Lenny Lavers

MONSTROUS FEMININE

Developed her theory on Mulvey’s male gaze.

She is a Marxist feminist film critic like Mulvey. However unlike Mulvey she observed and later based her work on

Horror/slasher films.

BARBARA CREED

Her theory was that within the media women are often betrayed as monstrous/abject, and that the most obvious

place to locate this is in horror films.

She built her theory on the basis of Freud’s psychological theory.

MONSTROUS FEMININE

Is the world in which the child is connected to their mother on a deeper level.

When the child leaves this stage and takes their place in the symbolic order (the real world) it is traumatic,

as this is when they begin to recognise that their mother does not have the same genitals as what they do.

This is where the idea of castration is introduced.

They feel threatened (subconsciously) by their mother, fearing that they will be stripped of their masculinity.

Resulting in the mother symbolising castration and women being seen as evil.

THE PRE-OEDIPAL SPACE

women are most likely to be casted as heroes

However, this can be seen as if they are being portrayed as the evil, as the villain as they tend to kill (castrate) the

killer (usually male).

E.g. Halloween- Lorry becomes the symbol of castration at the end as she kills the ‘monster’ with a phallic symbol.

Ultimately, seeing her trade places with the monster, becoming the MONSTROUS FEMININE!

APPLICATION TO SLASHER FILMS