FILM 3420D Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Gender Identity, Final Girl, At Close Range
4 Apr 2016
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Female body as the absolute grotesque other. Archaic monster vs. maternal authority vs. paternal law. Violence and sex are not concomitants but alternatives. May first appear as a safe haven until the penetration scene . Knives, hammers, axes, ice picks, hypodermic needles, red hot pokers, pitchforks, etc. Extended definition including teeth, fangs, beaks, etc. Good for special effects showing the opened body. Sexual transgressors of both sexes die early (post coital death) Strong enough to: stay alive long enough to be rescued (early slasher, eliminate the killer herself (post-1980s films) How are we then to explain the appeal to a largely male audience of a film genre that features a female victim-hero? . Narrative trajectory: shift from the killer"s point of view to the final girl"s. Gender is less of a wall than a permeable membrane . They share a proximity to the uterine stage (archaic mother_ where male and female are not separated yet.
