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.

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.

Studien undersöker användningen av Goyas etsning När förnuftet sover kommer monstren och Fuselis oljemålning Nattmaran som förekommer i slasherfilmen Terror på Elm Street (2010). Konstverken är placerade i en scen där konstverken bland annat får en självrefererande roll eftersom det som sker i konstverken även sker i filmen. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad konstverken fyller för funktion i filmen och att undersöka om det finns stilistiska och tematiska likheter mellan konstverken och filmen trots att det skiljer ungefär 200 år mellan dem. De båda konstverken analyseras semiotiskt och filmen analyseras främst utifrån studiens teoretiska perspektiv: intermedialitet, transmediering och intertextualitet.   Resultatet visar att slasherfilmer och skräckfilmer är väldigt flitiga med användandet av intertextuella referenser och självrefererande uttryck men att det är svårt att veta exakt vad konstverken har för betydelse. Tidigare forskning visar att tidig skräckfilm inspirerades av gotiska romaner och romantiska konstverk vilka transmedierades till filmmediet när det var tekniskt möjligt. Mellan konstverken och filmen går det att hitta flera stilmässiga och tematiska likheter som är typiska för det som började framhävas under romantiken. Terror på Elm Street (2010) bär på flera postmoderna drag, bland annat eftersom filmen kombinerar uttryck från det förflutna och berör gränsen för vad som ses som fin- respektive populärkultur. / This study examines Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters and Fuseli’s The Nightmare and how they are used in the slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The purpose of this study is to explore the artworks and their role within the movie and examine if it is possible to distinguish stylistic and thematic similarities between the works despite being separated by approximately 200 years. The artworks are analyzed according to a semiotic method, while the movie is analyzed mainly using the study’s theoretical aspects: intermediality, transmediality and intertextuality. The result shows that intertextual references and self-referential expressions are frequently used in slasher movies. However, the specific role which these artworks play in the movie is often hard to decipher. There are several similarities between the artworks and the movie and previous studies shows that early horror movies were influenced by gothic novels and romantic paintings which were transmediated to fit the film medium. The art works used in A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) have the same motifs as part of the film’s story and are also part of a postmodern trend of mixing between so called high culture and popular culture.

La thèse propose une approche du cinéma fantastique espagnol des années 1990 et 2000, et plus spécifiquement de la période allant de 1993 à 2005. En effet, on assiste alors à l’arrivée d’une nouvelle génération de réalisateurs qui donne un nouvel élan au genre en se le réappropriant. Nous partons du constat initial qu’au sein des diverses approches du genre présentes dans chacun de ces films, le fantastique espagnol semble privilégier l’apparition de trois incarnations du surnaturel : le fantôme, le slasher et le monstre. Notre étude se penche sur chacune d’entre elles afin de dégager quelles sont les lignes de force qui les structurent. Pour cela, nous nous servons de la notion de figure, qui à partir de l’étude de la représentation cinématographique des corps, permet également de déterminer quels sont les enjeux thématiques qui y sont associés, ainsi que la reconfiguration particulière que chacune d’entre elles opère sur le genre fantastique. / This thesis tackles Spanish fantastic cinema from the 1990s and 2000s, and more specifically from 1993 to 2005. Indeed, this period of time corresponds to the rising of a new generation of directors who gave a new impetus to the genre by re-appropriating it. We start off with the initial premise that within the various approaches of the genre present in each of these films, the Spanish fantastic seems to favour the emergence of three types of supernatural : the ghost, the slasher and the monster. Our study focuses on each of these types so as to highlight its structuring driving forces. In that respect, we use the notion of figure which, based on the study of the cinematographic representation of bodies, also allows to determine the thematic stakes related to it, as well as the specific reconfiguration that each of them operates on the fantastic genre.

