Clover's Final Girl

Carol J. Clover - Her body, Himself

Carol. J. Clover analyses the conventions and critics of slasher films she seems to speak quite furiously about the conventions and representations in slasher movies and criticizes slashers and directors. This article looks at how woman are portrayed on TV and how it keeps changing over time, she also expresses how women were seen as sexual objects and she mentions theories such as the ‘Male Gaze’ and ‘Final Girl’.  Women on TV are usually being looked at constantly by men. The article explains that men would rather see an attractive woman on TV being murdered than an ugly woman being murdered. Women were being objectified as 'sex objects' but more recently there has been a change, now 'alpha females' have been introduced in horror films now. An 'alpha female' is a female that takes on a more masculine role, and they have more leadership and usually survive to the end of the film.

An effective point of slasher movies is a ‘process of point, view and identification’ Clover stated that ‘the seeking male character, whom is identified in a sustained way has little to hang onto....they tend to die early in the film’. I agree with Clovers statement about having a 'final girl' that theory is correct although, I disagree on the point where she believes that the other characters die early on in the film. Using the slasher film Psycho (1960) as an example, in the film there was a detective that had relevance as he was trying to find Marion as she had disappeared, and he died towards the end of the film.

What is the 'final girl'?

The final girl theory is a convention used in thriller and horror films, it refers to the last woman left alive to confront the killer at the end and be able to tell the story from her perspective as we see events unfold from her point of view/through her eyes. 

According to Clover the final girl is conventional in many typical horror film plots, the characteristics she'd have is typically sexually unavailable or is 'the virgin', she usually has morals and isn't reckless because she doesn't have sex, drink alcohol or do drugs. They sometimes have a unisex name, such as, Teddy, Billie, Georgie, Sidney. The final girl is usually intelligent and she becomes the resourceful one out of everyone else in the group of people shes with, which they'll all become victims.