Do you Want to Watch? A Study of the Visual Rhetoric of the Postmodern Horror Film

Jody L. Keisner

21 citations0/0 files storedWomen s Studies

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Gothic Literature and Media Analysis Cinema History and Criticism Gender, Feminism, and Media

Abstract

This article explores the psychological and social effects of horror (slasher) movies, focusing on the 2003 thriller feardotcom. The question, “Why do we watch?” is investigated, using narrative and philosophical theories to analyze this and slasher films' far-reaching cultural implications. The visual rhetoric of the postmodern horror movie is also analyzed in relation to its value as a social text, specifically questioning the validity of the Final Girl as an archetype for feminine power. Slasher film critics such as Carol Clover, Daniel Linz, Edward Donnerstein, Fred Molitor and Barry Sapolsky disagree about whether or not slasher films are primarily misogynistic texts and if the most recent depictions of the Final Girl can be read as a step towards feminine empowerment. This article uses narrative theory to interrogate the construction and grammer of the slasher film, among other things, investigating who the male and female audiences are encouraged to identify with while watching.

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References

1975Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema 1995Simulacra and Simulation 1998Narratology: introduction to the theory of narrative 1998Postmodern Narrative Theory 1997Nightmare on Main Street: Angels, Sadomasochism, and the Culture of Gothic 1986Effects of an opposite-gender companion's affect to horror on distress, delight, and attraction.2023Afterthoughts on ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’ inspired by Duel in the Sun 2015Men, Women, and Chain Saws

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2016"Look What You Did to Me!": (Anti)Feminism and Extratextuality in the Remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)2019Final Girls and Female Serial Killers: A Review of the Slasher Television Series from a Gender Perspective 2020The Cinematic Rhetorics of Lynching in Jordan Peele's Get Out

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