Trigger Warning: This article discusses misogyny, torture, sexual violence and gore in detail.
Horror: Empowering or Patriarchal?
I’ve been a diehard horror fan ever since my father made the questionable decision to show me The Evil Dead (1981) when I was six years old. As I got older, my addiction to the genre only became stronger, especially after I began analyzing media critically through a socio-political and feminist perspective. In my pseudo-expert opinion, horror is by far the most misogynistic and feminist genre there is.
Genre Controversies
Horror is arguably the most controversial movie category and has faced an abundance of criticism since the days of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922). Between the “flack” they received for the use of gore, the frequent use of “jumpscares”, reliance on shock value rather than plot, and claims of weak character development, the genre has been dismissed time and time again as frivolous and flippant. A particularly terrible attribute of the genre is the prevalence of misogyny, even within its most successful films. Up until recent years, horror classics have been riddled with purity culture, sexist double-standards and unnecessary sadism, primarily aimed toward women.
Failures and Successes Within Subgenres
There are many subgenres within horror, some more hated than others. Atmospheric thrillers and psychological horror are usually viewed as less problematic and taken more seriously by critics. Take the 1991 classic thriller The Silence of the Lambs, for example. To this day, it is the only horror movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture. Slashers (movies that typically feature a violent killer targeting a small group) and spatter or “torture porn” movies (gore-heavy movies that are usually reliant on shock value), on the other hand, are met with the most criticism and are the most notorious for patriarchal and exploitative themes. Of course, genres and subgenres are not monolithic, and there are many empowering tropes within the slasher and torture porn categories that are often overlooked due to negative attitudes toward similar films.
Purity Culture
Purity culture was incorporated into the majority of slasher movies since the rise of the subgenre. An all-too-common trope that could be found in the vast majority of slashers was the punishment of “promiscuous” women and salvation for virginal, “pure” ones. Many “self-aware” horror movies and spoof films have called attention to these archetypes over the years. For decades, there was a formulaic plot that showcased a stereotypical “bad girl” who dated around and had sex, being the first to die, usually in a notably brutal way that more “virtuous” women and men were not subjected to.
A prime example of this is in Halloween (1978). Our protagonist, Laurie Strode, and her friends are targeted by a psychotic serial killer named Michael Myers. Laurie is depicted as a “good girl” who is bookish and boyfriendless; her friends Lynda and Annie are both shown to be sexually active. As a result, Lynda and Annie meet violent, untimely deaths while having sex and planning to do so, but Laurie survives. This movie popularized the trope and led to many other “killer thriller” classics, such as Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), to have their villains specifically target sexually active women.
Although men are also often murdered while engaging in similar activity, their deaths are less frequent and usually less barbaric than the deaths of their female counterparts. In two of the previously mentioned movies (Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street), the killers go after a woman and kill her either right before or right after she does something that would make a more conservative audience view her as a “slut”. In the case of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the character, Tina, is killed by Freddy Kruger (a supernatural serial killer who can only attack his victims in their sleep) while sleeping in her boyfriend’s arms, the two are both equally helpless targets who had intercourse with one another previously in the movie, however, Freddy chooses to only go after Tina in that moment, thus, punishing her but not her boyfriend.
Gender-Based Violence
On top of their increased likelihood of death, women have historically been more prone to more extensive, graphic cruelty than men. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), for example, gives its male characters quick, less painful deaths, whereas, even though the sole survivor is a woman, she and the only other female main character are subjected to prolonged torture throughout the movie. The villain, a serial killer and cannibal called “Leatherface”, kills off male characters quickly and much less graphically. Jerry, the protagonist’s boyfriends, dies, and it is hardly shown. Jerry finds his friend Pam, who goes on to be impaled on a meat hook while still alive, locked in a freezer. We then see Leatherface sneak up behind him and strike him before he has time to react. We never even see the aftermath of the attack; compare this to what Leatherface did to Pam, and you’ll see the insane disparity in humanity shown to each gender.
Gorier movies, such as the Hostel and Terrifier franchises, are particularly guilty of this. Hostel 2 (2007) dedicates much more of its time to showing extremely sadistic torture of women, but hardly showcases the brutalization of its male characters. Damien Leone’s Terrifier (2018) has been controversial since its initial 2016 debut at The Fright Fest Film Festival. One major criticism of it was the gender-based violence against its female characters. The grindhouse indie film had its villain, a serial killer named Art the Clown, who would attack anyone unlucky enough to encounter him. However, many of his male victims were unceremoniously shot or killed off-screen. His female victims were tormented by him for much longer and killed much more viciously. The majority of Art’s female victims were killed on screen, and some had their genitals and breasts mutilated before and after their deaths. Many critics and netizens have argued that these scenes lacked narrative justification and that the disfiguration of “female parts” constitutes femicide, as opposed to homicide. In Terrifier’s prequel, All Hallow’s Eve (2012), women are Art’s primary victims and endure sexual assault, mutilation and one character is even shown to have misogynistic slurs such as “bitch” and “cunt” carved into her torso.
Gratuitous Sexual Assault Scenes
The worst example of gender-based violence in slashers is the use of sexual assault, particularly in the case of graphic rape scenes. The worst movies I have ever seen are Megan is Missing (2011) and I Spit on Your Grave (2010). Megan is Missing is essentially a poorly made PSA about the dangers of speaking to strangers online. However, it depicts an adolescent girl being raped by her adult kidnapper. The scene lasts several minutes and adds absolutely nothing to the plot. I Spit on Your Grave is arguably worse as it paints itself as an empowering rape-revenge film that shows a victim achieving justice; however, about half of the movie’s runtime is dedicated to a woman’s torture and assault. It’s incredibly gratuitous and insensitive to real victims of sexual assault. Both movies leave you wondering: Who was this made for?
