This blog is dedicated to Rotbah Nitia. You suck for leaving me for a third world country.
As many of you already know I had written a very interesting paper on how disability is portrayed in horror movies. My famous evil monster for this long as 5000 words essay was Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger. If you don’t know who these people are you must have been living under a rock for the last 30 years.
Well writing this essay was very interesting. I had an extremely hard time finding any proper academic article that backed up my hypothesis that how these villains are portrayed have an effect on the lay person on how they view a disable person. So anyone doing any interested in a MA or a PhD disability topic this can be the direction you can be going at.
History teaches us that our society have views people with any sort of disability as being in a disadvantage position. I believe that still today popular culture views disabled individuals as “tragic”, “broken”, “inferior”, and worst as a “monster”. By viewing people with disability as tragic, broken, inferior, and as monsters, we tend to separate our society and give them the label of the “others”. We give them the label of being the others is because of our inability to relate to someone or something we perceive as radically, insurmountably different from ourselves. Most of us have trouble knowing how to react to someone who behaves strangely, or whose behaviour or ideas scare us. We say, "He's out of his mind,""He's lost his mind," or "He's acting crazy" (Kaufman, 2008). This concept of the other serves a purpose, which is to assure us that we are nothing like them and even fear them.
The concept and this fear of the “other” have handed over an ideology that horror film maker are exploiting. This ideology of the others results into horror movie villains that are physically or mentally disabled. Before understanding how disability is used and abused by film makers, it is important to understand some of the common characteristics all slasher films have which makes the general public stereotype disable able people and fear them fear (Kaufman, 2008). In addition, I will be explaining why film-makers continue to abuse this ideology beside the obvious fact that slasher films are big-money makers.
Slasher films are a sub-genre of the horror films that involves a psychopathic killer, stalking, and killing a sequence of victims in a violent manner. This killing often involves the use of cutting tool such as a chainsaw or scythe (Kaufman, 2008). The physically or mentally disabled villain is better known as the indestructible “the monster” in slasher horror movies.
First is the important role of the killer. The killer is also commonly known as the other. The killer is usually male, and his identity is often, but not always, unknown and/or concealed either by a mask. It is very common in slasher movies that the killer is mute and seemingly unstoppable, able to withstand stabbings, falls and shootings by his victims. Being mute is a common disability and it is very likely that the general public will stereotype any mute person as a horrific killer (Dika, 1990).
The killer have always suffered from some sort of childhood trauma (that caused some sort psychological disability). Because type of trauma determines the killers’ choice of victims, weapon and location (the killer can be made out to be pitiable or understood). (Jason was wanted to desperately want to make his mother happy and Freddy is looking for revenge). Slasher villains tend to prefer hand held weapons such as knives, axes, hatchetes, and chainsaws as opposed to bombs or guns. Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers are notable examples of this type of killers (Dika, 1990). This killer character is also commonly known as the character of the “other”. I will further explain below how this character is formulated by slasher film maker and how disability is used to form this character (Dika, 1990).
The violence is one thing that separates slasher films from thrillers and murder mysteries. Slashers deemphasize plot and character development in favour of violence and terror. Plots are constructed around giving the audience the experience of watching the killer murders. The deaths are often violent and graphic, with originality being valued in the later films to hold audience interest (Dika, 1990).
Halloween was the first slash film that first to introduce the concept of an indestructible evil force. Halloween is claimed to be responsible for the rise of the slasher trend, popularizing many of what would become key elements in the genre (Rockoff, 2002, &
http://www.popcornpictures.co.uk/ffilms/friday13.shtml).
The slasher genre arguably peaked in 1983, when nearly 60% of all box-office takings were for slasher movies. During the peck of slasher movies the audience interest was maintained by developing new, graphic and realistic special effects. Some slasher movies series, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, have added the supernatural twists to the formula, as well as comedic elements as the respective series progressed (Bracke, 2005). Movies, such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13, are concepts that were created almost thirty years ago but the same concept is being recycled in now. The same villains are still on our movie screens and using the same characters of slasher films. Yet, they still break box-office records. These villains are important money makers in the film industry.
In this franchise we see a more of a focus on returning villain than on surviving victims. Some of the common returning villains are Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorgees, Michael Myers, and Chucky. All of these villains are now recognizable American pop culture icons. This money making machine, abuses the idea of being disable and not care what affect they have on stereotyping disabilities.
In slasher movies, villain characters Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorgees, and Michael Myers is also labeled as the other. Because these villains do not have any supernatural powers but yet feared by all. Social research tells us that most of us views people who are mentally ill or physically disable as being extremely different from us. That is why we label them as the “other”. Concept of the other is the inability to relate to someone or something we perceive as radically, insurmountably different from ourselves. Most of us have trouble knowing how to react to someone who behaves strangely, or whose behaviour or ideas scare us. We say, "He's out of his mind,""He's lost his mind," or "He's acting crazy" (Kaufman, 2008). This concept of the other serves a purpose, which is to assure us that we are nothing like them.
