Slither, Slaw & Scream

4/5/06

What is it with these slasher movies? The poster for Slither, featuring a shapely woman's leg dangling over the side of a claw tooth bath tub with blood red, penis shaped worm/sausages crawling either over and out of the porcelain rim or up and into it from the floor, reminds me of so many similar "women in distress" themed films. This one sheet however, borders on comical; is she giving birth to these creatures or are they invading her space, phalluses on the march toward their target? Since the Perils of Pauline and I suppose a myriad of myths, stories, poems and tales tall and short, women have been made heroine in their abilities to resist a variety of marauders. Maybe I'm only aware of this take on the Hero's Journey as I can relate to a female perspective and don't look for stories about the equivalent male quest but I think I'm correct in my take that most horror movies are about women being sliced and diced, raped, disemboweld, tortured and otherwise assaulted horrifically, not men. And these women are typically succulent, young cheerleader types, not your menopausal or middle age or grandmotherly types. And their attackers seem to be either young or middle age white men.

So, in this great nation of "equal rights" "women's liberation" and "gender equity" why are we still so titilated by the sight of a woman being taken apart? (Is there any relation between teh word "tit" and "titilate"?) Are women that powerful and awe-ful to men that the only way we can handle them is to "cut them down to size?" But it's not just men who watch these shows; women are actually a higher proportion of hte movie going audiences that see them. Is it because it allows us to experience terror in a safe environment, on our boyfriend's arm, and vicariously survice, triumphant? Are we less threatened by the imagined carnage, going through our monthly bleeds, our labors, our child-rearing and care taking rituals as we do? Do we really want, deep down, on some unconscious level to be taken in this way, yet can't own that desire in a culture that still can't quite handle a woman's sexuality?

What do men get out of watching these films? Do they get to act out their rage against women or imagine rescuing them along side the hero? So often it's the nerdy, dweeb type who is triumphant after the handsome, jock gets too cocky and ends up as appetizer for the main salami fest. Does this give the little people a sense of power? When the female protagonist ends up triumphant, rather than allowing herself to be rescued, when she saves the day, I can see the appeal to that half of the audience. There has to be some gut level reason we enjoy this stuff and I'm prompted to think of all the hardships and phsyical challenges humans have had to face as we evolved. How many of us have been slaughtered by wild animals, opposing tribes, farm machinery, factory cogs, blood curdling viruses, childbirth and now modern warfare over the centuries? We have it in our DNA to face and survive such trauma and perhaps, like earthquake preparedness drills, we need to be reminded of our inate abilities to overcome horrible events. So in our safe little wombs, those multi-plexes across the nations, we get to imagine outwitting the latest plague, ax wielding social reject or psychotic soccer dad. All power to us women though, because while we continue to be slashed, sawn and sauteed for the amusement of milllions, the very fact of being rendered victim, whether on the movie screen or the screen of our imaginations, gives us even more chance to exercize and practise our incredible ability to survive. They say the meek shall inherit the earth; I disagree. It will be the cheerleaders.