I slutet av 90-talet sköljde en våg med asiatisk skräckfilm in över västvärlden. Filmerna handlade om kvinnor som dött en våldsam eller orättvis död och nu var tillbaka för att hämnas. Takashi Miike är en av de mest kända japanska regissörerna som har bidragit till den japanska skräckfilmsgenren som fick så stor spridning i väst. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka kvinnoroller som finns representerade i fyra utav Miikes skräckfilmer och hur de framställs. Uppsatsen utgår från klassisk feministisk filmteori och undersöker om Barbara Creeds ”the monstrous feminine” och Carol Clovers ”the final girl” finns representerade i Miikes filmer. Bland uppsatsens slutsatser går det att finna att ”the final girl” delvis finns representerad i Miikes filmer, dock inte i samma utsträckning som i amerikansk skräckfilm, samt att man kan stöta på en viss problematik när man applicerar Creeds och Clovers teorier på filmer som inte följer ett västerländskt berättande.

Il presente studio mira a constatare lo stretto collegamento tra la figura femminile e il cinema thriller e horror italiano, qui denominato genericamente “fantastico” in un’ accezione estensiva, a evidenziarne caratteristiche comuni relative a entrambi i generi. La periodizzazione della ricerca va dagli anni sessanta agli anni ottanta ed il primo obiettivo è stato quello di valutare secondo un approccio culturalista l’interdipendenza donna-horror, spesso sfociata in un approccio misogino al genere. I risultati sono stati spesso discordanti rispetto alle premesse di partenza: le donne sono raffigurate solo come vittime, il gradimento del pubblico è esclusivamente maschile. La messa in discussione di questa tesi si è resa possibile attraverso una ricerca empirico-applicativa di un campione di film e una disamina di scritti più recenti che mirano in qualche caso a rovesciare il paradigma di partenza. Il secondo obiettivo ha rilevato differenze tra rappresentazione femminile nel cinema italiano e americano, muovendo dal presupposto che le teorie su cui ci si è basati provengono dagli stati uniti e hanno previsto un campione per lo più di film non italiani. quindi l’ intento dello studio è stato anche quello di misurare l’applicabilità di alcuni paradigmi teorici al caso italiano. lo svolgimento della ricerca ha previsto un’indagine di tipo quantitativo (rilevazione del corpus estensivo di film) e intensivo-qualitativo (analisi di alcuni principali stereotipi femminili, tratti dalla letteratura e dal cinema: damsel in distress, belle dame sans merci, final girl), per giungere poi alla conclusione che il genere fantastico italiano ha risentito forse più di ogni altro di una conflittualità permanente, tra bisogno di emancipazione e resistenza conservatrice. / This current study aims to ascertain the close connection between female figure and Italian horror/thriller, cinema, here called "fantastico" in an extensive meaning, in order to highlight common features related to both genres. The periodization of research goes from 60s to 80s and the first purpose was to evaluate, according to a culturalist approach, the woman-horror interdependence, often focused in a mysoginic approach to the genre. The results have often been conflicting with respect to the starting presuppositions: the women are represented only as victims, the audience’s satisfaction is exclusively male. The discussion of this thesis was possible through an empirical and applicative research of a film sample and a careful investigation of latest writings that aim in different cases to reverse the paradigm of the starting point. The second objective detected differences between female representation in the Italian and American cinema, moving from the assumption that the theories which we are based on, come from united states and have provided a sample of more American films than Italian ones. Therefore the intent of this essay was testing the applicability of some historical theoric paradigms to the Italian case. the research’ s method involved a quantitative cataloging of extensive film corpus and an intensive one, which analyzes the main female stereotypes drawn from literature and cinema (damsel in distress, belle dame sans merci, final girl ). the conclusions show that the Italian fantastic genre has resisted more than other ones of a permanent conflict between emancipation and conservative resistance.

Den här vetenskapliga uppsatsen analyserar den kvinnliga huvudkaraktären Laurie Strode i John Carpenters original och Rob Zombies remake av slasherfilmen Halloween. Uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur samma karaktär har porträtterats ur ett feministiskt perspektiv och hur vi kan förstå dem utifrån de epoker de skapades i. Med en semiotisk analysmetod besvaras hur porträtteringen skiljer de två filmerna åt. Detta genom att analysera karaktärens denotation och konnotation både visuellt och i dialog. Med hjälp av feministisk filmforskning belyser uppsatsen hur filmen Halloween och slashergenren har vidare utvecklats med tiden. Begreppen Hora-Madonna-komplexet och the Final Girl samt forskning kring kvinnor i skräckfilmer används för att förankra tolkningen. Resultatet visar att denna utveckling lett till en mer öppen och tillåtande porträttering av en kvinna utan att med detta lämna den grund som slasherfilmer byggs på. Den visar också på hur filmens remake har frångått vissa begrepp som man kan anse centrala för slashergenren utan att förlora möjligheten att titulera sig som en sådan.