This other character is also commonly known as the indestructible monster because they cannot control their behaviour. The word monster originally describes people with congenital impairment. As departure from the normatively human, monsters were seen as category violation or grotesques hybrids (Kaufman, 2008).
So why these character of the other or the monster is being used in horror movies? Horror movies on supernatural beings all begin with the assumption that the real world is governed by "natural law" and every one of us live according to this belief. The foundation of any horror movie is that this natural law is somehow violated. In non-supernatural horror movies, also known as the slasher movies have two autonomous categories that violate this natural law (Weaver & Tamborini, 2005).
First category is called the pseudonatural. In this category the natural law is violated because of an abnormal state of mind, mental disability. The second category is called the conte-cruel. In this category the natural law is violated through inhuman viciousness. Usually slasher films consist of both of these categories and villains are mainly motivated through rage or revenge and are mass murders, which kill for the reason for killing (Weaver & Tamborini, 2005).
In slasher movies, the villain who achieves monster status is viewed not to be human any more or even worth saving. As mentioned above, the villains from slasher movies is suffering from psychosis or Dissociative Identity Disorder or suffer from physical disabilities, instead of being demonically possessed (Kaufman, 2008). And being different from others because of physical or mental disability violets the natural law.
Not only slahser movies also manage to blur the line between reality and fiction. It is very common for us to encounter with someone who is physically or mentally disable. It may be also normal to encounter someone who full rage and wants revenge. It is not pragmatic at all to encounter someone who has supernatural power, for example an evil witch or wizard. This makes the character of villains in slasher movies very realistic. As a result when someone is watching slasher films, one realizes that these villain are different the accepted norm of human beings and violates the natural law but not because of supernatural powers, but because of some sort of disability (Weaver & Tamborini, 2005). You are more likely to bump into a disable person than someone who is a witch.
By making the characters very realistic, it results into uncertain threat to existential nature and the fear of potential aftermath when faced with these characters (which are approaching danger that could result in death) among able bodies. This further segregates our society into us and the others, and deepens our fear of being different (in this case being disabled) (Weaver & Tamborini, 2005).
Many slahser villains/monsters are both mentally ill and physically disabled. There are two reasons why mental illness and physical disabled is placed together to create the monster. First, mental illness can be perceived by many of us as something to be scared of. Second, the average person finds it much easier to connect "sociopath" with "monster" than to accept that circumstances contributed to that person's behaviour (Kaufman, 2008). That is why horror filmmakers can abuse these fears and understanding to their advantage to create such monsters for their movies.
In stories about demonic possession, the demon (rather than the person) is responsible for the horrific acts that are committed. Moreover, when the demon is exorcised, the person receives no punishment and he or she resumes a normal life (Kaufman, 2008). On the other hand, horror stories about mentally ill person, the person is punished for the horrific acts that are committed and he or she never resumes to normal life. These story usual ends when this monster is admitted at a mental asylum. These stories just add more fuels into out fear of the other, that mentally ill person can never be “cured”. He or she has to lock up in mental asylum (Kaufman, 2008).
Result of a survey done in the US among horror movie lover (both sex and ages from 16 to 91) showed that the number one favourite horror monster of all time is Freddy Kreuger because of his killing inclinations (Jason Voorhees was a close second). Not only that, the survey takers answer the reason Freddy is their favourite monster is because he is the most “realistic” monster (Fischoff, 2005). Majority of the survey taker have stated that they are scared of being attacked by someone who looks like Freddy Krueger. Freddy was a child molester who was burned alive by the parents of Springwood (the city he is from). As a result, his skin is burned and scared, and he has no hair on his head.
Child molesters and burned victims are both represent in our society. These realistic characteristics are the reason why the younger generation of viewers prefers villains who are physically or mentally disable. The survey results show the reason for this because they can related to the situation on screen which resulted into making monsters like Freddy, Jason and Leather-Face very popular. Whereas, it is hard to mentally connect old monsters, such as Frankenstein, to be realistic or as a psychopath. Horror film makers intentions is to please the audiences’ demand, even if it means to abuses mental and physical disability features to create these realistic horror monster, which further segregate our society as able and disable bodies (Fischoff, 2005).
