Women aren’t supposed to like slasher films. Technically, no one is supposed to like slasher films, but women should totally avoid them because they undermine everything women stand for.
Slasher films were targeted toward a teenage audience by having the stars of the films be teens. They are loaded full of violence and gory deaths, but this presentation will not focus solely on that aspect. My goal is to the audience look at these films as social commentaries and see beyond the blood and gore to examine the roles of women in the film and how they redefine gender stereotypes.
I will explain what classifies a slasher film as a slasher film and how it differs from other types of horror. After that, I will give a brief history of how slasher films were condemned by critics, church groups, and looked at as anti-women by scholars.
I will use clips from movies to show examples of the types of criticism scholars have used to show that slasher films are anti-women. I will also use clips from the films to disprove these theories by showing how these techniques are turned back on themselves. I will emphasize the importance of the Final Girl in slasher films. I will ask the audience if they believe the slasher film genre has been successful in showing the woman as a hero or not.
There are valuable lessons that can be learned from movies and books, and slasher films are the genre that started it all. I would like to share my passion for horror and explain how the genre expresses the fears of society or shows what is wrong with society.
About the presenterJessica Robinson
Jessica Robinson is an editor by day and a zombie-killer by night (at least in her books). Since the first time she watched Night of the Living Dead, she has been obsessed with zombies and often thinks of ways to survive the uprising. In addition to her nonfiction book, under the pen name Pembroke Sinclair, she has written YA novels about zombies and the tough teens who survive the apocalyptic world. She has also written nonfiction stories for Serial Killer Magazine and published a book about slasher films called Life Lessons from Slasher Films. You can learn more about Jessica by visiting her at http://pembrokesinclair.blogspot.com/