly a shonky bit of exploitative nonsense that, in a way, recalls the classic horror films that feminist film theorist Carol J Clover wrote about so perceptively in her foundational tome Men, Women and Chainsaws. Such films – in this case, on an island where vile rich men espousing misogynist views hunt down and kill the women they’ve trafficked there – only to turn the tables in the last act when the “final girls” triumph so that female viewers might experience a cathartic thrill of vengeance.
That said, one gets the impression that the film-makers on Hunt Club, starting with screenwriters David Lipper (who has a supporting role here) and John Saunders, and director Elizabeth Blake-Thomas, aren’t taking any of this that seriously. The film seems to revel in the low-budget tackiness of it all,...
This is frankly a shonky bit of exploitative nonsense that, in a way, recalls the classic horror films that feminist film theorist Carol J Clover wrote about so perceptively in her foundational tome Men, Women and Chainsaws. Such films – in this case, on an island where vile rich men espousing misogynist views hunt down and kill the women they’ve trafficked there – only to turn the tables in the last act when the “final girls” triumph so that female viewers might experience a cathartic thrill of vengeance.
That said, one gets the impression that the film-makers on Hunt Club, starting with screenwriters David Lipper (who has a supporting role here) and John Saunders, and director Elizabeth Blake-Thomas, aren’t taking any of this that seriously. The film seems to revel in the low-budget tackiness of it all,...
- 8/7/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Horror has always been a genre for women. In her seminal work "Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film," Carol J. Clover explores the female characters in horror films as well as their impact on traditionally accepted gender norms. Research from the Geena Davis Institute shows that watching strong female protagonists in horror films can help empower women in their own careers. The essay that opens Clover's book is known for coining the term "final girl," the last, usually female, protagonist left alive in a slasher film.
Another beloved genre trope is the "scream queen." An actress known for her lung capacity, the Cambridge Dictionary defines this archetype as "a female actor who plays a main character in a horror movie who gets frightened or attacked." Fay Wray is often named as the first scream queen with many noting her work in the 1933 film "King Kong,...
Another beloved genre trope is the "scream queen." An actress known for her lung capacity, the Cambridge Dictionary defines this archetype as "a female actor who plays a main character in a horror movie who gets frightened or attacked." Fay Wray is often named as the first scream queen with many noting her work in the 1933 film "King Kong,...
- 12/24/2022
- by Jenn Adams
- Slash Film
Asking a filmmaker to name their favorite movie tends to be a dead-end line of inquiry. Directors don't see their films the same way we do. They can't. They spent months to a year or more piecing the work together. They've seen it in fragments, as a rough assemblage, and in various other incarnations. Some directors don't even watch their movies with an audience. They finish and move on to the next one.
Quentin Tarantino, however, is a different breed. When he's not making a movie, he's watching movies. When he's making a movie, he's watching movies. He is acutely aware of where his movies land in the continuum of film history and loves to pontificate as to how his run measures up to the oeuvres of greats like Howard Hawks and Brian De Palma. So when you ask him to name his favorite movie, you can rest assured that...
Quentin Tarantino, however, is a different breed. When he's not making a movie, he's watching movies. When he's making a movie, he's watching movies. He is acutely aware of where his movies land in the continuum of film history and loves to pontificate as to how his run measures up to the oeuvres of greats like Howard Hawks and Brian De Palma. So when you ask him to name his favorite movie, you can rest assured that...
- 11/16/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
The Final Girl trope defined characteristics of the last character left alive to confront the killer in horror films, particularly in slasher films. The rise of feminism in the 1970s became a milestone in the genre as the damsel in distress did not need a man to rescue her anymore. Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in the Alien franchise and Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) from Black Christmas all portrayed strong female characters who all fought back against their assailant.
Related: Top 50 Movie Monsters Of All Time Gallery: From Pennywise & Chucky To Michael Myers & Frankenstein
Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is one of the most famous final girls in the Halloween franchise that was first released in 1978 and deemed Laurie as the victim of her brother Michael Myers. As the final girl characteristics have developed, like the franchise, she no longer waits...