This public demand result into film makers drawing their inspiration of horror film villains from people they know or knew who were mentally or physically disabled. One big example of this was when characteristics of our second favourite horror movie villain, Jason Voorhees, were being brain-stormed. Jason Voorhees is the fictional character indestructible monster from the Friday the 13th slahser series that first appeared in Friday the 13th (1980), as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer Mrs. Voorhees. He was not originally intended to be the main villain. But his success of scaring people have lead to him appearing various other media, including novels, comic books, and a cross-over film with another iconic horror film character, Freddy Krueger. Friday the 13th consists of twelve slasher films, a television show, novels, comic books, and tie-in merchandise. The first film was created to cash in on the success of Halloween (1978). But its success led Paramount Pictures to purchase the full licensing rights to the Friday the 13th franchise. This shows much money was made from just one masked character. Jason’s mask is a very popular icon in the western culture (Crale, 2002).
The creation of this monster was ideas combined by Victor Miller, Ron Kurz, and Tom Savini. Even the last name of this character, "Voorhees", was inspired by a girl that Miller knew at high school, whose last name was Voorhees. He chose this name because it gave him a creepy feeling every time he heard it, which was perfect for Jason (Grove, 2005, P.50). Nothing about this character was meant to make you feel safe.
From the book, Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp Blood, we learn that writer Victor Miller initially wrote the Jason Voorhees character to be a normal looking child. Miller explained in his script that Jason did not look like the “creature from the "Black Lagoon". He was a mentally disabled young boy who was also a non-verbal, indestructible, and machete-wielding mass murderer (Grove, 2005, pp.55). Before he died, Jason was a special needs child who required a lot of attention and bullied by others. He was supposed to be silent, expressionless and have a blank stare. It was Savini who made Jason deformed and Kurz wanted to turn Jason into a "mongoloid creature", and have him "jump out of the lake at the end of the film”. He turned into a "formidable, unstoppable monster." By 2009, Fuller and Form contend that they did not want to make Jason too sympathetic to the audience. As Brad Fuller explains, "We do not want him to be sympathetic. Jason is not a comedic character, he is not sympathetic. He's a killing machine “Plain and simple" (Grove, 2005, pp. 57 & Bracke, 2006, pp.50).
Another survey conducted by California State University's Media Psychology Lab surveyed 1,166 people Americans aged from 16 to 91 on the psychological appeal of movie monsters. Many of the characteristics associated with Jason Voorhees were appealing to the participants. That is because Jason’s disabilities are very realistic. Majority of the participants knew someone who is mute or them themselves or know someone who wants to desperately want to please their mother (explained below). In the survey, Jason was considered to be an "unstoppable killing machine." (Fischoff, 2005). Participants were impressed by the "cornicopic feats of slicing and dicing a seemingly endless number of adolescents and the occasional adult." Out of the ten monsters used in the survey—which included Vampires, Freddy Krueger, Frankenstein's monster, Michael Myers, Godzilla, Chucky, Hannibal Lecter, King Kong, and the Alien—Jason scored the highest in all the categories involving killing variables. Further characteristics that appealed to the participants included Jason's "immortality, his apparent enjoyment of killing [and] his superhuman strength." (Fischoff, 2005).
Jason’s motivation for killing is to please his mother. If you have watched the movie, you would learn that his mother desperately wanted to get revenge from the camp counselors that caused Jason’s death. Jason has come back from the death to please his mother’s wish and wants her attention. His motivation is best described by Kirzinger "psychotic mama's boy gone horribly awry...Very resilient. You can't kill him, but he feels pain, just not like everyone else." Kirzinger goes on to say that Jason is a "psycho-savant", and believes his actions are based on pleasing his mother, and not anything person (Grove, 2005, pp. 221-222).
One of the sense, (Alice is attacked in a canoe by Jason, and then she wakes up in a hospital bed) was written especially after Jason’s character was physically deformed. In this sense, Jason pop out of the lake would be psychologically disturbing to the audience, and since Alice is supposed to be dreaming, the crew could get away with adding anything they wanted (Bracke 2006, pp. 36).
As you can see the when the characteristics of the villain were being brained-stormed, Miller already knew that Jason was going to be mentally disable. Jason is different from the rest of us because of his mental disability. Hence, we have no problem labelling him as the other or the “monster”. Not only that, Miller fuelled our fear of the other by making Jason an indestructible mass-murder. Miller also did not want any sequel of this character. He argues that producers have they made Jason the villain. Miller believes the best part of his screenplay was that it was about a mother avenging the senseless death of her son. Miller stated, "Jason was dead from the very beginning; he was a victim, not a villain” (http://www.victormiller.com/faq/index.html#q11). It again shows that producers only want to make money not caring much about how it may change the concept of the original character.
Being only mentally ill indestructible mass-murder was not scary enough from the producers of the movie. That is why the crew of the film felt that Jason’s should be physically deformed. Tom Savini (makeup artist) got his inspiration for Jason’s physical features from someone he knew as a child. The person whom he knew as a child had a disfigured face, whose eyes and ear did not line up straight. Originally, Jason was supposed to have hair, but Savini and his crew decided to make him bald. This way Jason could have a dome-shaped head, which made him look like a "hydrocephalic, mongoloid pinhead". The make-up crew was very proud of this creating of this iconic monster. As you can see, the make crew got All their inspiration for Jason’s physical appearance was from someone who was physically different from the accepted norm. This was how the famous monster Jason Voorhees was made and his creators were very proud when he jumped out of the lake at the end of the film and left the audience psychologically disturbed (Bracke, 2006).
