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Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'
Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film - Updated Edition by Carol J. Clover
4 reviews
juleseliasw's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.75
The politics of who identifies with who when viewing a horror film, and the thorough psychosexual analysis offers a lens I hadn’t watched films through before. Still, the anything that leans extremely heavily on Freud always gives me pause. Extremely dry and repetitive at times (I’ve been picking it up and setting it down for almost 5 years) I’ve learned I’m not a huge fan of footnotes (although I collected some films and books to add to my list throughout) . This is something I will revisit someday to annotate litter with my own opinions and analysis.
This is also such a fascinating text to me in the way that the genre has changed drastically since it was written, even within 5 years. I always say Carol Clover would love Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Ti West’s X!
This is also such a fascinating text to me in the way that the genre has changed drastically since it was written, even within 5 years. I always say Carol Clover would love Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Ti West’s X!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Death
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Pregnancy, Ableism, Body horror, and Racism
petepilgrim's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.75
In the preface to this edition the author talks with some regret how the sketch of the final girl (its this book which coined the term) has become fleshed out in film since the idea took hold. I can definitely see why the author has regrets over the concept becoming too realised as the book goes on
The theories are Freudian (Everything's a hole. Everything's a pole) and the analysis is concerned with narrative tropes of the genre (typically around the late 70s) more so than film theory or going heavily into any one text. My response to these ideas was mixed. At times I felt they waa a misrepresentation of texts to fit an argument, or relying on the concept of genre to invent evidence wholecloth.
But it cannot be argued the influence this has book has had on horror theory, even if the work is quite dated now. Even if some of the lines of argument are difficult to get on board with, the ideas as a whole are fascinating.
It tackles some heavy topics, and requires at least some familiarity with media criticism of some kind (though not necessarily film theory and criticism). Still, a book I would recommend for a more academic perspective on horror.
The theories are Freudian (Everything's a hole. Everything's a pole) and the analysis is concerned with narrative tropes of the genre (typically around the late 70s) more so than film theory or going heavily into any one text. My response to these ideas was mixed. At times I felt they waa a misrepresentation of texts to fit an argument, or relying on the concept of genre to invent evidence wholecloth.
But it cannot be argued the influence this has book has had on horror theory, even if the work is quite dated now. Even if some of the lines of argument are difficult to get on board with, the ideas as a whole are fascinating.
It tackles some heavy topics, and requires at least some familiarity with media criticism of some kind (though not necessarily film theory and criticism). Still, a book I would recommend for a more academic perspective on horror.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Rape, Violence, and Body horror
radfatbabe's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
An interesting dive into the gendered and psychosexual nature of horror films up through the late 80’s, and the ways in which the genera of horror gives us windows into perceptions and feelings of gender, the controlled flow of anticipation and release, and sadomasochistic sexual fantasy. This book is primarily an analytical exploration of these topics from a cis-gendered and heteronormative standpoint with touches on queer representation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual violence and Murder
These topics are all mentioned or described in reference to movies and topics relating to these scenesvalmai's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Gore, and Sexual violence
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