Feminism Film Theory

In this blog post I will be discussing what the Feminism Film Theory is and choose a scene from a horror film which relates to feminism. The horror film I have chosen to annalyse is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I have chosen a scene from both the orginal and the remake of the film of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because these two scenes are set up for the male glaze.

The scene I have chosen from the original film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is when the women and her boyfriend finds a house and then the boyfriend disappears after investigating the house. After this happens you see the women getting up from the swing chair. The camera angle they have used is coming from underneath the swing chair which is looking up directly at the women from the ground as she walks towards the house. This can be seen as male glaze because she is hardly wearing any clothes such as; short shorts and a top that only covers the front of her body and as the camera is following her, the audience might think she isn't wearing any clothes on the top half of her body.
This is seen as male glaze because the camera is focused on her walking towards the house in the same camera angle and it doesn't move until she gets to the front door of the house. This shot could be cut to her expression on her face when walking towards the house as she looks for her boyfriend but they didn't do this and they kept the same shot from below focusing on the women.
Another point that can be seen as male glaze in this scene is that the women slightly bends over to look in the door way of the house. This can be seen as male glaze because she is wearing short shorts which automatically focuses on the women and not the house even though the camera angle is still in the same position from below looking up at her. This can suggest fear as she doesn't want to enter the house as she doesn't know what might happen.

Here is the link to the scene I was talking about in original film of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-2LQnFPOUY

The scene I have chosen from the remake of the film 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' is the scene of the last character alive running through the meat factory as the man chases her with a chain saw. In this scene she is running through the meat factory soaking wet as the sprinklers have been switched on. This can be seen as male glaze because she is fully clothed but soaking wet, and there are many camera angles focusing on her running through the meat factory. A lot of these shots consist of close ups, mid shots and long shots. All these different shots are still focusing on the women running soaking wet.

Scream Opening Sequence

Scream Opening Sequence
In the Scream opening sequence it starts off with a black cut shot and they have sound effects over the top of this. The sound effects used is the background music and a phone ringing. This is giving a short insight on what might happen. On this black shot after the sound effects, the title 'Scream' appears which has a red light flashing behind it, and then turns the title complety red. This would be a signified because the colour red is representing blood and death, which is used in horror films. Once the title of the film has appeared it cuts to a close up of the phone ringing, and the lady answers the phone. Instantly you can tell the male voice on the phone is a stalker because he keeps asking questions about her such as; 'Who is this' and 'what number is this'. This part of the opening sequence can be a signifier semeiotics because the signs he is giving off by asking personal questions such as; 'Do you have a boyfriend'. This is giving a sign to the female character that something isn't right about this phone call. She realises this phone call is dangerous once the male character on the phone says 'I wanna know who I'm looking at'. As soon as he says this line, you can feel the tension already building up, and by the look on her face as her face drops from happy to tense, you can tell this phone call is dangerous. As soon as he has said that line there is suspense music building up the tension as the phone call goes on. This line can also fit with the mise en scene because her house has all open space windows which are door length and she has all the lights on. Meaning he can see her but she can't see him because the outside is completely dark.
The female character in this film would be known as an icon because she is a blonde female which is most common in horror films, these are referred as 'dumb' blondes. 'Dumb' blondes are used mainly in horror films because blonde people are stereotyped as not being very smart. The sound of the phone ringing would be signifing a phone is ringing in the house. This is because the sound effect of a phone ringing is very recognisable, as if you heard a 'ding-a-ling' continuously, you would instantly know a phone is ringing.
The tree outside the characters house with the big arms, can signify that it has control over the female character because the trees arm is leaning over the characters house. This represents control over her and her house from the male character on the phone. Also from this shot there is a swing hanging on the trees arm and its swinging. This symbolically representing someone could of been there, which is stating the female character in the house isn't alone. As this scene goes on you have an idea it may have been the male character on the phone there.
After this shot, she puts a packet of popcorn on the hop before she watches a scary movie. As time goes on the popcorn packet gets bigger, this is showing that the tension is building up gradually. Even though you don't see the popcorn explode, you know theres only one end to this as its only one end for her. This is because she doesn't turn the heat off which is showing that she will die at the end of this. This can be known as an iconic semiotics because the first person seen normally dies first in a horror film.
As she is speaking to the male character as she hasn't already suspected anything after the shot of her making popcorn, she is talking to him about her favourite scary movie. As she is speaking to him there are a collection of knifes on the working tops which she pulls out and makes the swoosh knife sound as she pulls them out of the knife holder. This would be an iconic semiotics as they use the knife sound effect in a lot of horror films to represent scare, death and threatening behaviour.
As the phone call gets more intense the front door bell rings, which he is doing to scare her even more, but she says 'who's there?' which is a death wish in horror films. This gives the hint that it is a death wish as he replies 'might as well come out here and investigate a strange noise or something'. This can be known as an iconic semiotics because they're the normal conventions used in horror films. Also in this same shot she looks out the door window, which makes it look like prison bars. These can represents she is trapped in the house and there’s no way of getting out.