Representation of Women in the Genre of Thriller

Representation of Women in the Genre of Thriller

Women in thriller films do not often portray specific roles, they usually vary. Younger females in Thrillers tend to have a sense of 'innocence' and 'purity', while on the other hand older women are portrayed as being mothers and often have some form of sexual appeal. These are not the only portrayals either, women can be portrayed as almost anything in thriller films and there can be more than one portrayal of how women are represented within a film.

In the 1953 thriller film "Niagra", Marilyn Monroe portrays an adulteress who plots to kill her husband. This character is seen as seductive and sly, and not a great contributor to the society, and is someone who is not in a role to restore the equilibrium at the end.

Women in thriller films are usually portrayed as being passive and dependent upon men. Women usually are not the protagonist and do not feature any particular characteristics or skills that would help to solve the issue at hand, the most stereotypical one perhaps being intelligence. Meaning that Marilyn Monroe's character in Niagra is subversive of typical representations of women in thriller films. If the film is a thriller/horror where people are getting killed off, then the final girl is usually “virginal” and does possess some masculine traits, such as independence or even a unisex name.

The blind female Protagonist in The Village is Ivy Walker, portrayed by the actress Bryce Dallas Howard. She is portrayed in the film as being young and comes across very tomboyish. Throughout the film we see that she possesses the male characteristic of being strong-willed and brave, unlike some of the male characters in the film. The plot essentially revolves around mysterious creatures being sighted in the forests that surround their village and after her boyfriend is stabbed repeatedly, it is her job to venture into the woods in search of medicines. She encounters one of the creatures and manages to trick it into falling into a pit, she ends up finding the medicines, returning to the village and this helps to restore the equilibrium. Both men and women are greatly stereotyped, however it they are usually stereotyped in very different ways. Men are usually portrayed as being very masculine and the heroes, whereas women are seen as being very passive and not independent. Again, much like the film Niagra the female is represented in a non-stereotypical way, which proves that it is acceptable for women to break stereotypes within Thriller films.



Lastly, below this text is a very improvised voice over I did on the film Taken, of the scene where Liam Neeson's daughter is taken from her apartment along with her friend while they are on holiday. Again, this was very improvised and I had no script, so I was making judgements and observations as I saw them on screen in real time.