Final Girls and Terrible Youth: Transgression in 1980S Slasher Horror
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Journal of Popular Film and Television ISSN: 0195-6051 (Print) 1930-6458 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjpf20 Final Girls and Terrible Youth: Transgression in 1980s Slasher Horror Sarah Trencansky To cite this article: Sarah Trencansky (2001) Final Girls and Terrible Youth: Transgression in 1980s Slasher Horror, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 29:2, 63-73, DOI: 10.1080/01956050109601010 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01956050109601010 Published online: 02 Apr 2010. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 689 View related articles Citing articles: 4 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjpf20 Download by: [VCU Libraries Serials] Date: 24 October 2016, At: 08:12 64 JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television consist of a monster or maniac stalking slashers fit that description perfectly. 17, and wimps,” the unprivileged andor killing a succession of people, Women are repeatedly killed, appar- “other” groups of society that are usually teenagers, are considered even ently in conformance to the monster’s excluded from Carpenter’s imaginary less deserving of study. They are “at the attempt at repressing the dangerous audience. bottom of the horror heap” (Clover 20) sexuality they exhibit (during the The most consistent element in critically, “the most disreputable form obligatory nude scene) or seek out slasher sequels is the Final Girl, the of the horror film” (Pinedo 71), and during the course of the film. Thus, the surviving female Carol J. Clover although a few slashers from the 197Os, Hellraiser series, in which a girl is speaks of in her examination of horror such as Halloween or The Texas Chain- stalked after finding a symbolic Pan- and gender Men, Women, and Chin- saw Massacre, have been examined for dora’s box, “share[s] with the slasher saws. After all her friends have been cultural significance, these are rare film the simple notion of adolescent eliminated by the film’s monster, this examples. The 1970s are considered a sexual curiosity deserving immediate, girl is the one who recognizes the hor- brief “renaissance” (Williams 164) in violent retribution” (Sharrett 261). ror surrounding her and fights back horror, where progressive films chal- This is the predominant opinion in against her attacker and defeats him, lenged societal norms and traditional horror film criticism and has produced typically single-handedly, She is the depictions of female subjectivity, yet the stereotypical reaction among both undisputed main character, both the late 1980s as an era are denied that filmmakers and critics of the John because of increased character devel- status. Carpenter opening quote: Horror opment afforded to her throughout the Late 1990s slashers like Scream are films, because of their seemingly anti- film and because of her early discov- lauded for taking horror in a new direc- woman stance, are no place for femi- ery of the killer, evident to the viewing tion of postmodernity, but this means nists to be. audience from the beginning of the that 1980s horror is still viewed as Female viewership of slashers is film. In this position, her “perspective “extremely disappointing” (Williams therefore considered problematic: approaches our own privileged under- 164), primarily consigned to the label Isabel Cristina Pinedo, in her discus- standing of the situation” (Clover 44): of “reductive exploitation films” sion of female horror film viewing, She knows what we know, and the (Williams 164). They are dismissed as details how for “the female viewer Final Girl becomes an “I” for the audi- “unartistic and reactionary generic accused of masochism or the female ence to identify with. manifestations” (Williams 166), their fan labeled an apologist for a woman- Clover describes how the genre has politics condemned and apologized for, hating genre, there is no room for plea- evolved, from the passive defense of even as they are grudgingly studied. sure’’ (69). A female horror viewer is a the surviving female of The Texas Yet the legacy of the three major hor- “sex traitor” (Pinedo 7 I), blindly per- Chainsaw Massacre (she eludes ror characters to emerge during the petuating oppressive norms, or else Leatherface until she is ultimately re+ 1980s, Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare misunderstanding what she is seeing. cued by a passing truck driver) lo the on Elm Street, Jason Voorhees of the The only “proper” response to these active defense of Laurie from Huf- Friday the 13th series, and Pinhead of films for a feminist is condemnation loween (37), who, in the last sequence Hellraiser, lives on as the virtual defin- and avoidance. of the film, ceases to