OCTOBER 6, 2012 11:22AM
F is for ... (31 Days of Halloween, Oct. 6)
FINAL BOYS
High five, bro! Can we point to a male virgin lead character in horror that doesn't die?
I've just been reading about Carol J. Clover's academic book Men, Women and Chainsaws. Her ideas about horror and Final Girls are interesting. For example, where I once sort of saw a reinforcement of social conservative mores in slasher films, she sees a scenario set up to connect emotionally with a specific type of male fan:
The Final Girl is boyish, in a word. Just as the
killer is not fully masculine, she is not fully feminine - not, in any
case, feminine in the way of her friends. Her smartness, gravity,
competence in mechanical and other practical matters, and sexual
reluctance set her apart from the other girls and ally her,
ironically, with the very boys she fears or rejects, not to speak of the
killer himself. Lest we miss the point, it is spelled out in her
name: Stevie, Marti, Terry, Laurie, Stretch, Will, Joey, Max. . . (p.
39)
For lack of time, I also have to quickly paraphrase some ideas that
male identification with the Final Girl may or may not involve a geek's
love of a virtuous but beautiful woman who doesn't give the popular
jocks what they want, who is as different as the fan himself is, and
therefore a romantic ideal. An idea similar to nerd rage when the Star Trek remake allowed Mr. Spock to get it on with a hot woman. So what then, of the Final Boy?
To my limited short-term memory, it's rare for modern standard horror to focus on a Final Boy or a group of primarily male characters. But when it's there, it's notable. And when I say Final Boy, it of course doesn't mean that male non-virgins don't die. Those that do aren't The Final Boy.
Let's take Hostel, the notorious and maligned King of torture porn. This film puts the boys (setting poor Japanese tourist Kana aside for the moment) through an ordeal spawned of their unabashed, unapologetic All-American and All-Finnish hormones. When strident, leggy Eastern European sexbombs becon you to join them in a co-ed sauna, well, you're fucked. In the good way, and the very very bad way.
In Hostel, our Final Boy wasn't the halting sweet virgin kid (Derek Richardson's Josh). He dies. Punished for being a lame, fanny pack fussing, non-whoring wet blanket on what's supposed to be a European party? No, the Final Boy was Jay Hernandez's Paxton. Paxton was going wild wthout hesitation or "conscience" in preparation for a life of law school.
He made it out alive and a hero. Oli the Finnish libertine didn't make it out alive. Read American exceptionalism into that if you'd like, for Hostel is also about the American abroad and I do love it for that.
Red State (a film that is many films in one, and thus can't serve as a pure example) also has its monstrous villains using male teen hormones.
These kids are so in the grips of their sexual prime their siren was:
The Final Boys of both Hostel and Red State have a grandfather, and he is Sgt. Howie of my beloved, most name checked in my blog film: The Wicker Man.
Sgt. Howie was the OG Final Boy, and a Final Boy punished precisely for his specific Presbyterian mores. A tumble in the hay with Willow the landlord's daughter (Swedish Bond girl Britt Ekland) would have had him back on the mainland with a guilty conscience, and his life.
An aside: Randy from the Scream series. Not a Final Boy, yet a character in which we were emotionally invested. Died a virgin in Scream 2. Retconned out of his virginity in Scream 3, a chance tryst with "the fat girl at the video store."
What's happening here? Thoughts, theories, objections, exceptions? What do we want out of a Final Boy?
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I don't understand the
nerd rage about Spock. Uhuru has always had a thing for Spock. And
Spock is hot, both Nimoy and Quinto. Looks, brains. If he only wore
glasses, he'd be about perfect. :)
Oops, my bad. Uhuru had a thing for Kirk and McCoy's nurse had a thing for Spock. Stupid Uhuru. Spock all the way, baby. :)
Another original Algis for my collection!
Muse - the Spock nerd rage is thus: the nerd sees himself in Spock, who is wickedly smart, unemotional and has absolutely no need for girls. Spcok justifies them. So when NuSpock, Quinto, is all of a sudden sexing up gorgeous Zoe Saldana, it's something of a betrayal. In a similar fashion the Final Girl is smart and virtuous and shy and doesn't reward the asshole jocks with sex - and so the theory is that this drives male fans to identify with her or project romantic hopes.
Muse - the Spock nerd rage is thus: the nerd sees himself in Spock, who is wickedly smart, unemotional and has absolutely no need for girls. Spcok justifies them. So when NuSpock, Quinto, is all of a sudden sexing up gorgeous Zoe Saldana, it's something of a betrayal. In a similar fashion the Final Girl is smart and virtuous and shy and doesn't reward the asshole jocks with sex - and so the theory is that this drives male fans to identify with her or project romantic hopes.
Interesting --- not
something I'd known about as a horror recurrence. And we've talked
before about our mutual love of great "Wicker Man." I was just talking
about the Wicker Man last night, as we had some friends over for a
Thanksgiving feast including the very person I first saw it with back in
the 1980s. Our love for the film has never waned.
In honour of your piece, maybe I'll go and listen to "Gently Johnny" and "Willow's Song" ...
In honour of your piece, maybe I'll go and listen to "Gently Johnny" and "Willow's Song" ...
VA - the "Final Boy"
isn't terribly common in horror films, but I'm hoping some other genre
fan will weigh in. Do you know, I screened it last year on May 1st?
This circle of friends - my wife included - haaaaated it (grrrr!) but
the Maypole song and lecture has stayed with them, so i can be proud of
that. Also - Hostel features a sophmoric sex scene with a remix of
Willow's Song by the Sneaker Pimps - bleh, an attempt to link the
"deadly siren sex and sacrifice" tropes. But still notable.
VA - the "Final Boy"
isn't terribly common in horror films, but I'm hoping some other genre
fan will weigh in. Do you know, I screened it last year on May 1st?
This circle of friends - my wife included - haaaaated it (grrrr!) but
the Maypole song and lecture has stayed with them, so i can be proud of
that. Also - Hostel features a sophmoric sex scene with a remix of
Willow's Song by the Sneaker Pimps - bleh, an attempt to link the
"deadly siren sex and sacrifice" tropes. But still notable.
I'm sorry I haven't
been around for the 31 Days of Halloween, but the Final Boy stayed with
me. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the Final Boy/nerd rage.
So, if I understand correctly, musically speaking Bruce Springsteen was a
musical Final Boy and when he married Julianne Phillips he endured
musical nerd rage, but he was redeemed when he left his (then) wife for
Patty. Right?
I hope you have a fabulous Hallowe'en!
I hope you have a fabulous Hallowe'en!
Muse, thank you! Happy
Halloween to you as well. I'll have to give Bruce's Final Boyism some
thought. I remember a ton of backlash coming his and Patty Scialfa's
way, so I'm not sure if the nerd rage goes to Patty or to Julianne.
What do you think?
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