Editor's note: I actually wrote this in October of 2019 but just recently remembered that I had written it. I think it makes a good point so thank you Ms. Craig for making me write it. <3
I'd also like to give a trigger warning, I talk about some darker topics in this post that not everyone is comfortable reading about. So, as much as I want you to read my blogpost, if you're not comfortable with darker subject matter please do not read this post.
The Halloween franchise is without a doubt one of the most iconic slasher sagas of all time. When the typical person sees a picture of the serial killer in a white William Shatner mask, and blue mechanic suit wielding a kitchen knife you know it’s Michael Myers or it’s at least something from Halloween.
Halloween was created in 1978 by John Carpenter and has suffered through many instalments and eight separate timelines. There are some well done chapters of the franchise but others… others...are so goddamn awful.
For example, someone decided it was a good idea to let rapper Busta Rhymes and celebrity model Tyra Banks star in the 2002 installment Halloween: Resurrection , and SOMEONE in production of the film let Busta Rhymes have some sort of creative control.
He had a Kung Fu fight with Michael Myers.
Let me say that again, Busta Rhymes had a KUNG FU FIGHT with Michael Myers then proceeded to say “Trick or treat mothafucka”. What? How does that happen in a serious horror flick, I mean come on. Jamie Lee Curtis also noted that this film was like a joke to her. Not very good for a supposed feature film. However, this wonderful atrocity isn’t even the worst instalment out of the eleven released films.
Halloween (2007) was a remake of the original 1978 masterpiece written and directed by Rob Zombie. Zombie is a metal musician and known for his controversial shock-rock tactics in films and music so it’s unsurprising that Zombie translated this style into his remakes.
The film is—to put it simply—gross. A busted, vulgar, awful copy of the 1978 original. We are supposed to like and root for the final girl Laurie Strode but Zombie makes it almost impossible to like or root for any character in the film. They all suck. The family we are introduced to at the beginning of the film is Michael Myers's family in the past when Mikey is just a wee lad. This family enjoys regular household conversation and pleasantries like “Man, that bitch got herself a nice little dumper,” “You jealous of your own daughter's ass, huh?” and the classic “Aw! Fucking whore!”. Clearly, you’re not meant to like anyone in this film.
These lines can also have a double meaning. Obviously they’re first and foremost vulgar and gross but they also objectify women so blatantly, and the woman who this man is talking to (yes, it is a man saying those awful words, I'm not just stereotyping.), is a stripper. I am one hundred percent a progressive person and I think that women should be able to feel and be empowered in anything that they do but the fact that the actress playing this stripper was the director’s wife just makes me feel like he wanted to show off his hot wife to the world. She has a scene in the strip club where she is almost completely naked—and I mean you go girl—but at the same time it feels so objectifying.
On the subject of nudity in this film, almost every single female that dies in this movie is either half or fully nude. At first this may seem like a simple horror trope but considering that it is more than five women it seems less like the following of a stereotype and more of an objectification. This isn't even mentioning the vile, unnecessarily gratuitous, and brutal rape scene. There is no rape scene in the original Halloween. This was a scene added in by Zombie to somehow "enhance" the movie. I cannot understand why he chose to add such an awful and exposed scene to the remake and it's really upsetting to see or even think about. This directorial choice just adds to the already overwhelming case that women aren't respected or valued in Zombie's remakes.
Now don't get me wrong, Horror movies have always had the element of sex or nudity, but Zombie's remake is unwarrantedly sexual with regards to women. Let’s look at the Friday the 13th franchise for a sec, most of the characters that die, die because of wanting to have sex. It's like some sort of horrifying abstinence PSA By god if we listen to Randy from Scream we know that it has become a rule in horror that you can never have sex. It has become almost second nature to label most women in slashers as whores and objectify them because that’s what we’ve always done, right?
This brings me to the Madonna VS Whore argument. This whole big argument is so prevalent in slashers, especially Halloween 2007. Laurie Strode—the films final girl and main character—is a perfect madonna. She is the stuck up virgin and virgins always survive in horror. Now all of Laurie’s other female friends represent the whores. They have sex and they pay for it, in the form of a gruesome death courtesy of Mr.Myers.
Living in the ever changing realm that is modern society I say it’s time we question these rules or tropes from slashers of the past and shake things up. We have come to a point where women are really being taken seriously and have a better say in what really goes on behind closed doors. We should ditch the preconception that women need to be sexy and nude in film and maybe sexualize some guys in slashers for once. Because the scariest thing in these movies isn’t the killer or a gruesome death, it’s the underlying objectification of women. Happy Halloween!
Thanks again for reading! This post was a bit serious in subject matter but I tried to lighten what I could with my writer's voice. I hope it made you think in some way.
KIDD
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