run and retaliates ition of film horror today. These slasher Yet, although the statistical propor- against Michael Myers, matching him films, although “beyond the purview of tion of female to male viewers of hor- in violence. In the major 1980s slash- the respectable (middle-aged, middle- ror films is largely contested (Pinedo ers, this shift increases, and the Final class) audience” (Clover 21), have 144n), there is no denying that female Girl is depicted as more powerful than importance as cultural texts, both viewership of slashers exists. The ever before. Unlike the 1970s slasher because of their immense and enduring Nightmare on Elm Street series, in par- heroines, who usually survived seem- popularity with adolescents, and ticular, is noted by at least one critic ingly at random, based on their ability because of their firmly entrenched sta- for its increased viewership by adoles- to scream, run, and avoid the pursuing tus as “outsider” cinema, apart from cent girls, usually in groups (Clover monster, the new generation of Final more accepted forms of film and their 23). Dismissing these films without Girls is notable for its unflinching more acceptable mainstream messages. careful consideration is too simplistic, determination and strength. While The primary rationale for the slash- especially in light of their cultural their supposedly more progressive er film’s status as low culture within complexity. The “seemingly endless” 1970s ancestors are said to exude the academia is its consistent depiction of (Grant, Dreud of Difference 201) “qualities of character that enable her, targeted female victims: Even approv- sequels of the 1980s are not merely of all the characters, to survive what ing discussions of horror consistently exploitation. Rather, as texts they go has come to seem unsurvivable” bemoan the slasher as “explicitly surprisingly out of their way to present (Clover 39), the heroines of the 1980s about the destruction of women” images of women and youth that sub- series go much further than simply (Sharrett 254). Films that prominently vert mainstream expectations. In fact, defending themselves, matching or feature women victims are harmful to the people these films aim to speak to exceeding the powers of their mon- women, the argument states, and most are the “feminists, children under sters with their own. Final Girls and Terrible Youth 65 This is most pronounced in the NiRkrmare mi Elm Street series, begin- ning with the heroine of the first film, Nancv. Nancy recognizes early in the film that Freddy is responsible for the dentti\ of her peers, and she takes irnmcdiate action. Beyond merely haphamdly defending herself, Nancy draw up a precise plan of action, timed to the very minute. She reads manuds on home defense, and subse- quently rigs her house with traps, including a sledgehammer hung from a door, an exploding light, a tripwire, and it bottle of gas with matches with which she sets Freddy on fire. Most essential to Nancy’s survival, however. is the knowledge she obtains of Freddy’s past: He was a child molester and killer, freed on a techni- cality and burned alive by the parents of Elin Street. who now kills by enter- ing the dreams of teenagers. Of all his victims, Nancy is the only one to seek out his origins and the only one to realize that the way to subvert his powet is by controlling the dreams he appears in. Her “dream skills,” a method of drawing Freddy out of dreams and into reality, then taking away his energy, cement her status as heroine. Nancy describes herself as “into survival,” and like Ripley of the Alien films, this Final Girl survives by her ‘hbility to adapt to the new: to ne otiate change” (Hills 41). She must be fiese, quickly and without doubt, in the supernatural elements of Freddy’s An apple for the :Freddy (Robert Englund) impersonates a teacher in Night- origin. and transform her views of mare on Elm Street 4. reslit! and the adult world according- ly. Her survival hinges on these by ineffectively trying to suppress his allows all the film’s characters to unite effort\. and she alone makes it through emergence, Lisa succeeds because she in the realm of dreams and defeat a the film alive. has studied the monster: She is able to seemingly impossible force. When Freddy returns in Nightmare defeat Freddy herself. Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The on Elrii Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Nancy returns to instruct the hero- Dream Master features Alice, arguably there IS a new Final Girl waiting for ine of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: the most powerful Final Girl of the him. iha watches Freddy attempt to Dream Warriors as a psychiatrist sent series. Kristen of Nightmare 3 dies in possc~her boyfriend Jesse, who to aid Kristen, the girl next in line to this film, but not before passing