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Decades of horror film research and theorizations have shown us that there is a reason why this particular genre has been an important part of film history from the beginning: namely, the idea that horror both reflects and shapes our historically and culturally specific anxieties. By examining the Final Girl trope in Halloween (the 1978 original versus 2018 version), this paper traces the evolution of female protagonists and whether a more modern film accurately reflects the increasing role of feminism in society, or sticks to traditional conventions of misogyny and male-dominated visual pleasure. Placing the newer film in the context of the #MeToo era, this paper also addresses more contemporary anxieties over trauma, sexual assault and female anger.

Carol Clover defined a Final Girl as a stereotype of the pure, virginal sole survivor in 1980’s slasher films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. But does this representation hold up in 2016 films? Because the horror genre is so broad today, it’s almost impossible to nail down a certain stereotype of the genre, if there even is one. Films like the 1996 slasher parody Scream historically subverted the slasher genre, and since then there has been little to no iconic Final Girls. I argue that this trope is one very much set inside the confines of the 1980’s slasher genre, and instead is being replaced by an older, more responsible Dysfunctional Mother female character that arises from supernatural films of the late 2000’s-2010’s.

Uppsatsen betraktar och analyserar kvinnliga karaktärer i fyra olika slasher-skräckfilmer utifrån metodvalen: Jens Eders karaktärsklocka, karaktärsanalys och bildsemiotisk analys. Filmerna, Alla helgons blodiga natt, Scream, Evil Dead och X, är specifikt utvalda utifrån fyra olika decennier där den grundläggande faktorn som följs är utveckling av kvinnliga karaktärer. Uppsatsens fokus ligger på Final Girl-karaktärerna som analyseras i samband med sina sociala kretsar och miljöer. De kvinnliga karaktärerna jämförs med varandra för att förhoppningsvis finna en insikt om vem den moderna Final Girl är och en utveckling i kvinnlig karaktärsbyggnad. Som ett resultat har analysen åstadkommit kunskap om den klassiska gentemot moderna Final Girl utifrån en utveckling baserat på relation till sex, sexualitet och självständighet. Den moderna Final Girl bryter mot den gamla tropen och anpassar sig till dagens samhälle. Dock, samtidigt, så får Final Girls som The Dumb Blonde, inte lika stor utveckling i den moderna slasher-filmen men fortsätter att förbli sanna till sina gammalmodiga troper, något som förhoppningsvis också kommer att förändras med tiden.

The following essay applies an intersectional lens to the character analysis of Jade, the main character in Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is a Chainsaw (2021), as it aims to introduce EFL students to the principles of the intersectional theory framework. As Jade, as a way of dealing with her reality as an abused and marginalized young part-Native American adolescent, obsessively frames her real-life experiences in a slasher movie context, the novel explores the themes of identity, marginalization, empowerment through the way Jade sees herself in relation to the Final Girl: the archetypal female protagonist featured in slasher movies. By analyzing the contrasting relationship between Jade and the concept of the Final Girl, students engage with the intersectional premise that it is the complex and dynamic interplay between Jade’s gender, race, class, and circumstances that dictates Jade’s subjectivity and inability to identify with the agentic and empowered Final Girl. As Jade ultimately transforms into her own version of a Final Girl, the essay argues that her transformation represents how a marginalized character claims her identity and becomes the protagonist of her own narrative.

The aim of this study is to assess to which extent the concept called the final girl can be applied to a character produced outside USA. To achieve this, I have used a Japanese film called Evil Dead Trap (Toshiharu Ikeda, 1988), where I have analyzed the character Nami and her relations to the conventions of the final girl. Some of the more common conventions are that the final girl do not engage in sex or use drugs such as cigarettes. The theoretical framework focuses on identifying and establishing the different conventions of the final girl by using two different researchers and their texts. The state of research was used to place the movie in a historical context. Because of this, the research used focused on Japanese horror cinema from the fifties to the nineties. When the framework was established, an analysis of the final girl was made. Throughout the analysis I saw that, apart from three exceptions, Nami followed the conventions of the final girl. The exceptions were that she did not survive the movie, she took drugs in the form of a cigarette and showed a lack of intellect when they arrived at the military base.