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Under the Knife
By Andrew Burden
Posted Mon, 19 Aug 2002
I feel I owe a word of thanks for the long weekend recently. I spent Women’s Day largely watching Friday the 13th films on DVD (still as atrocious but they sound great). It may not have been the most appropriate thing to do on Women’s Day, but I did watch them with my wife so that counts…doesn’t it?
On the subject of Women’s Day; why only one day a year? (He said, scrabbling for the female vote). I mean who the hell owns the other 364? And yes I know I’m late, but that’s what you get for filing columns a week in advance.
Anyway, for giving me a long weekend off I thought I’d look at some female role models in cult films this week. Of course this isn’t a comprehensive account, just a few of my favourites.
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Generally speaking, since Thelma and Louise made their intrepid point by driving a car over a cliff; (not as effective as THE YOUNG ONES, who drove through a Cliff Richard billboard and then drove over an actual cliff), the role of women in films has changed. Recent trends in film have given rise to liberating characterisations from women like Jodie Foster (notably SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) and PANIC ROOM, 2002), Demi Moore and even Nicole Kidman. But this paradigm shift was stirring long before canyon jumping became popular.
In fact women have been kicking arse in cult films for decades.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Watching FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (1982) and FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984), I was reminded that in cult films, women are often portrayed as hapless damsels in distress, providing some (not too much) resistance for iconoclastic patriarchs, whose intent is to maim, kill or box in (sometimes literally). But even within this trend there are characters with strength, savvy and endurance, like the original ‘Scream Queen’ Jamie Lee Curtis.
Curtis’s role as Laurie Strode in John Carpenter’s pivotal independent film HALLOWEEN (1978) lent credence to the idea that women can be emotionally and physically stronger than men. If you compare Strode’s beauty, guts, intelligence and survival instincts to the snivelling wreck that is Ash (Bruce Campbell) in THE EVIL DEAD (1982), you have a complete gender reversal.
Curtis is the quintessential survivor. In fact she’s so adept at dodging carving knives and flicking the finger, that she keeps coming back for more and will return to our screens shortly as Strode in HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION (2002), for one more round with brother and habitual killer Michael Myers.
Strode is dynamite and beyond the defined roles of women like the camp and marketing-driven motif of Elvira Mistress of the Dark. Strode proves that an average woman, portrayed realistically, can not only make it to the credits but actually come back for more and still kick arse.
Of course Michael’s motivation to kill Laurie does not spring from a desire to denigrate her. Michael Myers does not personify a male-domination principle. He simply wants to kill his family (and scare as many people as he can along the way). Had Laurie been Michael’s brother he still would have come calling.
Ironically, while HALLOWEEN championed the strength of women it also fired the surge of slasher films that dominated the industry from the late seventies until around the mid eighties. Drawing shamelessly from HALLOWEEN, films like the FRIDAY THE 13th series, THE BURNING (1981) and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1979), generally popularised the idea that women were good only for wearing bikinis, uttering the odd inane line and yielding to the wishes of various-garden-and-kitchen-utensil-wielding madmen.
Not so for our Laurie: In fact one explanation for the sustained popularity of HALLOWEEN (and audience tolerance of the barrage of sequels it inspired) is Laurie herself. Her battle with brother Michael is an epic one, and one that she prefers to fight alone. There’s a great deal of independence, Greek tragedy and appeal in that.
Virginal and innocent; responsible and sensible Strode is the epitome of good as opposed to the deliberate and inexplicable evil of Michael.
Of course Curtis is the daughter of another cult icon, Janet Leigh, who like Strode showed a great deal of purpose and originality of character in PSYCHO (1960). She may amount to little more than eye candy and a suitable victim for Norman Bates, but like Strode she has her flaws and they are all too human, such as stealing a wad of money which forces her to seek refuge at the Bates’ Motel.
But there are characters more complex than that.
Catherine Deneuve
While Strode emerges as the victor in her tussle with Michael, she is nonetheless presented from the outset as the ugly duckling and the nerd, simply because she doesn’t fit the nymphomaniac profile of her more relaxed friends.
It must be said that while cult films like HALLOWEEN advocate liberating roles for women, they all nonetheless use the double morality standard and label the women in the films via sexual activity or inertia. And while Strode is the angel, Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Blaylock, in Tony Scott’s THE HUNGER (1983) is the devil in a red dress.
Miriam is sensual, in charge of her sexuality and the world in which she lives and hunts (she also happens to be a vampire). Miriam is all sex appeal and animalistic power.
Her empowerment stems from her predatory instincts and sheer venomous gaze. This vampire film is essentially a glam-rock video montage (with a beautiful intro featuring Goth band Bauhaus) but is nonetheless carefully shot and lovingly edited.
Deneuve is brilliant and beautiful as this Manhattan chic vampire who lives with her lover and cohort John (David Bowie). Unlike the women in the tradition of the 50’s beach party films, whose influence can be felt in the stalk ‘n slash genre, Miriam is strong and in control (of both her destiny and the people around her). Like Ingrid Pitt in COUNTESS DRACULA (1970), based on the real exploits of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, she uses mortals to keep her young and John is just another disposable companion. In a pseudo sexual liberation statement, Miriam grants John immortality for his ‘services’, but his time is cut short when she grows tired of him.
