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SPOILER: Why do women always fail in horror movies but not in crime sto

posted 9 years ago by jeffyoung1
2 replies | jump to latest

I've begun to notice two kinds of heroines in the movies, the successful and the failed.

In CRIME/ACTION movies and tv shows, the heroine always gets the better of the murderer/rapist/villain. She never makes mistakes, the villain does. She knows how to be quiet and silent when necessary. She outwits the villain. She improvises weapons. Despite all odds and the superior strength of the villain, the heroine wins.

In HORROR movies, the heroine loses, often at the very edge of victory. She makes all the mistakes, not the villain. Unlike the crime/action flicks, the horror movie heroine is not very clever or cunning. She has, 'ultimate victim' written all over her forehead. She can't keep her mouth shut and is always screaming, yelling, breathing heavily, crying, etc., at the wrong moments when trying to hide. She can't improvise weapons or clever gadgets like a female McGiver in the crime/action flicks. Even when she manages to momentarily knock down the villain, she doesn't keep him down. In short, the horror movie heroine victim is actually realistic because she is not a martial arts superheroine automatically as in the unrealistic crime/action flicks where a slight, 5'8" woman can beat down a 6'2" villain built like a linebacker.

[–] KittyG26 8 years ago

It's the fact that the female victims always fall over when they're running away that gets me. It's like lift doors that won't shut, cars that won't start, or guns that won't fire at the crucial moment. It's tedious when the same old cliches appear again and again in horror movies.

[–] Stovepipe99 8 years ago

There are plenty of horror movies with capable heroines.

There are two things that are happening in terms of the dynamic you are describing: action and crime movies are often about solving a mystery or bringing someone to justice. Horror movies are more about being scared and sometimes scary or sad endings. The characters are just reflections of the writing, so if the goal is to show an ending of justice and triumph, the main character will be capable.

As for falling over, when you are really afraid, sometimes your body simply does not cooperate. One time I was trying to get into my car in a parking garage. I honestly don't remember what had frightened me. It was at night and there was no one else around. But what I remember vividly is that I dropped my keys like three different times. I was so scared that my hands were shaking and I could not perform the simple fine-motor maneuver of putting the key in the lock. And so I kept having to bend down to get the keys from under the car, which also meant I couldn't see what was happening around me. In that moment I developed a lot of empathy for the "stupid, helpless" horror victims. There have been times that I've responded to danger in a cool-headed and very capable way, but I've also experienced the opposite. I am neither superwoman nor a hopeless clod.

On the other hand, it's also easy for a lazy writer to have someone be caught because they fall. In many cases it seems like a person could get away, so falling or a car with a dead battery is just an easy plot device to have the main character fall victim to the killer. I think that the best movies manage to have people be "helpless" (because of shock or bad luck), but do it in a way that it doesn't feel fake.

In short, the horror movie heroine victim is actually realistic

Some are, and some aren't. That's a pretty broad brush to paint all female horror characters with. There are plenty of things that male characters do in action movies that I find laughably unrealistic. The "reality" of a hero/heroine beating a villain depends on both the abilities of the hero/heroine and those of the villain. And both come in many degrees of ability.