Since its release in 1978, John Carpenter’s film Halloween has become a staple in the horror genre. This film is regarded as highly influential, being dubbed “a cornerstone of the modern horror film” by one critic (Vishnevetsky). Though the film tells the story of Michael Myers, it is the female lead, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who captures the attention of the audience. In this analysis, I will provide evidence that Curtis’ character, Laurie Strode, is an example of Carol Clover’s trope of the Final Girl. I will also discuss how this film relates to Laura Mulvey’s concept of the Male Gaze and furthermore, Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages of development theory. With her theory of the Male Gaze, it is impossible not to mention Laura Mulvey when talking about the portrayal of women in cinema. This theory suggests that certain film techniques are used to appeal to an audience based on the assumption that it consists
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Referencing Julia Kristeva’s “Powers of Horror,” Barbara Creed discusses how abject, or the discomfort resulting from one’s inability to distinguish something as either object or subject, relates to horror films. The author notes that “disfigurement as a religious abomination is also central to the slash movie, particularly those in which woman is slashed, the mark a sign of her ‘difference’, her impurity,” as suggested by Kristeva (Creed). In this example, the abject is not a literal disfigurement, but rather a commentary on how women who go against the expectations a patriarchal society puts on them are seen as mutilated. They do not fit into the stereotypical role of a woman. They are sexually empowered, bold and free. The deaths of Annie, Lynda, and even Judith point to the idea that women should be punished for breaking the mold. In the religious sense, the impurity of these women is cause for punishment, as Creed
Referencing Julia Kristeva’s “Powers of Horror,” Barbara Creed discusses how abject, or the discomfort resulting from one’s inability to distinguish something as either object or subject, relates to horror films. The author notes that “disfigurement as a religious abomination is also central to the slash movie, particularly those in which woman is slashed, the mark a sign of her ‘difference’, her impurity,” as suggested by Kristeva (Creed). In this example, the abject is not a literal disfigurement, but rather a commentary on how women who go against the expectations a patriarchal society puts on them are seen as mutilated. They do not fit into the stereotypical role of a woman. They are sexually empowered, bold and free. The deaths of Annie, Lynda, and even Judith point to the idea that women should be punished for breaking the mold. In the religious sense, the impurity of these women is cause for punishment, as Creed