I’ve found that many male directors use sexual assault as a way to achieve major shock value with their viewers; however, their carelessness is evident throughout their work and leaves the audience more uncomfortable than intrigued. Many of them claim that depicting sexual assault graphically “adds realism”; however, movies are meant to be an escape, and these scenes will undoubtedly trigger audience members who have been victims. This approach will always come across as nothing more than a sick misogynistic fantasy by the filmmakers. Films containing scenes like this are almost exclusively found in spatter films, which solidifies it as a uniquely misogynistic category.
Feminist Counter-Argument
As stated earlier, these genres aren’t monolithic. There are many examples of feminist messages, tropes, and plot points in horror, even slashers and splatterers that can rarely be found in other genres. The horror genre as a whole tends to walk the line between the liberation and degradation of women; in fact, the two things often coexist within the same films. In early slashers that reinforced purity culture and punished their female characters with much worse fates than male ones, there was almost always strong female representation that was rare in other genres. While there are many movies that fail to depict female justice and hardship, there are just as many that do it perfectly in creative ways that dramas, comedies, romcoms and action movies are mostly incapable of. And although the genre started out with many problematic elements, it has developed and corrected itself in recent years.
Positive Representation
While there had been movies depicting female action stars, superheroes and overall badasses before the very late twentieth century, they weren’t particularly common. The vast majority of action stars and iconic film protagonists were men. Tropes such as the bimbo and femme fatale existed in film, but did not paint women as strong or powerful. In most major franchises, women could be cool, smart or charismatic, but very rarely were even the most iconic female film characters anything more than a supporting character to the male protagonist. Horror was the exception. Despite its flaws, it was a heroine-dominated genre. Psycho (1960) is considered a cult classic, and it was one of the first major motion pictures to feature a notable, strong and cunning female character in Marion Crane. Although Marion does not survive, she was still a great representation, especially for the time.
The “final girl” trope has been around forever; it features a last surviving female who confronts the killer and often defeats them or escapes. Despite its triteness and tendency to feed into purity culture messaging, it provides us with many intriguing, strong female role models. Some examples are Ellen Ripley from Aliens (1986) and Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs (1988), who outsmart and outlive the men they are surrounded by. Slasher leading ladies like Sienna Shaw of Terrifier 2 (2022) & 3 (2024) and Laurie Strode from the Halloween franchise counterbalance the sexism within their series by being some of the only characters that are cunning and strong enough to take on their respective antagonists. To depict a woman who is not only more capable than all of her male counterparts but is equally as formidable as the villain with a clear physical advantage was always inspiring to me, and it is one of the reasons I fell in love with horror.
The “damsel in distress” trope is often subverted in horror, which I find to be incredibly inspiring. Movies provide escapism, and seeing these strong women taking on killers, aliens and supernatural creatures (most of whom are men) and winning provides a temporary feeling of power and autonomy to women who are often told to fear men and that they’re incapable of “fighting back” against men. According to a study done by The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice titled “Female Murder Victims and Victim-Offender Relationship, 2021”, women in the U.S. are 28% more likely than men to be murdered by an intimate partner. Another study called “National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2016/2017 State Report” done by safestates.org states that while more than half of women have experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime, only just under one-third of men have. In both cases of intimate partner violence and sexual assault, the primary perpetrators are men. Statistics like these are what make the triumphs of so many horror heroines over their male attackers so satisfying to see on screen. These movies depict victims as victors, which is a form of representation that is less common in other genres.
Female Rage
On a similar note, I believe that the dark nature of horror movies allows for the expression of female rage (the anger pent up within women due to patriarchy) in a way that doesn’t translate into other genres. We see women seeking justice for sexual assault, oppression and their objectification in movies such as Companion (2024), Jennifer’s Body (2009), American Mary (2012) and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). Men (2022) and Woman of the Hour (2023) both creatively showcase the fears women have of men in society. One of the most acclaimed horror movies in recent years was The Substance (2024), which focused on the pressures placed on women to maintain their youth. And even as far back as the ‘60s, we had films like Rosemary’s Baby (1968), which depicted the horrors of pregnancy in a time when women were constantly pressured to have children. Horror movies have the ability to explore themes of women under patriarchy in incredibly unique ways, which is one of the reasons that I’ve always been interested in seeing women’s stories told through them.
Evolution
I briefly mentioned modern horror’s aim to correct itself earlier. In the past few decades, movies have generally become more self-aware, and this is especially true in horror. Movies like The Cabin in the Woods (2011) have pointed out the “slut dies first”/virgin survives trope. To further see this shift away from purity culture, we can look at X (2022) and its sequel MaXXXine (2024), which feature a pornography actress as the sole survivor of both films. Horror has become a lot more thoughtful in recent years. Now it focuses much more on allegorical monsters and telling the stories of oppressed people, political issues and dramatic themes such as grief and trauma. This shift has led to an abundance of women-centric horror movies and the delivery of feminist messaging that tends to resonate with women across all groups.
Simultaneous Sexism and Feminism
In summary, the horror genre contains an extreme variety of attitudes toward women. Some movies showcase intense misogyny, others showcase feminist themes through exceptional representation and anti-patriarchy messaging, and others do both simultaneously. Many conversations about feminism often lack nuance and reduce complex subjects to “black-and-white” issues. A piece of art, a movement or a genre can present rivaling narratives, and that is exactly what we’ve seen in horror movies over their century-long run.