Related: Top 50 Movie Monsters Of All Time Gallery: From Pennywise & Chucky To Michael Myers & Frankenstein
Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is one of the most famous final girls in the Halloween franchise that was first released in 1978 and deemed Laurie as the victim of her brother Michael Myers. As the final girl characteristics have developed, like the franchise, she no longer waits...
- 10/25/2022
- by Robert Lang
- Deadline Film + TV
“Halloween Ends” is here.
And while the critical response has been remarkably indifferent (currently holding a cool 45 on Metacritic), it is looking like another box office juggernaut as well as a streaming powerhouse (it’s debuting simultaneously on Peacock). Plus, it’s Halloween and there’s a new “Halloween” movie – one that promises a conclusion to the trilogy that started in 2018 and, to a larger degree, the saga that began with John Carpenter’s original masterpiece in 1978. At this point, you’ve kind of got to watch it.
This time around, we have jumped ahead four years since the blood-soaked events of 2021’s “Halloween Kills”. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is living in a new home with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and trying to move on from her life, even though she’s still living in Haddonfield (was retiring in Palm Springs not an option?). Laurie is working on...
And while the critical response has been remarkably indifferent (currently holding a cool 45 on Metacritic), it is looking like another box office juggernaut as well as a streaming powerhouse (it’s debuting simultaneously on Peacock). Plus, it’s Halloween and there’s a new “Halloween” movie – one that promises a conclusion to the trilogy that started in 2018 and, to a larger degree, the saga that began with John Carpenter’s original masterpiece in 1978. At this point, you’ve kind of got to watch it.
This time around, we have jumped ahead four years since the blood-soaked events of 2021’s “Halloween Kills”. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is living in a new home with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and trying to move on from her life, even though she’s still living in Haddonfield (was retiring in Palm Springs not an option?). Laurie is working on...
- 10/14/2022
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
From Laurie Strode counting the days until Michael Myers returns in “Halloween” to a betrayed bride fighting off her in-laws with a shotgun in “Ready or Not,” final girls are found at the beating heart of the horror genre. In the black-and-white dichotomy of good-versus-evil, these heroes — yes, often leading ladies, but not always! — typically begin as victims in nightmarish scenarios that bloom into epic opportunities for them to best their villains and survive.
Coined and carefully considered by professor Carol J. Clover in her 1992 work “Men, Women, and Chainsaws,” the final girl trope was initially defined as the sole survivor of a slasher who confronted the antagonist in a last-act face-off and who was often ascribed some sort of moral superiority compared to other victims; virginity being the de facto example. Classic examples include Sally Hardesty in “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and Jamie Lee Curtis’ legendary babysitter from...
Coined and carefully considered by professor Carol J. Clover in her 1992 work “Men, Women, and Chainsaws,” the final girl trope was initially defined as the sole survivor of a slasher who confronted the antagonist in a last-act face-off and who was often ascribed some sort of moral superiority compared to other victims; virginity being the de facto example. Classic examples include Sally Hardesty in “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and Jamie Lee Curtis’ legendary babysitter from...
- 10/9/2022
- by Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
Evoking the idiotic but undeniably iconic image of a shrieking woman and her bouncing boobs running for their lives, the term “scream queen” has shaped horror actresses’ careers ever since Fay Wray climbed the Empire State Building with King Kong in 1933. And yet, the half-funny play on words, nebulously defined and as outdated as the surface-level conceit it describes, doesn’t mean much of anything to the modern moviegoer anymore.
Unlike the “final girl” — a phrase coined and carefully considered in Carol J. Clover’s 1992 “Men, Women, and Chainsaws,” describing the scrappy last victim in your basic slasher — scream queens still don’t have a shared definition among contemporary critics. The term has been retrofitted to acknowledge undeniable legends of the genre like Elsa Lanchester, the “Bride of Frankenstein” herself, and applied to newer genre mainstay actresses from Toni Collette to Jenna Ortega.
