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Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

door Carol J. Clover

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4291057,967 (4.03)14
From its first publication in 1992, Men, Women, and Chain Saws has offered a groundbreaking perspective on the creativity and influence of horror cinema since the mid-1970s. Investigating the popularity of the low-budget tradition, Carol Clover looks in particular at slasher, occult, and rape-revenge films. Although such movies have been traditionally understood as offering only sadistic pleasures to their mostly male audiences, Clover demonstrates that they align spectators not with the male tormentor, but with the females tormented-notably the slasher movie's "final girls"-as they endure fear and degradation before rising to save themselves. The lesson was not lost on the mainstream industry, which was soon turning out the formula in well-made thrillers.Including a new preface by the author, this Princeton Classics edition is a definitive work that has found an avid readership from students of film theory to major Hollywood filmmakers.… (meer)
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    Macabere Liefde door Stephen King (billmcn)
    billmcn: An excellent overview of the horror genre from its foremost practitioner.
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Interesting read, would be interested to read what the author thinks about horror genre developments in the decades since publication. I'm personally not big on the psycho-sexual analysis approach, however, psychology and/or film studies are not my academic background (PoliSci /LIS is) so that probably contributes to my ambivalence. ( )
  cactuscat | Mar 1, 2024 |
Surprisingly, I enjoyed this trip back to my days of Freudian analysis and academic texts on gender. Interesting perspectives and largely holds up. ( )
  suzannekmoses | May 20, 2022 |
I just finished this book which takes a look at how gender is identified, viewed, and presented within horror films. As the book was published in 1992, the analysis is heavily rooted in films from the 70s and 80s and has some problematic points about trans identities. There is also an incredible amount of Freudian theory consulted, and DON'T GET ME STARTED. But, that aside, I really enjoyed the analysis.

The most white bread, basic analysis of the horror genre equates sex and violence or sex and death. We, the viewer, see an often scantily clad, beautiful woman, lust after her, and then without warning see violence done to her person. The idea being that the sudden shift from lust to violence and gore creates a deep uneasiness in oneself, and can oftentimes blur the line between the two.

This book dives deeper into the views and meanings of both genders in horror film, focusing mostly on how a male audience identifies with the characters on screen. More often than not, a male audience is identifying with the female victim on screen, not the (usually) male killer, which queers his gender identity for the duration of the film. This leads into the idea of "female masochism" which is NOT the masochistic tendency of women, but the desire by men to identify with the sadistic tortures being portrayed on the body of the female characters. Over and over again, male audiences return to revel in how it must feel to have a female body and be violated in all kinds of ways. In some films, the male characters become "feminized" by having their bodies torn to have holes or gashes (see: Videodrome) therefore literally becoming a female before our very eyes.

There is also a large discussion about the femininity and sexual repression of male killers - often having mommy issues or having sexual and/or physical abuse in their past, resulting in a very androdgynized persona that ends up either being oversexualized (Peeping Tom) or devoid of sexuality completely.

I would have loved to see an alternate discussion of how female horror film audiences can and do identify with male killers, therefore flipping the script on their gender identity as well, but alas this book ends up being very male gaze-centric.

The takeaway is something that us gay horror nerds have always known: HORROR IS GAY ( )
  sublunarie | May 23, 2020 |
Listen, I love film criticism and theory.

Now, by film criticism, I don't mean film critics, because I don't think they really understand or appreciate film in the proper way. No, by "film criticism," I mean deeply researched critical theory like this book.

Carol Clover has been taking a deep look at horror movies for years, and what she's come up with is a fascinating study of the gender representation within that genre. I don't mean to say the basic gender breakdown between killer/monster and victim, but the overarching masculine vs. feminine within each character represented.

What Clover's exhaustive research into both the horror genre and psychoanalytic theory has found, as it relates specifically to the Slasher film, the Possession film, and the Rape-Revenge film, is that the masculine and the feminine in horror is surprisingly interchangeable.

Starting with the slasher film and a deep discussion of the Final Girl, Clover points out that many of the slasher killers are coded as feminine (not female, although that does happen on rare occasion, but feminine) through the psychology of the killer, while the Final Girl herself is coded masculine (male sounding name, tomboyish, "not like other girls," etc.). From there Clover looks to both the possession film (identifying the supernatural as feminine and "open," forcing any male involved to accept the feminine into their lives in order to win) and the rape-revenge film (where, if the victim is male, he is already put in the feminine role as the victim and must reclaim the masculine through the act of revenge, while the female must move towards the masculine and become the vicious killer to enact her revenge) to further the point that male and female don't matter as much in horror as the accepted definitions of masculine and feminine attributes, which Clover suggests are easily altered. Finally, Clover discusses the use of the open eye in horror, both to investigate the gaze of victim and killer as well as showing that the eye works as an opening (both to the world of horror before us and the victim).

While it does trend heavily on the Freud, mainly because the psychoanalysis Clover is citing does, she is also very critical of Freud and those who don't look beyond his idea of masculine and feminine. This book sits comfortably within both horror studies and gender studies.

Clover is also very critical of the... ahem... critical reception to low budget horror, while higher budget productions seem to be doted upon while sharing the same general plots (specifically, in the chapter on the rape-revenge film, Clover is clearly annoyed by the general dislike over I Spit on Your Grave, while Deliverance is almost entirely well-received while sharing almost the exact same plot outline. The main difference? The victim and the brutality of the revenge; which, if you've seen the film, is clearly well deserved).

