film, however, the geometry is simplified: there is no triangle—only Woman and Monster, in a straight line. Or as Carol J. Clover explains it, maybe there are parallel lines between the two. Clover, a Professor of Scandinavian and Com­
parative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, admits in her introduction toMEM, WOMEN AND CHAINSAWS that she avoided exploitation horror until a friend (to whom horror fans should be eternally grateful) dared her to see THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. That experience so af­ fected Clover that she subsequently rented dozens of similar horror videos in an effort to come to terms with the notion of the “male gaze” and the entire idea of exploitation in film theory. Clover became something of a convert to horror, and it’s amazing to me that she was such a quick study and could create a work of such depth and understand­ ing about a genre much despised by “serious” critics and to which she was only recently introduced. Clover’s reexamination of exploitation horror
(slasher films, possession films, rape/revenge films) offers a needed corrective to the usual interpreta­ tion of such pictures as anti-woman gore fests. While never excusing the very real misogyny that often rears its ugly head in such pictures, Clover says “ I believe that the standard critique of horror as straight-forward sadistic misogyny itself needs not only a critical but a political interrogation” (p.19). She proceeds to make that inquiry. Clover takes one of the critics’ greatest com­
plaints about slasher films—the POV camera-eye that invites the viewer to identify with the killer— and stands it on its head. She demonstrates that if the audience is encouraged to identify with the killer in the beginning of the movie, it is equally (perhaps more strongly) encouraged to identify with the “Final Girl” (ie., the woman who survives and ultimately vanquishes the murderer) by the film’s end. She documents how these predatory POV shots dwindle and disappear as the picture unfolds, as the viewer is pulled more and more to root for and identify with the Final Girl. In clear, precise prose, Clover takes us through
a series of analytic hoops, sometimes repeating herself (a technique some readers might criticize, but which serves to reinforce the clarity and lucidity of her argument)—I say, sometimes repeating herself but always moving her argument forward, illustrating that the Male vs. Female dichotomy in the slasher film is not as clear-cut as it appears, since it involves a “feminized” male (often a “mama’s boy,” who substitutes a knife/chainsaw/phallic ob­ ject for his own useless penis) versus a “masculized”
76
female (often with a male or neutral given name such as Stevie, Marti, or Terry, and usually one who ultimately wields a knife/chainsaw/phallic object in her own defense by picture’s end). Clover carefully articulates why the male viewer can identify with this female and how this female body stands in for the male viewer himself (hence the title of Chapter One—and of the article that developed into this book—“Her Body, Himself’). In Chapter Two, Clover explores possession
films (THE EXORCIST, WITCHBOARD, etc.) and makes the rational argument that they tell two different stories—one of the physical opening-up of a woman to demon forces, the other of a spiritual opening-up of a man to his feminine side. The two stories dovetail into one another, for the woman cannot be brought back to herself until the man’s emotional makeover is complete. In Chapter Three, Clover takes an incisive look at the “rape/revenge” film (DELIVERANCE, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, etc.) and, besides again proving male-viewer iden­ tification with the female rape victim (and discuss­ ing what that implies), she also analyzes the City vs. Country split so common to these pictures and the fact that a “mainstream” version of the same subject matter (THE ACCUSED) is not as effective nor, in the end, as feminist. Chapter Four is a meditation on the entire genre’s self-reflectivity. This simplified overview of Clover’s book cannot
do justice to her overarching achievement. For, just when the reader thinks Clover has taken an argu­ ment as far as it can go, she surprises us by taking that argument one step further, or off into another, no-less-startling but no-less-logical direction. Clover’s erudition is impressive but never off-
putting. One needn’t be an academic to enjoy her book for, although she refers to deconstructionist heavyweight Jacques Lacan (and, of course, to Freud and Freudian theory), she also relies on genre critics and filmmakers to bolster her argu­ ments. Also, unlike too many scholarly critics these days, she is not content to spout theory while never once mentioning any primary sources. On the contrary, MEN, WOMEN, AND CHAINSAWS is replete with examples from (or in-depth analyses of) over 200 movies. She uses the films as her texts and draws her conclusions from them. One may find fault with some of her interpreta­
tions (I think I disagree with her about ALIEN), but I, for one, am hard pressed to deny the overwhelm­ ing persuasiveness of her theses. One thing is for sure: Whether one agrees or disagrees with Clover, no one will be able to write knowledgeably about the modern horror film again without taking her pathfinding research into account.
&
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84