The Evolution of the Female Role in Horror Cinema
Author
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2025
Submitted on
2025-06-02
Abstract
This thesis examines the evolving representation of women in horror cinema, tracing the shift from passive victims to complex figures who are given agency. By using feminist film theory as its foundation, this study examines eight key films across decades spanning from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) to Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024). Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Laura Mulvey, Carol J. Clover, Barbara Creed, Julia Kristeva, and Cynthia A. Freeland, the thesis investigates how female characters have been framed, fetishized, and ultimately reimagined within the horror genre. The analysis highlights how early horror films often reinforced patriarchal narratives, positioning women as objects of violence and desire. However, later works, especially those written and directed by women, such as Jennifer’s Body, Promising Young Woman, and The Substance, subvert these conventions by presenting female characters who confront, embody, or weaponize their monstrosity. These films use horror not only as a genre of fear, but as a political and affective space in which the traumas and injustices of gendered experience can be critically exposed. This thesis argues that contemporary feminist horror, what Barbara Creed terms the “Feminist New Wave,” reclaims female monstrosity as a symbol of empowerment. By exaggerating, duplicating, or undermining traditional horror tropes, these films resist the voyeuristic dynamics of the “male gaze” and rewrite the cultural scripts around femininity.
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