This book is a fascinating look at the cross-gender appeal of horror, how the killer/victim relationship is coded, and the general treatment of the male and the female within the genre. More than likely, it will give you a whole new appreciation of horror films. ( )
  regularguy5mb | Oct 24, 2018 |
Men, Women, and Chainsaws is a film theory book that I've heard referenced since I've been getting more interested in gender and horror. I couldn't get it for years because it was out of print and/or super expensive, but now it's reprinted and accessible. I was daunted at first because I know from literature that theory books aren't always the most entertaining read, but the majority of the book is easily readable and engaging. Carol Clover lays out the formulas for three different horror subgenres and references numerous films (mostly in the 70's) to support her claims as well as other film theorists, Freud, 17th and 18th century views of gender, among others.

The first chapter, focuses on the formula for slasher films. The villains are typically frozen in development in some way like Michael Meyers or have some sort of muddled sexuality like Leatherface. Most of them have an overbearing mother or some sort of obsession with their mother like Norman Bates. Their choice of weapons are knives and chainsaws instead of guns. Their victims can be male or female, usually young adults, but the final one is always female. This final girl is more aware of her surroundings, less distracted, and usually romantically unavailable. Clover theorizes that she's more masculine so the male audience can relate more to her than the other more feminine and frivolous teen victims. Sometimes the final girls only survive by sheer chance, but others survive due to fighting back. Clover calls her the victim-hero because she suffers through the whole film watching her friends die, being hunted, and knowing that she's being hunted. Looking at this formula in the present, I see plenty of films that follow it, but in recent years, many break out of or mock this formula like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and Cabin in the Woods.

The second chapter illustrates the formula for possession films. The person (or thing in the case of Christine) possessed is almost always female because they are more vulnerable to the supernatural and underneath all their decency, they still could become witches. They are usually possessed by male entities and act in horrific ways outside of how women should act, like grotesque sexuality and foul language. These possession stories are never actually about the women being possessed, but about what that possession means to a man in the situation. I don't think I realized this was a feature in every film in this subgenre and it makes sense why it's one of my least favorites. The women are violated and essentially raped, only to serve as a journey for the man on the outside rather than one for that woman. A prime example is The Exorcist where Reagan and her possession serve as a spiritual epiphany for Father Merrim in his crisis of faith while Reagan remembers nothing of her ordeal. I haven't seen a whole lot of change in this genre in recent years. The possessed tend to be more violent rather than sexual, but the possession as a vehicle for male character and plot development still happens all the time.

The third chapter focuses on rape revenge films, which is a genre I'm honestly not very familiar will. Clover talks about how along with the gender conflict, a country and city conflict that goes along with that. The country folk are poor, unhealthy, uneducated, and unemployed. They might also have sexually depraved relationships with animals or their own family members. They blame their improverished situation on city people due to industrialization destroying nature and big businesses crushing their smaller businesses. The city people are either women or considered feminized men. The country people attack and violate city people for revenge, only to have those people come back to exact revenge as well. The lower versions of rape revenge films have women exacting their own revenge, which gives them agency and power. It also often criticizes the justice system that rarely works in favor of these rape victimes. The more celebrated versions like The Accused have the justice system come out in their favor and obscure that criticism. The remade versions of these films seem to be glossier versions that don't bring anything new to a modern audience. Although these films can be exploitative and uncomfortable to watch, I have renewed interest in watching them because of Clover's analysis.

The last chapter is about meta horror films. More obviously meta films like New Nightmare, Scream, and Cabin in the Woods hadn't been made yet, so Clover's focus is the film Peeping Tom. Mark films his female victims while he kills them, making the audience view the scene through his eyes. He recreates scenes reflected from his own abusive childhood. Clover puts forth that this film critiques the masochistic viewer looking at the sadistic filmmaker's violent production. This chapter as a whole is more scattered and less focused, mostly because of the state of meta horror at the time. I would love to see her or anyone else take a second analytic look at these same (plus more) genres and analyze how they have changed or stayed the same.

Men, Women, and Chainsaws has an illuminating look at horror genres still alive and well today. Clover has some strong arguments and views films and subgenres. I don't always agree with her rationales or citations. I don't agree with Freud's psychoanalytic theories and I don't think a single sex model (where men and women are essentially the same gender) is an accurate representation of cinema. She talks a lot about how cameras and weapons of various types are phalluses that the final girls then take for power at the end of the films. In some cases, like the sexually charged scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 between Leatherface and Stretch, I can see how it would be considered to be that, but I think it's overreaching at times. Overall, this film theory book offers a solid breakdown and analysis of different subgenres and how men and women are treated in them. ( )
  titania86 | Feb 28, 2017 |
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From its first publication in 1992, Men, Women, and Chain Saws has offered a groundbreaking perspective on the creativity and influence of horror cinema since the mid-1970s. Investigating the popularity of the low-budget tradition, Carol Clover looks in particular at slasher, occult, and rape-revenge films. Although such movies have been traditionally understood as offering only sadistic pleasures to their mostly male audiences, Clover demonstrates that they align spectators not with the male tormentor, but with the females tormented-notably the slasher movie's "final girls"-as they endure fear and degradation before rising to save themselves. The lesson was not lost on the mainstream industry, which was soon turning out the formula in well-made thrillers.Including a new preface by the author, this Princeton Classics edition is a definitive work that has found an avid readership from students of film theory to major Hollywood filmmakers.

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