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Olivia Carter

Sex, Drugs, and Postcoital Gore

So, lets begin with some guided imagery. Let your mind wander to a secluded set of
woods. It is your annual summer-break getaway, so youre surrounded by a raucous group of
hard-partying, binge-boozing friends. Fun, right? Wrong. Suddenly, you find yourself stumbling
through a secluded set of woods, being hunted by something, someone. Most of your friends
have been killed, and you have neither weapon nor (gulp!) cell service.
What do you rely on? Is it your proficiency in martial arts? A MacGyvor-esque knack for
invention? Former state-champ cross country skills. Unfortunately, if you thought those were
good enough, the jokes on you. Now comes the inevitable question: how do you survive a run-in
with an almost inhuman, crazed madman trying to slaughter you? Simpleevade him, defend
yourself, and oh, above all else, be a female virgin. The repetitive and consistent expression of
the Final Girl trope in the subgenre provides a surprisingly accurate lens through which the
careful observer can examine the shifting expectations placed upon women by society. By
indulging usually quelled and hidden fantasies, the slasher subgenre is effectively able to explore
the latent desires, fantasies, and attitudes of its constituents in an unflustered, uncomplicated
way.
The indulgent world of monsters, mutants, psychopaths, and topless women may seem
lacking of any merit; seeping with coeds suffering from under-developed frontal lobes,

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unchecked sex drives, and intoxicated egos, the slasher genre has become infamous. Despite its
formulaic plot and ridiculously predictable settings, the artistic treatment and lavish production
values that generate endless critique and questions of validity also allow for a clearer
understanding of complex and divisive issuesparticularly attitudes about women and their
roles in society (Clover 22).
Within the slasher subgenre, there is one trope that has been, and remains most tailored to
creative examination of these factorsthe Final Girl. Most efficiently stated: [S]hes the
character whose story we follow from beginning to end, and the one from whose vantage, even
through whose eyes, we see the action (Clover 10). Historically, despite a rather short history,
this girl differs from her peers. While her friends spend their time engaging in risky or dangerous
behavior (whether sexually, through their actions, or charging into intellectual minefields), the
Final Girl chooses to partake in more wholesome activities. Almost beyond reproach, she is
the Girl Scout, the bookworm, the mechanicnot sexually active, who, without fail, survives
in the face of terrible odds, ultimately overcoming the killer on her own (Clover 39). Examining
this trope shows, most notably, one thing: in a society dominated by a male-centric viewpoint,
female sexuality is, and has always been, a struggle for power. Contrary to what Jim Morrisons
biography might intimate, only she gets out alive.
Equal parts gifted director and willful sadist, Alfred Hitchcock was the pioneer of the
modern slasher film. In his critically acclaimed work, Psycho, a new form of horror emerged.

Prior to Psycho, the go-to plot of horror films revolved around monsters of a less human kind
failed laboratory experiments, robots, and of course, giant angry women (Berenstein).

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Hitchcocks highly praised film interred the new monster, one recognizably human, but only
marginally sohuman beings lacking empathy and displaying an intense disregard for the
value of a life, in short, a psycho killer (Clover 30).
This shift in madman required a rather substantial restructuring of go-to plot devices. For
the first time, audiences were introduced to: the Trigger, the Threat, Leisure, Stalking, Murders,
Confrontation, and Neutralization--the building blocks of what we now know as a slasher film
(Nowell). While shaping the horror genre, Hitchcock spared time for a side project: the rough
draft of the Final Girl. Psycho began creating and imprinting some of the basic principles of the
Final Girl trope, most notably, the role of sexuality in a womans demise.
If anything, in American cinema, audiences are taught (quite clearly) one thing: women
are most often murdered because of their having had sex, or desiring sex (Totaro). The
infamous shower victim in Psycho, Marion Crane, is the epitome of the now-typical slasher
victimfirst and foremost, a sexual transgressor (Clover 33). We first meet Marion in a state
of undress, effectively enabling the audience to begin, and continue objectifying her. While her
choices make her a relatively liberated womanless inhibited by societal conventions and
expectations, Marions decision to engage in a risqu sexual relationship, and ensuing tenacity to
become a thief not only seals her ill fate, but confines her to an inferior status in the eye of the
audience. In a genre where adolescent males hold the pride of place, the implied submission of
(or perhaps the explicit ability to dominate) women is crucial (Clover 6). For the first time, the
public sees their own quiet understanding (a womans disobedience as cause for punishment)

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dictated and encouraged in an extreme and complete waya trend that only grows with the rise
of the subgenre. Upon her death, its made clear that Marion is, contrarily, the Final Girl who
does not survive. While the trope explicitly calls for the survival of the character, Hitchcocks
sketch was merely a near-perfect prototype. It was Marions major success and acceptance (by
both critics and audiences) that allows the trope to grow. This growth will eventually push the
trope to dictate that a Final Girl must survive.
The next step in the evolution of the Final Girl trope occurs in the early 1970s, often
referred to as the classical period of the slasher genre (Petridis). This Classical Period is
typified by a complete divergence from the monster/mutant horror. Instead, the genre has
evolved to hover around a more culturally focused narrative, particularly extreme sanctions and
punishment for deviance. While the typical victims are now a bevy of out-of-control teenagers,
the victims most often dispatched in graphic detail, at greater length continue to be women
(Clover 34). The once far from mainstream sub-genre is now beginning to transition into a bonafide movement, with scores of fans being drawn to its over-the-top, occasionally satiric
tendencies. The film that ushers this new wave of relative popularity to slasher films is The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, its sequel, Tobe Hoopers Texas Chainsaw Massacre II,
ushers in the latest edit of the final girl: Stretch.
If sassy Marion Crane was the quintessential toy of the male gaze, Vanita Stretch Brock
is anything but. Introduced in Texas Chainsaw Massacre II as a nearly asexual DJ (note the very
purposefully androgynous nickname), Stretch is instantly likeable to both male and female
viewers due to her deft wielding of a spunky personality and bit of a mouth (Eggan). This is
the first instance of a Final Girl truly fending for herself-- out-living her peers using wit and

