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Title: Men, Women, and Chain Saws by Carol J. Clover ISBN: 0-691-00620-2 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 22 March, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: One-sex theory? Anal birth?
Comment: Really doesn't sound like the beginnings of a discussion of horror films. The language used in this book is so far over my head that I begin to feel stupid, and that what I thought I knew about movies (which is more than most people I know) must certainly not be enough to even be allowed to watch them. What's disappointing is that I want to agree with the theories in the book. Clover's premise is that watching horror movies is not a sadistic act, and that the young men who watch them are really identifying with the female victim-hero, instead of just gawking at boobies. I like the idea that the viewer identifies with the monster and the victim. But I don't think the author can really identify with... humanity! The word 'psychobabble' does come to mind. It makes me wonder what she's hiding from, or who she's trying to impress. I don't think she has any grasp at all of these films or why I watch so many of them.
It just seems to me like this woman has put every word she knows into a theory I think I can sum up in less than fifty pages. Sentences don't need to be that long to get a point across.
To sum up, if you are a horror film fan with an IQ of 160 or less, do not read this book! It was written for high-brow, academic types who are fascinated by the rituals and habits of us lower creatures, but wouldn't be caught dead in a theatre with less than eighteen screens. However, if you are a high-brow, academic type who is fascinated by the rituals and habits of us lower creatures, but wouldn't be caught dead in a theatre with less than eighteen screens, you might like it.
Rating: 1
Summary: She just does not get horror movies, that's all.
Comment: I bought this book hoping to read a balanced and insightful analysis of gender in horror. What I got was the same trite "analysis" that seems so fashionable today. This book is profoundly feminist, in a very offensive sort of way. I am terribly sorry, but the author really needs more than a few months' worth of watching horror (see her own admission on p.19) and more than rudemintary understanding of pop psychology, to make a compelling case.
Briefly, her "analysis" of the female in modern horror slasher movies goes like this. Clover begins with the observation that most of these (American) films concentrate on the abuse, victimization, and triumph of a woman. The author then asks (i) why a woman and (ii) why do mostly male viewers watch these films. Her interpretation is that the "Final Girl" in these movies is really a male! It seems that in Clover's world, most males are homosexual, or at least bisexual, and they seem to have some bizarre beating fantasies. Because showing a male in this position would be uncomfortable for the male viewers (it would expose their forbidden fantasies too close for comfort), an unfemale female is substituted.
Clover simply misses several very simple things, which leads her to the mental acrobatics necessary to account for the phenomenon. Why does she dismiss the directors when they say that having a woman suffer is essential to horror? I don't know, but it is obvious that (i) out culture regards men as active, that is, when men are victimized, there's little sympathy for them---we expect them to react, strike back, and die in the attempt---which means that if you want emotions in the audience, you better go after a girl; (ii) our society focuses on female beauty much more than male beauty---from an aesthetical perspective, destroying something beautiful is much more painful; (iii) the reason why The Final Girl is not too feminine is because these horror films are American---one characteristic trait of this culture is the belief that the outcast, the underdog, can succeed through his/her own efforts---that's why the main character is seen as an outcast; (iv) the basic plot of these films is a variation on the ancient myths of the hero---someone who goes through incredible ordeals, and wins against all odds---this sort of story, however, is mostly attractive to males, which is why you don't tend to see many women at these films. This is a brief synopsis of a larger argument where every step is substantiated, but it illustrates why Clover's view is plain wrong.
It would have been helpful if she had viewed some European or Japanese horror films: she would have found out that many of the features characteristic of US films are simply missing. It would have been helpful if she did not regard horror as low art (she does, her posturing to the contrary notwithstanding). It would have been better if she avoided the turgid prose common to texts where the author either has little to say or tries to disguise wrong ideas.
Finally, Clover completely misses an important consequence of horror being made idependently of Hollywood. It's not just that it can cater shamelessly to the most exploitative taste (which some do), but low-budget cinema is a more accurate reflection of trends in contemporary society. While Hollywood produces slick and ultimately empty movies, B-flicks incorporate things the way the authors see them---the Final Girl in horror is nothing less than an acknowledgment of the achievements of gender equality. There are now female heroines (much more resourceful than the bungling males in these movies) and they triumph over adversity, and against the onslaught of maniacal males. This seems like a good statement of the fact that our society has come to accept women in roles that traditionally were not available to them.
Rating: 5
Summary: Take that, Andrea Dworkin...
Comment: ...and all other "feminists" who think a work of art/entertainment featuring violence and women is automatically violently anti-woman. This is the book you want in your corner when someone (sometimes male, too) starts gassing off about how those bad, bad horror films demean women. Um, I would say a schlockfest like "Hanging Up" or "You've Got Mail" demeans women a hell of a lot more than your average slasher film that doesn't star Meg Ryan.
Carol Clover makes the convincing point that most of the better-known slasher films are narratives of women empowering themselves over a (usually male) antagonist. In this respect, the much-reviled "I Spit on Your Grave" could be seen as the forerunner of "Thelma & Louise." I have to admit for the record that I'm not a fan of "I Spit on Your Grave," which I feel is ineptly made and contains far more grossness than it absolutely needs to make its point (rape = bad; violence = bad); Clover, however, devotes an entire appreciative chapter to it, which indicates she's seen it numerous times and thought about it at length, which at least is better than the usual knee-jerk hatred of it you tend to see. It's refreshing and fascinating to find a woman defending -- at length -- a film many of us had thought to be indefensibly misogynistic.
Not the only academic defense of drive-in cinema, but one of the best-known, and probably the best -- after eight years, it's still in print in an affordable mass-market paperback, which should tell you something. Namely, it should tell you to buy it if you're at all interested in horror movies and what makes them tick. Horror movies don't have to be GUILTY pleasures!
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Title: The Dread of Difference : Gender and the Horror Film by Barry Keith Grant ISBN: 0292727941 Publisher: Univ of Texas Press Pub. Date: 1996 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: The Horror Genre by Paul Wells ISBN: 1903364000 Publisher: Wallflower Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
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Title: The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (Popular Fictions Series) by Barbara Creed ISBN: 0415052599 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Horror Film Reader by Alain Silver, James Ursini ISBN: 0879102977 Publisher: Limelight Editions Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film by Gregory A. Waller ISBN: 0252014480 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Pro Ref) Pub. Date: April, 1988 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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