Another very well-know slasher monster is Freddy Krueger, from the slasher series, A Nightmate on Elme Street. Freddy is commonly known as a disfigure monster with an emotional story. If you have seen the movies, you would learn that Freddy was born out of the result of rape. His mother, who worked in a mental asylum (that holds all the criminally insane), was raped by the patients. His mother has given him up for adopting, but Freddy was adopted by an abusive family with an alcoholic father. This is what caused Freddy to have a traumatic childhood and exhibit sociopathic behaviour and antisocial personality disorder. Not only that at school, he was called “son of a hundred maniacs” – essentially mockery. Despite all this, Freddy tried to live a normal life but he ended up becoming a child molester. The parents of these children burned Freddy alive after he was realised from jail. From the night of his death, Freddy returns in the dreams of his victims – the victims being the children of the parents who torched his house. He uses his comedic personality traits to draw them in and keep them scared, while slowly torturing them, whether it would be by their own psychological fears or physical pain (Jorgensen, 2009).
Freddy is a burned victim with a traumatic childhood. Jason was a special needs child, who died to because negligence of camp counsellors. Both are physically and mental disabled. These types of movies definitely create a fear among our society.
It is not to forget that fear is a natural human response and has been experience by each one of us at some point of time in our lives. But how disability is portrayed in slasher films, results into fear that basically arises out of distrust of people or situation. The concept of distrust portrayed in salsher films is the lack of belief but it is actually a sense of uneasiness borne out of the feeling that something might go wrong at an unknown point of time. This sometime makes one reach pre-emptively, which means that one changes one's behaviour too drastically and too suddenly (Grant, N.D.).
Another form of fear is called terror, a fear of extreme kind. Terror is the central of all slasher films. When someone is struck by terror the chemical response in the brain prevents the person from making a rational decision, and therefore, reacts without thinking in panic. It is possible that a person's response might be far greater than what the situation demands. In other words, the person might overreact in panic (Grant, N.D.. All slasher film has scene where a victim is chased by the disable “monster” and the victim reacts by in trying to kill the monster.
Fear actually is not all that bad because it is our natural biological response to the situations that may endanger life. If it were not there, we would be far more inclined to put others and ourselves in danger. But excess of everything is bad; so when fear is excessive, it becomes a disability (Grant, N.D.).
This fear does sometimes create an awkward gap between able and disable bodies. Many can argue that our society creates this awkward and not what is portrayed in slasher films which builds a fear among able bodies on people with obvious disability. It does not matter what creates this awkward gap. But this gap is caused by many different emotional and psychological factors. A diplomatic and accept answer to this question is that some able-bodied people have difficulty facing a disabled person because it puts a clear reminder in their face that they could become disabled one day. But I believe it also could be the fear that the disable person can be mass murder as portrayed in slasher movies. Whatever the fact is, none of us would rather not face or openly admit it. But what is the result is that able bodies act weird around disable bodies. This further deepens the gap in our society and creates discrimination against disable people (also known as ableism) (
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ableism).
The stereotypes portrayed in slasher movies are that persons with disabilities are deformed individuals who may also be horrible deviants. For example, the slasher movie such as the Nightmare on Elm Street series show a villain who was turned into a hateful, sadistic killer because of disfigurement resulting from a fire. Not only that, in non-slasher films, such as the Batman have villains that are disabled: such as the Joker who was disable after failing into a vat of acid; the Penguin who was born with flippers instead of arms. Disability right advocates argue that this type of images on disability does not have a positive effect on the disable community. This leads into fear of disable person which can result into lack of employment opportunities for the disable community. Employment is directly correlated with poverty (Kendall, pg. 494).
When doing research for this essay, I realized that no one ever has asked the question, how it affects an ordinary able person when disability is portrayed such a horrific way. No one openly wants to admit that they fear a disable person when because of Jason or Michael. From all the survey conducted, the most common answer was that people admitting that they like slasher villains because they are realist. You are more likely to see someone who is mute or have burn scares than to dump into someone who is a werewolf. But I am sure if further research is done on this topic (fear a disable person because of what is portrayed in slasher films) there will be a lot of people admitting that how disability is portrayed in slahser films have affected how they view a disable person.
In conclusion, slasher movie makers will continue to abuse disabilities to make money. More research needs to be done on what affect these slasher movies have on people when viewing someone with disability. As long as Jason and Freddy continues to be a popular cultural icon, able bodies will continue to have unrealistic fear on disable able people.
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