The Representation of Women in Horror Films.

Women in horror films are more than likely portrayed as being weak individuals who cant fight back against the villain and won't. Also women are represented as being sex symbols and damsels in distress who are being killed for some sinful act that they have committed. This is not always true and sometimes women are the main characters who actually are very clever and kill the villain or escape.

In scream Casey is being stalked by the villain and through-out she is being represented as a typical blonde who is a little bit dim and ends up dying because of it. Also in Halloween one of the girls is portrayed as a completely typical teenager who is having sex with a boy, she is made to look like a damsel in distress too as she ends up dying and because of her sins she has made. Mulvey explains in her essay that women on screen have really no use unless its erotic and in that case its just to be looked at and to satisfy cinema viewers, just so they can look at her, This relates well to lots of movies especially The Crazies as the main women in that literally does nothing throughout the whole movie, she doesn't die but rarely does anything to help or to protect herself or anyone, she is placed on-screen as a bit off eye-candy and as Mulvey would say just to satisfy the cinema viewers.

On the other-hand though Clover suggests that Women play a huge part in horror movies and can often by the Heroine and can often save everyone by killing the villain, this theory is called the final girl theory and is very apparent in Halloween as Laurie is a completely different girl to her friends, she is smart, mature, sensible and not particularly attractive. Laurie would much rather stay home and babysit than go out and see boys and drink, and as a result of that, this pays of as she ends up saving the children and herself and making Michael Myers become defeated and run away, so the final girl theory works very well in this sense. This theory works well in many other movies such as Nightmare on Elm Street where Nancy Thompson is not portrayed as being a stupid girl just for show. 

Overall the two theorists are completely correct in their own right and both have extremely relevant points about how women are portrayed and represented in horror movies and none are more relevant than the other it just depends on the type of horror movie it is, for example in slasher movies there are more underlying sexual connotations hidden in the text so women in slasher movies would more likely be viewed as 'eye-candy' and just someone to look at. Whereas in more clever horror movies where thought is required women have more of a chance to be the heroine and be the one who stands up to the villain, but it all depends.