Gender and Contemporary Horror in Film (Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender)

The horror genre will always remain current because it reflects our anxieties, shining a light onto our worst fears whilst creating worlds defined by darkness. Horror as a genre has always engaged with era-specific societal mores and moral panics, often about isolation or abandonment, changing family values and the role of women. It is often specifically about how gender is constructed in everyday life. Women are commonly defined in horror by their passivity, or monstrosity/sexuality or victimhood - or a mix of the three. At the same time women in horror are forced into psychological and physical torture ending in violent showdowns in which they emerge damaged but triumphant. Bringing together research from a wide range of established and emerging scholars this edited collection provides an insight into how modern horror films portray femininities, sexualities, masculinities, ageing, and other current issues, exploring the use of vampires, zombies, werewolves and ghosts in films made internationally. This volume, one of three by the same editorial team examining the horror genre, focuses on gender and contemporary horror in film, asking questions about how and if representations of gender in horror have changed. In these readings and re-readings, the authors examine developments in films about vampires, zombies, werewolves and ghosts, in films made internationally. Front Cover Gender and Contemporary Horror in Film Copyright Page Contents List of Contributors Introduction PART I: BODIES Chapter 1 ‘It’s So Easy to Create a Victim’: Subverting Gender Stereotypes in the New French Extremity 1.1. Yuletide Terror: Inside (2007) 1.2. Manufacturing Victims: Martyrs (2008) 1.3. Conclusion References Chapter 2 Elegiac Masculinity in Bubba Ho-Tep and Late Phases 2.1. Hegemonic Masculinity in an Ageing World 2.2. Horror Elegies: Bubba Ho-Tep and Late Phases 2.3. Elegy for National Masculinity References Chapter 3 Game of Werewolves: XXI Century Spanish Werewolves and the Conflict of Masculinity 3.1. Spanish Recent Past and Masculinity 3.2. Lobos de Arga 3.3. Conclusion References Films Cited Chapter 4 Navigating the Mind/body Divide: The Female Cannibal in French Films Grave (Raw, 2016), Dans ma peau (In My Skin,... 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Loss of Bodily Control in Trouble Every Day 4.3. The Mind/Body Divide in Dans Ma Peau 4.4. Unruly Bodies in Grave 4.5. Conclusion References Chapter 5 Gendering the Cannibal in the Postfeminist Era 5.1. Gendering the Cannibal in the Postfeminist Era 5.2. Incest, Objectification and the Limits of Subjectivity 5.3. Monstrous Femininity in 301/302 5.4. Consuming Subjectivities in The Woman 5.5. The Fight for Subjectivity in Raw 5.6. Conclusion References PART II: BOUNDARIES Chapter 6 #Selfveillance: Horror’s Slut Shaming through Social Media, Sur- and Selfveillance 6.1. Introduction 6.2. When a Woman Is Looked At 6.3. When a Woman Looks at Her Self 6.4. Conclusion Acknowledgements References Chapter 7 Gay Porn (Horror) Parodies 7.1. Parody and Gay Porn (with Horror as Case Study) 7.2. Close Readings 7.2.1. Narrative (vs Sex) 7.2.2. Twink Porn with a Side of Parody 7.2.3. Uneasy Connections between Explicit (Homo)Sex and Violence 7.3. Conclusion References Chapter 8 ‘In Celebration of Her Wickedness?’: Critical Intertextuality and the Female Vampire in Byzantium References Filmography Chapter 9 ‘There’s a Ghost in My House’: The Female Gothic and the Supernatural in What Lies Beneath (2000) References Filmography Chapter 10 The Monstrous-feminine and Masculinity as Abjection in Turkish Horror Cinema: An Analysis of Haunted (Musallat, ... 10.1. From ‘Isolated Cases’ to the Emergence of Horror as Genre in Turkey 10.2. The Emergence of Horror Cinema in the 2000s 10.2.1. Haunted 10.3. The Monstrous-feminine and Its Abject Womb in Haunted 10.4. The Male Saviours and the Rational Bystanders 10.5. Masculinity as Abjection 10.6. Conclusion References PART III: CAPTIVITY Chapter 11 Gender Ideologies, Social Realities and New Technologies in Recent Latin American ‘Abduction’ Horror 11.1. Introduction 11.2. Gender Roles in US Horror 11.3. Hybridity and Horror in Latin America 11.4. Reconfiguring Feminist Readings of Horror 11.5. Recent Latin American Abduction Horror and Gender Ideologies 11.5.1. Scherzo Diabolico 11.5.2. Luna de Miel 11.5.3. Sudor Frío 11.6. Conclusion References Chapter 12 Misogyny or Commentary? Gendered Violence Outside and Inside Captivity References Music Filmography Chapter 13 “My Name Is Alice. And I Remember Everything.” Project Alice and Milla Jovovich in the Resident Evil Films 13.1. Resident Evil: The Films 13.2. Overview of the Films 13.3. Project Alice: Character Physical Presence and Character Arc References Chapter 14 The Final Girls (2015) as a Video Essay: A Metalinguistic Play with Genre and Gender Conventions 14.1. Slasher Horror and Film Theory 14.1.1. The Victims 14.1.2. The Killer 14.1.3. Weapons 14.1.4. Shock 14.1.5. Terrible Place 14.1.6. The Final Girl 14.1.7. The Body 14.2. The Final Girls: Intertextuality, Metalanguage and Film Theory 14.3. The End? References Chapter 15 Dissecting Depictions of Black Masculinity in Get Out 15.1. Introduction 15.1.1. Get Out 15.2. Theoretical Framework 15.2.1. Horror and the Gaze 15.2.2. The Horrors of Racism 15.2.3. The Racism of Horror 15.3. Where Is My Mind? Get Out and the Humanity of Black Men in Horror 15.4. Black Boyhood and Vulnerability 15.5. Breaking Barriers for Black Men in Horror (but not Black Women?) 15.6. The Terrifying Risks Involved in Respectability Politics 15.7. Conclusion References Index The horror genre will always remain current because it reflects our anxieties, shining a light onto our worst fears whilst creating worlds defined by darkness. Horrow as a genre has always engaged with era-specific societal mores and moral panics, often about isolation or abandonment, changing family values and the role of women. It is often specifically about how gender is constructed in everyday life. Women are commonly defined in horror by their passivity, or monstrosity/sexuality or victimhood--or a mix of the three. At the same time women in horror are forced into psychological and physical torture ending in violent showdowns in which they emerge damaged by triumphant. Bringing together research from a wide range of established and emerging scholars this edited collection provides an insight into how modern horror films portray femininities, sexualities, masculinities, ageing, and other current issues, exploring the use of vampires, zombies, werewolves and ghosts in films made internationally. This volume, one of three by the same editorial team examining the horror genre, focuses on gender and contemporary horror in film, asking questions about how and if representations of gender in horror have changed. In these readings and re-readings, the authors examine developments in films about vampires, zombies, werewolves and ghosts, in films made internationally--back cover