Slide 4: Image Of Laurie From Halloween (Item 2)

Projector: [Slide 4] Image of Laurie from Halloween (Item 2)

Presenter: Laurie is considered to be the original final girl. Final girls usually have some sort of connection to the killer, which we see in Halloween as Laurie is the first character to be suspicious and aware of the killer’s presence. Laurie somewhat sets the guideline for all future final girls in slasher films, as she is strong, intelligent and rather masculine in both terms of appearance and physical qualities. At the end of the film, she is faced with the killer and manages to survive. Unlike Marion Crane, she isn’t sexually promiscuous or sinful, suggesting that this is the reason for her survival. Laurie’s representations are generally positive; there is no graphic violence

Like Laurie, Jenny is a final girl who manages to make it to the end of the film because she is strong and intelligent and she drives the narrative to its conclusion. When she and her husband Steve are faced with a violent gang at Eden Lake, they accidentally kill the gang leader’s dog, for which the gang capture her and Steve. Jenny manages to escape, however without Steve, who is left to be beaten and tortured by the gang. This is gender role reversal as this is usually what happens to women in these situations. Throughout the film, she is constantly faced with a new obstacle to overcome. She challenges gender conventions through independence and determination to save herself - she is not reliant on Steve to escape. She becomes the female heroine as she loses her femininity and becomes masculine. However, she dies at the end of the film at the hands of the lead gang member’s father when she ends up at his home thinking she has found safety. After all that she has been through, for her to die seems like nothing but a pointless, misogynistic

Here the audience is positioned to take on the role of the young male who is gazing at Jenny from across the lake using binoculars. The camera lingers on her and trails down her body, presenting her as an erotic object for the spectators to view as well as the characters. Through this, her humanity is removed and she is devalued. The male holds an active role where he has control within the narrative and looks at others and the female has a passive role where she is to be looked at. The audience is forced to obey the male gaze because they have no other choice but to look at what the character is looking at, which can make them feel uncomfortable. (Item 8) The male gaze has been examined particularly in Hitchcock films, and of course, there is the famous shower scene in Hitchcock’s