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perseverance. However, only two decades have passed since Psycho, and the male gaze, while
loosening is hold, is still very much in play.
Case in point: in perhaps the most critical moment of the film, the same presumed
asexuality that enables her to formidably fight against her demise is casually set aside during a
confrontation with one of her tormentors, Leatherface. When faced with what should be a fatal
attack, suddenly, Stretch is easily able to convert herself into a sexual being-- charming him into
developing a crush on her (after she leads him to climax, natch), thereby saving her life. This
interaction shows the largest chink in the feminist-hero armour: the inability to be both sexual
and self-sufficient. Stretch is a likeable hero to her audience almost exclusively because she is
resistant to many of the vices other victims take part in (ahem, sex). Her abstinence, whether
seen or implied, allows for the audience to pardon her and allow her attempts to outwit the
killers. But, during the Leatherface encounter, she quickly reverts into a tool for his pleasure,
immediately submitting to his mercy and decisions, and ultimately surviving because of that
choice.
The advances in the trope from Psycho to the Texas Chainsaw II are progressive, and
feminist in nature (despite the aforementioned hindrances). The Final Girl has evolved from a
sexually aggressive thief who is slashed to death into an asexual woman who turns to sex only to
save her life. But a wholly feminist evolution has not yet been completed. Sex is still in the
equation: it has migrated from reason for punishment (Psycho) to mechanism for salvation but
its still a manipulative variable, used to please men. So sure, Stretchs survival carries a
beautifully Machiavellian ends justify the means battle cry-- but her sexuality is still not her
own. Instead, it is a tool controlled almost exclusively by the desires and needs of men. Where
does this leave the Final Girl? Enter Sidney Prescott.

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On the ten-year anniversary of Stretchs cinematic vanquishing of the male gaze, we meet
Sidney, the post-modern outlier (Petridis). Presented in Scream, Wes Cravens satiric, trope asskicking slasher, Sidney is smart, willful, and quietly privy to the expectations of the trope. When
asked the million dollar question (Whats your favorite scary movie?), her response is a quick
gut punch to Screams lesser, status-quo following predecessors: Whats the point? Theyre all
the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who cant act who is always running
up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. Its insulting.
The quietly self-deprecating, hyper-aware version of the Final Girl that Sidney embodies
is the rewrite that effectively manages fulfilling the societal notions of a good girl while
remaining in control of her own decisions and sexuality. While her peers are stuck in a blissful
state of adolescent ineptitude, Sidney remains of clear mind. This is, of course, aided by her
abstinence from the normal teen vices: alcohol, drugs, sex, and even teenage bitchiness.
Following the usual tenor of the trope, her superior self-control allows her a leg up in
survival. But, in a never-before seen move, after she loses her virginity (an act that, in prior
films, would have stripped her of her virginal death-proof vest), she manages to out-wit and outlive the killers. Within a genre where postcoital death, above all when the circumstances are
illicit, is a staple, Sidneys survival spits in the face of assumptions, and reshapes the trope, for
good (Clover 33). Finally, a Final Girl has both embraced sexuality and her own merits, without
being forced to compromise her wants, needs, or desire for survival. With Sidneys arrival, the
feminist ideal is reached (at least as far as it can be in a genre that relies on teenage boys to
propel it financially at the box office).
Since the inception of the modern-day slasher film, womens roles have been pivotal. We
have gone from: (a) a sexually aggressive (aka powerful) woman who deserves to be murdered

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(Marion); to (b) an asexual woman who eschews sex for any reason except manipulation, albeit
to a good end (Stretch); to (c) a woman who is in control of her sexuality (Sidney). The
development and constant reshaping of the Final Girl archetype has demonstrated the essential
role of sexuality in how society views and interacts with womena womans sexuality can be
either her greatest opponent or largest asset, depending on how she wields it.

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Works Cited
Berenstein, Rhona J. Attack of the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality, and Spectatorship in the
Classic Horror Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996
Clover, Carol. Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992. Print.
Eggan, Michelle. "Noteworthy Heroines of Horror." Wicked Horror. 23 April 2015. Web. 24
February 2016.
Halloween I. Dir. John Carpenter. Perf. Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis. Compass
International Pictures, 1978. Film.
Petridis, Sotiris. "A Historical Approach to the Slasher Film." Horror Wikia. 2014. Web. 24
February 2016.
Pinedo, Isabel. Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing. New
York, NY.: State University of New York Press, 1997. Print.
Psycho. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, and John Gavin. Paramount
Pictures, 1960. Film.
Scream. Dir. Wes Craven. Perf. Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette. Dimension
Films, 1996. Film.

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Totaro, Donato. "The Final Girl: A Few Thoughts on Feminism and Horror." Off Screen. January
2002. Web. 22 February 2016.