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Murray, S. C. (2011). //Women portrayed in horror//. Retrieved from http://www.bellaonline.org/articles/art37257.asp

(Murray, 2011)

__**15 Facts:**__
 * 1) ** “All they want to see is demented madmen running around in ski masks hacking up young virgins.” - Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), ‘Fright Night’ **


 * 1) ** Horror is one of the least respected genres of cinema, and yet it portrays much of today’s culture and values within its context **
 * 2) ** Scary movies reveal what frightens society most through various representations. **
 * 3) These movies ** show heavy symbolism **, especially ** in the portrayal of women and femininity ** , ** through images of sexual intercourse, fear of castration, and the strength of females **
 * 4) ** Horror films **, ** and ** the ** slasher ** subgenre, are ** famous for portraying women as hypersexual damsels in distress who are usually murdered within the first five minutes as punishment for their indiscretions ** in such films as ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Halloween.’
 * 5) Horror is a genre that ** rarely features women in a non-exploitative way **, even with modern movies such as the ** new ‘Friday the 13th’ being extremely sexist. **
 * 6) . ** Women are beginning to come into their own in the horror genre **, showing that they are as strong as men and are not the sexual objects they were once perceived as in classic horror
 * 7) Slasher movies and films with women as villains are still being made, but the force and power of women in horror cannot be ignored and can be seen in many intelligent horror movies.
 * 8) The ** first true slasher film is widely acknowledged to be Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ **, with the murder of Janet Leigh’s character we see a sexually independent women being ** stabbed with the ever phallic knife, **** a symbolic punishment for these women. **
 * 9) The ** sexually repressed male killer fears a sexually independent woman and this is shown through her death, when the male killer thrusts his knife into her, thus taking away her sexual power through the symbolic rape of her body. **
 * 10) In ** slasher movies, young women are often objectified and shown as nothing more than sex objects. **
 * 11) many of the ** women are shown half clothed and hyper-sexualized, taking away the audience’s ability to sympathize with them because they are seen as less valuable in society. **
 * 12) ** Males fear the power of females especially when females become more masculine, and so it is in the film that is a women who is the only character that can defeat her. **
 * 13) This symbolism illustrates a kind of unconscious moral lesson to the viewer.
 * 14) ** Classic slasher films usually show a direct cause and effect link between sex and death, with murder serving as a symbolic punishment for any kind of immoral intercourse. **