For its time THE HUNGER shows women in an unusually cruel but positive light, and expresses the independence of women through power and feral attitude. Of course Scott manipulates the fact that men lust after these women and, just as Julia lures men back to the house in HELLRAISER (1987), with the promise of sex; only to bash them over the head with a hammer and feed them to the lodger, Miriam uses her powers to survive.
Deborah Twiss
Deborah’s role as Allison/Jennifer in the eponymous independent A GUN FOR JENNIFER (1996) is an example of empowerment taken to the extreme. Allison escapes from an abusive relationship to New York, where she is saved by a gang of feminist vigilantes from an attempted rape. They adopt her, give her a new identity and welcome her into their world of revenge and hatred. Their nocturnal activities are legitimised by the strip club in which they work. The film is an eerie and politically-loaded weapon and despite its low budget makes the point very effectively.
The film isn’t easy to watch (for men some scenes are very difficult to watch) but it works on a simplistic level.
This may seem weird but I am utterly convinced that COYOTE UGLY (2000), if not a sanitised copy, was at least heavily inspired by this independent shocker, particularly the scenes in which Allison meets the gang.
Of course the liberation in these films is possible only through violence, and that in itself is exploitation. But then you’re dealing with cult films and whatever they’re about they are almost always extreme. A woman striving to get ahead in business is hardly the stuff of cult. A woman emasculating a man is. But some are more effective than others…
A GUN FOR JENNIFER follows in the tradition of Meir Zachi’s barely justified DAY OF THE WOMAN (1978) aka I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, Wes Craven’s THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) and Abel Ferrara’s MS .45 (1981). While following different plots they all concern rape and revenge scenarios, but instead of making valid points many of these films serve as glib remarks, whose cameras linger a little too licentiously on the violence to say anything meaningful.
Of all the films in the genre A GUN FOR JENNIFER is perhaps the most lucid and valuable of the lot.
Mrs Voorhees
Described by horror film historian Kim Newman as “a jackdaw of a film” because of its obvious and uneasy lending from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974), HALLOWEEN, JAWS (1975) and CARRIE (1976), FRIDAY THE 13th (1980) features one of the most liberated women of cinema, the embittered Mrs Voorhees.
In a similar vein to the exploitation films already mentioned FRIDAY THE 13TH explores the revenge scenarios inspired, this time by maternal instincts. Like Norman and his mum, the relationship between Mrs Voorhees and her son Jason is a strong if not muddy one. When Jason drowns in Lake Crystal, due, according to Mrs Voorhees, to the negligence of camp leaders too busy bonking on the beach to notice the odd looking kid in the lake, she exacts her revenge on anyone who ventures out to the camp.
Mrs Voorhees’ motivation is a simple one: You killed my boy, now I’m gonna kill you, and rarely in cinema has a woman been this terrifying.
Mrs Bates
But perhaps the greatest impact by any woman in film was the character of Mrs Bates in Hitchcock’s PSYCHO. Let’s face it – the woman was dead but she still scared the crap out of everyone. Would you argue with her?
While these women may have attained cult status for a number of reasons, the common thread is the fact that they’ve had to go to pretty extraordinary lengths to do so. Let’s be honest, the men have it pretty easy. Henry Fonda and Dennis Hopper simply had to ride around on motorbikes and smoke an endless supply of reefer to become icons of their generation. This is in stark contrast to the women above who have had to kill, castrate, shoot, seduce and drink the blood of the men in their lives in order to achieve their standing.
Life’s a bastard that way!
** Availability of these films varies. A GUN FOR JENNIFER is quite rare and you’re more likely to see it on a fringe film festival than on the shelves of your local video shop. I saw it at the Grahamstown Festival a couple of years ago. THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is also quite rare but is (with most of the titles) available on VHS and DVD from leading e-tail outfits. Sadly HALLOWEEN is difficult to find on tape (although a DVD release, now available online, is and is packed with some amazing features.) Ironically you can get just about any of the FRIDAY THE 13TH films from your local video shop on tape and DVD – but no HALLOWEEN? Go figure.
Now many of you requested more quizzes, so with cult heroines in mind try these… (you did ask for it!)
1. In PSYCHO, when Mrs Bates becomes particularly obstreperous, where does Norman put her?
2. In HALLOWEEN Laurie causes Michael a great deal of discomfort. In the final climactic scenes she injures him severely. Question is – what does she do? And with what?
3. Still on HALLOWEEN – What is the name of Laurie’s less fortunate sister?
4. In A GUN FOR JENNIFER – what are the occupations of the women she encounters when she arrives in the city?
5. Why was Mrs Voorhees so ticked off with the people staying at Camp Crystal Lake?
6. In THE HUNGER, who is the famous actress with whom the Lady Miriam falls in lust? Clue: she’s capable of driving you over the edge if the company is right.
7. Jane Fonda slept her way through the galaxy in which cult sci-fi flick. Clue: Duran Duran got their name from a character in the film.
8. Who directed the landmark woman-as-vehicle-for-the-Devil film ROSEMARY”S BABY?
9. …And what is his link to mass murderer Charles Manson?
10. In MS .45, what physical handicap does the protagonist have?
(Answers next week)
