Why American horror movies often exploit women as terrorised victim.The one who got tourmented horribly.?

Question

I don't know if you saw the movie "Hills got eyes" and many other crazy movies like this.This movie is the most horrific movie I ever see and I wonder what kind of mind can create a script like that.The mot horrible scene is when the movie start, when the poor young women was force to give birth for the mutant monsters.

When will we see more female monsters, Succubus,female werwolf's,female mutant,female sea octopus(or whatever) tormenting men also and giving them the same kind of treatment.

Answer 1

There are plenty of female antagonist horror films out there, they just don't get credit and aren't shown to wide audiences. Women are often the victims of violence in real life so it's something that people can watch and not find it odd. Seeing man torn apart by a female is uncommon and probably not very interesting to the american public. Also, a lot of horror film makers are male, so of course they'd rather victimize a woman than a man. If a horror movie came out with a horrible she-beast that maims and tortures men, society would start calling it a feminist film or a movie about man-hating. I wish men got the same kind of treatment.

if you're interested in female villain horror movies try these:

Tomie (and its subsequent films)
May
Carrie
High Tension
Hard Candy
Chainsaw Sally
I Spit on Your Grave (rape revenge movie so the women gets victimized too)
I Spit On Your Corpse I Piss On Your Grave (bad attempt at a sequel to I Spit on Your Grave, however it's pretty disturbing what the chick does to the guys)

edit: I wouldn't say that those movies are favored by the lowbrow because i'm into lowbrow, however what i consider lowbrow is usually at least witty, creative, and dark humored. i would say that movies like the hills have eyes really appeal to people that are easily entertained. i saw that movie at the theaters and though it wasn't necessarily a bad movie, i could've lived w/out the rape scene as i found it totally unnecessary. it's rare that you see a male actually victimized in that kind of way in films. sure, they get maimed and killed, but rarely savaged and raped like the women often do. i agree with the comment that the damsel in distress is a classic storytelling technique, but you can't save a girl that's cut into a hundred pieces can you?

Answer 2

I see your point totally, but in most horror films though, it's the female in peril that beats the monster or maniac or whatever. Silence of the Lambs, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St., The Ring, Scream, Hellraiser.

There also have been movies where there are female "monsters", Fatal Attraction, Audition (not American), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Misery.

But there really hasn't been enough. It would be interesting to see these kind of movies.

Answer 3

Check out a Movie called Hard Candy

Also don't forget movies like
Misery
Fatal Attraction
Disclosure
Even this year some movies came out with strong female leads like
Die Hard
Beowulf
Smoking Aces

Answer 4

I think it's because it's easier to market violence to a male audience then a female one, because women don't appreciate and take pleasure from violence as often as men do.

Beyond simple marketing, our gender roles are also involved, to a degree. Man is the hunter, the killer; woman is the gatherer, the nuturer. And often times, we respond to those archetypes better than when the structure is shifted.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the t.v. show) did a great job of breaking that stereotype. Heroic women are much more prevalent then in years past. But when it comes to extreme violence and gore, men tend to be the aggressors in most stories.

Answer 5

That's The Hills Have Eyes 2 by the way, and yes it's a pretty poor excuse for a movie. there's a word for it, it's called exploitation. And it panders to the lowbrow crowd.

Answer 6

You need women in peril so they can be rescued, it's a classic element of storytelling. Also, it connects people emotionally as we would care less about seeing a bunch of grufty men being terrorised.

Answer 7

obviously, u havent seen saw...hint...the villan in the movies is a girl. what about some of these older movies where the monster is a little girl? like the blair witch, hide and seek and the excorsist?