But outside of a string of 2015 think-pieces...
Unlike the “final girl” — a phrase coined and carefully considered in Carol J. Clover’s 1992 “Men, Women, and Chainsaws,” describing the scrappy last victim in your basic slasher — scream queens still don’t have a shared definition among contemporary critics. The term has been retrofitted to acknowledge undeniable legends of the genre like Elsa Lanchester, the “Bride of Frankenstein” herself, and applied to newer genre mainstay actresses from Toni Collette to Jenna Ortega.
But outside of a string of 2015 think-pieces...
- 10/9/2022
- by Alison Foreman and Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
While horror films have been around for several decades, the term "final girl" was coined more recently than most people may think. Originally created in 1992 by author Carol J. Clover in her book "Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film," the term refers to a common trope in horror movies in which the last female character(s) alive confront and defeat or escape the killer, essentially becoming the only people left to tell the story. Characteristics of a final girl include a refusal to indulge in drugs, alcohol, and sex in order to survive the film. Though not always depicted as the smartest character, more...
The post The 15 best final girls in horror movies ranked appeared first on /Film.
The post The 15 best final girls in horror movies ranked appeared first on /Film.
- 9/16/2021
- by Shaun Stacy
- Slash Film
The “final girl theory” is meant to describe the trope in horror films of one female character being the last to survive, having to defeat the killer, and live to tell the tale. While Carol J. Clover originally coined the term in her 1987 essay Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film and applied it mainly to American slasher films of the ’70s and ’80s, it’s still used in contemporary cinema in a variety of horror films to describe the surviving female character. As slasher films have seen a decline in popularity since their “golden age,” the use of the term “final girl” has expanded to include different sub-genres of horror films, as well as how the final girls themselves behave throughout the films.
The original meaning of the final girl, as described by Clover in 1987, defined the girl as the sole survivor of the group who has a final confrontation with the villain.
The original meaning of the final girl, as described by Clover in 1987, defined the girl as the sole survivor of the group who has a final confrontation with the villain.
- 11/15/2019
- by Sara Clements
- DailyDead
Lined Lips and Spiked Bats is a monthly column devoted to women in genre cinema.I love slasher films, but they don’t love me back. Being a woman who is interested in genre cinema means that she is in a constant game of negotiation with the films that she is watching. She will search for images to reclaim for herself or find the truth of a character who may only be in the film to get hacked to bits by the latest knife-wielding madman. To understand why she gravitates toward movies which often hold no respect or common decency for her gender it becomes necessary to ask the question: “How does a woman watch anything?” There’s no easy answer to that question, and filmmaking has nearly always been an industry in drought of women directors and the perspectives of women in the field of film criticism.Genre cinema...
- 11/10/2019
- MUBI
David Crow Oct 29, 2019
We count down the 13 best ass-kicking leading ladies to survive horror movies.
The term "final girl" is now as ubiquitous in horror culture as "slasher" and "jump scare." The phrase was first coined by Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, and it refers to a heroine (or "survivor girl") who can be defined by several features: most obviously she is the last one standing after most or all of her friends have been sent to that big boiler room in the sky; she also is traditionally young, and has remained virginal and pure in the face of vice—making her far too innocent for a chainsaw’s sullying touch; and finally she must appropriate a masculine object to assert herself above the monster (i.e. pick up Jason’s machete and stab him right between the hockey pads!).
The...
We count down the 13 best ass-kicking leading ladies to survive horror movies.
The term "final girl" is now as ubiquitous in horror culture as "slasher" and "jump scare." The phrase was first coined by Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, and it refers to a heroine (or "survivor girl") who can be defined by several features: most obviously she is the last one standing after most or all of her friends have been sent to that big boiler room in the sky; she also is traditionally young, and has remained virginal and pure in the face of vice—making her far too innocent for a chainsaw’s sullying touch; and finally she must appropriate a masculine object to assert herself above the monster (i.e. pick up Jason’s machete and stab him right between the hockey pads!).
The...
- 10/27/2015
- Den of Geek
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