Le slasher est un sous-genre du film d'horreur reposant sur une figure de tueur masqué punissant en apparence la sexualité adolescente. Très populaire auprès du public adolescent de 1978 à 1984, il serait, selon de nombreux critiques, une expression de sadisme « gratuit ». Cependant, toute production culturelle possède une légitimité qui peut lui être conférée en trouvant une clé de lecture adéquate. Cette clé est selon-nous un archétype culturel que nous nommons foolkiller, et qui figure une victime marginale sanctionnant les actes irresponsables mettant en danger les membres les plus faibles de la communauté. Cet archétype convoque l'imaginaire médiéval du charivari, un rite de justice folklorique punissant les manquements à la morale. Pour parvenir à cette référence, il est nécessaire de montrer que le slasher a masqué un genre plus large qui gravite autour d'une victime humiliée se vengeant de ses persécuteurs et qui inclue des films comme Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), ou encore Fade to Black (1980). Or, on peut trouver une formulation prototypique de cette histoire dans Hop-Frog (1849), une nouvelle d'Edgar Poe racontant la vengeance d'un bouffon difforme persécuté par un roi sadique. Nous envisageons cette nouvelle comme un artefact prototypique de l'archétype culturel du foolkiller dont le genre masqué par le slasher est une expression contemporaine. L'étude de cette nouvelle et de ses références culturelles permet de comprendre le fonctionnement de l'archétype et son apparition en réponse à une crise sacrificielle au sens où l'entend René Girard. Une crise du même genre est repérable dans la culture américaine des années 1970, ce qui explique la résurgence de l'archétype à cette période. / The slasher movie is a horror film sub-genre featuring a masked killer supposedly punishing teenage sexuality. Extremely popular among teens from 1978 to 1984, it is generally discarded by serious critics as a spectacle of gratuitous violence. However, the genre can be granted some legitimacy once it is seen as a contemporary form of a cultural archetype which we call "foolkiller". This archetype revolves around a freak avenging its own humiliation at the hands of bullies and punishing irresponsible acts endangering the weakest people in a community. Culturally speaking, this archetype has roots in the medieval practice of "rough music", a masked demonstration organized to humiliate some wrongdoer and to punish moral transgressions in the community. In order to access this cultural reference, it is necessary to show that the attention given the slasher film has concealed the existence of another genre, comprising slasher films but also movies such as Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), and Fade to Black (1980), whose protagonist is a victim avenging its persecution. This plot can also be found in "Hop-Frog", a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. It tells the story of a jester dwarf bullied by a cruel king. We argue that this tale is a prototypical artifact of the foolkiller archetype, which also informs the genre concealed by the slasher film. The cultural frame of this short story enables us to understand how the archetype functions and its relationship to what René Girard calls a "sacrificial crisis". Such a crisis is at work within 1970's American culture, which explains why the archetype reappears during this time.The slasher movie is a horror film sub-genre featuring a masked killer supposedly punishing teenage sexuality. Extremely popular among teens from 1978 to 1984, it is generally discarded by serious critics as a spectacle of gratuitous violence. However, the genre can be granted some legitimacy once it is seen as a contemporary form of a cultural archetype which we call "foolkiller". This archetype revolves around a freak avenging its own humiliation at the hands of bullies and punishing irresponsible acts endangering the weakest people in a community. Culturally speaking, this archetype has roots in the medieval practice of “rough music”, a masked demonstration organized to humiliate some wrongdoer and to punish moral transgressions in the community. In order to access this cultural reference, it is necessary to show that the attention given the slasher film has concealed the existence of another genre, comprising slasher films but also movies such as Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), and Fade to Black (1980), whose protagonist is a victim avenging its persecution. This plot can also be found in "Hop-Frog", a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. It tells the story of a jester dwarf bullied by a cruel king. We argue that this tale is a prototypical artifact of the foolkiller archetype, which also informs the genre concealed by the slasher film. The cultural frame of this short story enables us to understand how the archetype functions and its relationship to what René Girard calls a "sacrificial crisis". Such a crisis is at work within 1970's American culture, which explains why the archetype reappears during this time.

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Denna uppsats har skapats med syftet att undersöka och jämföra skildringen av stereotypen the final girl i filmerna The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) och The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), med utgångspunkt i teori om genusrepresentation och slasherfilmstereotyper. För detta använde undersökningen en komparativ metod i form av en filmsemiotisk analys. Metoden utformades också för att särskilt avläsa karaktärers beteende och agerande. För att stärka undersökningen har analys – och resultatdelen grundats på teori om stereotyper, slasherfilmer, och genusrepresentation, med särskild hänvisning till Carol J. Clovers uppsats: Her Body, Himself (1987). Undersökningens resultat påvisade att filmernas skildring och representation av stereotypen hanteras olika, där den senare nämna filmen skildras som mer stereotypisk enligt sin representation. Detta kan ha berott på det stora tidsspannet mellan filmerna, och de feministiska rörelser som har påverkat filmindustrin under denna tid. / The purpose of this essay was to examine and compare the portrayal of the final girl stereotype in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), based on literature about gender representation and slasher movie stereotypes. To achieve the purpose of the study, a comparative method was used in the form of a film semiotic analysis. This method was also purposefully adjusted for analyzing the representation of a character’s manners and behavior. To strengthen the analysis, theoretical approaches about stereotypes, slasher movies, and gender representation was used, with special reference to Carol J. Clovers essay: Her Body, Himself (1978). The result proved that the stereotype was portrayed differently in both movies, and that the latter mentioned one included a stronger and more obvious stereotypical representation. This outcome may have been affected by the large time-gap between the two movies, as well as the feminist movements that had influence on the movie industry during the time of their respective productions.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att belysa den förbisedda subgenren giallo genom att undersöka om genren har influerat den mer framgångsrika och erkända subgenren slasher. Och om det är fallet undersöka hur omfattande arvet ifrån giallogenren till slashergenren är. För att besvara detta har följande frågor använts som utgångspunkt för analysen och diskussionen: Vilka likheter och skillnader finns mellan subgenrerna giallo och slasher? och Vad återfinns från giallon till slashern och hur omfattande är inflytandet? Med hjälp av tidigare forskning kring skräckgenrens historiska utveckling, influenser, subgenrer och genrekonventioner har generna kartlagts och analyserats. Genom en komparativ analysmetod av två stycken filmer ifrån respektive subgenre påträffade undersökningen väsentliga likheter i innehållet som påvisar att giallogenren har inspirerat och influerat slashergenren avsevärt.

