Alright, let’s talk about them old scary movies, the ones with all the screaming and running around. You know, the ones where the women, well, they ain’t always just sitting around waiting to get got. Women in old horror films, that’s what we’re yapping about today.
Back in the day, some of them movies, they just had the gals screaming and fainting. Real damsels in distress, you know? Like they couldn’t do nothin’ for themselves. But then things started changing, sorta slow at first. Them war times, they made folks see women different, stronger like. And the movies, they started showing that too.
Then you got these slasher flicks. Oh my, the blood and the gore! But even in them, you started seeing women fighting back. Not just screaming, but actually kicking some butt. They called ‘em “final girls” sometimes. The last ones standing, the ones who gave the monster a run for his money.
- Take The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for example. That ain’t no lady just sitting around waiting to get chopped up. She fought, she ran, she survived. Tough as nails, that one.
- And then there’s Carrie. Poor girl, bullied and pushed around. But when she finally snapped, well, let’s just say nobody was laughing then. Showed them bullies what for. That movie, it was about more than just scares, you know? It was about being different, about fitting in, about fighting back.
It wasn’t always perfect, mind you. Sometimes them movies, they still made the women look weak or silly. But even then, you could see things changing. Women weren’t just screaming anymore, they were thinking, they were planning, they were surviving. And that’s what made them movies so darn interesting.
Horror movies, they like to play with your feelings. They make you scared, sure, but they also make you think. They show you what folks are scared of, what makes them tick. And women, well, they got a lot of feelings, a lot of fears, and a lot of strength. Them movies, they started showing all of that.
Gender dynamics, that’s what some fancy folks call it. But to me, it’s just about showing how things really are. Women ain’t just one thing, they’re a whole bunch of things all mixed together. Scared and strong, weak and powerful, all at the same time. And that’s what makes them real, and that’s what makes them scary movies so good.
You know, when a movie shows you how people really are, the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly, that’s when it gets real interesting. And when a movie ain’t afraid to show the scary stuff that women go through every day, the fear, the worry, the fight to be taken seriously, well, that’s a good movie in my book. That’s what I call a feminist horror, even if I don’t rightly know what that word means exactly. It just feels right, you know?
And it ain’t just the young gals neither. Sometimes them old ladies, they can be the scariest of all. Like that old woman in It Chapter Two, Mrs. Kersh. Creepy as all get-out! You think she’s just a sweet old thing, but then BAM! She’s got you running for your life. That just goes to show, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you sure as heck can’t underestimate a woman, no matter her age.
So yeah, women in old horror films, they’ve come a long way. From screaming and fainting to fighting back and surviving. They’ve shown us that fear ain’t just a woman’s thing, it’s a human thing. And strength, well, that’s a woman’s thing too, more than some folks might like to admit. And that’s why we keep watching them scary movies, generation after generation. They show us a little bit of ourselves, even when we’re hiding behind our hands, peeking through our fingers.
Tags: [horror films, women in horror, final girls, scream queens, feminist horror, gender dynamics, classic horror, slasher films, scary movies, movie characters]