Inspiré par la résurgence en popularité de l’horreur télévisuelle, ce mémoire propose une analyse du processus d’adaptation du « slasher » dans la série Scream : the TV Series (2015-, É.U, MTV et Netflix) de Jill Blotevogel. Naviguant entre le récit cinématographique condensé et la forme longue et épisodique de la télévision, l’apparition du « slasher » au petit écran se positionne dans une reconsidération de l’écriture télévisuelle. Déjà structuré selon des meurtres…en série, le « slasher » est-il le phénomène sériel parfait ? La problématique de cette recherche questionne la définition du phénomène sériel qu’est le « slasher » et de quelle façon celui-ci est importé sur le format télévisuel. Au travers de l’analyse de la dimension sérielle de la trilogie originale de Scream (Craven, 1996, 1997, 2000), nous verrons comment les diverses conventions du « slasher » cinématographique se retrouvent transformées par les spécificités de la télévision. / Inspired by the resurgence in popularity of TV horror, this thesis offers an analysis of the adaptation process of the slasher in Scream: the TV Series (2015-, USA, MTV and Netflix) created by Jill Blotevogel. Navigating between the condensed cinematographic narrative and the long and episodic format of television, the appearance of the TV slasher is positioned in a rehandling of television writing. Already based around serial killers, is the slasher the perfect serial phenomenon? The problematic of this research questions the definition of the serial phenomenon that is the slasher, and how it is imported on the television format. Through the analysis of the serial dimension of Scream's original trilogy (Craven, 1996, 1997, 2000), we will see how the various cinematographic slasher conventions find themselves transformed by the specificities of television.

恐怖電影一直都是好萊塢主流電影中一項重要並且流行的一種類型。在一九七零年代末期，出現了一種新型的恐怖片，也就是所謂的跟蹤客/砍殺電影。雖然這類電影誇張地凸顯性別差異，不過還是以其展現出極度暴力以及色情的風格，迅速地受到廣大觀眾的歡迎。過去國外對於此類電影的研究多半由批評家蘿拉•莫薇的觀點出發，指出由於跟蹤客/砍殺電影中男性總被描寫為強壯的角色，而女性總是被窺視及性慾化的個體，因此唯有男性觀眾得以由此類電影當中獲得視覺上的快感。然而，很明顯地此一詮釋並不能夠完全解釋為何女性在跟蹤客/砍殺電影的忠實觀眾中佔有相當的份量。因此，有鑑於此，以及國內對於此類電影研究的稀少，本論文將仔細探討之前詮釋的缺失，並尋找一個更適當及周詳的理論來詮釋兩種性別觀眾的觀看議題，特別是在跟蹤客/砍殺電影這種性別刻畫差異極大的類型中。 本論文分為四個章節。第一章介紹跟蹤客/砍殺電影如何誇張地呈現性別差異，以及之前的評論家如何詮釋此類電影中的刻板元素。第二章則探討莫薇如何批評好萊塢主流電影為傳播父權意識型態的機制，以及跟蹤客/砍殺電影如何成為此意識型態的傳聲筒。第三章則指出莫薇如何為了將批判父權體系為重心而在引用佛洛依德的理論時刻意忽略了女性在獲得視覺快感的能動性。更重要地，第四章引用「幻象」的概念，指出視覺快感不應該因觀眾的性別而有所不同；唯有在「幻象」的領域中，不管是男性或是女性都可以主動地獲得視覺快感，那怕是像跟蹤客/砍殺電影這種刻意凸顯性別差異的電影類型。最後，第五章為前述論點作個總結，指出「幻象」為現有的理論中最能詮釋觀眾在觀看跟蹤客/砍殺電影時所獲得的視覺快感。 / Horror films have been an important and popular form of mainstream Hollywood films. In the late seventies, a special type of horror films, stalker/slasher films, characterized by their demonstration of extreme violence and sex, immediately attracted a huge amount of spectators despite that males are always depicted as powerful agents whereas females the powerless and eroticized objects. Previous critics analyze stalker/slasher films by adopting Laura Mulvey’s concepts, indicating that only males can require visual pleasure through the films. However, the interpretation obviously fails to account for the fact that females comprise a significant amount of stalker/slasher films spectators. As a result, the thesis aims to indicate the defects of those critics and, moreover, to search for a theory that provides a better interpretation of spectators’ visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces how stalker/slasher films dramatize gender differences and how the previous critics analyze their conventional elements. Chapter Two discusses how Mulvey criticizes mainstream Hollywood cinema as a mechanism that spreads patriarchal ideology and how stalker/slasher films manifest the patriarchal ideology. Chapter Three, on the other hand, points out how Mulvey selectively adopts Freud’s theory because of her political nature and how her theory fails to account for a spectatorship with which both men and women can acquire visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films. Most importantly, Chapter Four, introduces the concept of fantasy, indicating that spectatorship should not be demarcated along biological gender lines; within the realm of fantasy both men and women are the active agents acquiring visual pleasure through adopting multiple and fluid spectating positions. Finally, Chapter Five concludes that fantasy may be a better perspective that accounts for not only males’ but also females’ visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films.