The Representation of Final Girls in Films and Fairy Tales

It is a common trend in slasher films that the final character is a strong willed, innocent and resourceful woman. The final girl trope has always been present in the horror genre, especially in slasher films. In spite of this fact, why is it that no one talks about it? Surely this representation of female characters should be celebrated. In her book 'Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in Modern Horror Films', (Clover, 1992) coined the term 'Final Girl'. She suggests that although horror films are about the antagonist, the viewers change the character that they identify with, this being the final girl, at the end of the film.

The shift from being the damsel in distress to the survivor; the prey to the hunter, gives the viewers someone to root for. Although the villains are usually overpowered and has a better chance of winning, it is not human nature to support a character with bad morals. The question that arises is why is it always a female character and why do they always have a stereotype? Studies have shown that if the gender was reversed, viewers are less likely to sympathise with men characters. It could be due to the fact that everyone loves an underdog character and women have always been stereotyped as physically and sometimes mentally weaker than men. Therefore there is a bigger journey for the female character to overcome to be the survivor whereas it would be predictable and viewers can assume that the male counterpart would survive.

Clover also suggests that final girls are necessary because villains are often men and the terror that the final girl experiences throughout the film 'purges' the character of her personal problems. An example would be Ripley from (Alien, 1979) where she forgets about the quest of returning home and all she focuses on in the latter part of the film is killing the Xenomorphs and surviving. She broke film stereotypes when she actively sought the alien to kill it at the end of the film. It is one thing to kill the antagonist while the character is defending herself but Ripley changed cinema history when she took action.

On the other hand, why can't the final girl not experience all the terrors that horror films present? I think we can link this trope back to fairy tales. Almost all notable fairy tales have final girls in them, albeit they may not be the only survivor. Characters such as Cinderella, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood are innocent and go through hardships like all final girls in films. They eventually overcome their foes and survive, with the exception of the Little Mermaid as she turned into sea foam at the end of the original story. However it can be argued that she won as it is less painful to die than to see your true love loving someone else. It is almost as if final girls are modified versions of fairy tale heroines. There's a sadistic voyeurism in viewers taking pleasure from seeing female characters in distress although I believe it is the resolution that they enjoy thee most. The juxtaposition of being physically and mentally tortured to the final girl having a moment of realisation quite frankly, is enjoyable to see. If the female character was to be tortured and killed at the end, I don't think horror films would be as successful as they are now.

The film (Cabin in the Woods, 2012) is a great critical satire of the slasher genre the final girl trope. It successfully explores the final girl character as she is revealed to be a virgin, would not partake in activities like heavy drinking and sexual acts and she survived the false end of the film. However, she broke the stereotype by deciding that humanity is not worth saving and ends of smoking marijuana as the world ends. It was refreshing to see the final girl relax and not have to worry about death because she chose to embrace it instead.

The final girl can also be observed in games.  Clementine from the Walking Dead (2012) games is one of my favourite characters. Not only do we get to see her grow up, but we also decide who she becomes as a person. Although with decision making games, there will always be multiple set endings. With all the endings, Clementine survives even though she goes through unbearable torments like sewing her own arm and killing people she knew. Strong female characters are slowly developing in games although we could expect them to be weak at first to allow for character development. Another final girl type character in games is Sam from Until Dawn (2015). The game itself is a homage to the slasher film genre. However the game allows the players to make decisions that can lead to hundreds of different endings. This game represents an excellent marriage between games and films which I hope other studios follow up on as I think a successful narrative makes for a successful game. This game demonstrates a great way to let film lovers direct their own film. It's a tendency for viewers to yell at the screen, telling the characters to not split up or to not go to the woods. In this game, Sam is represented as the final girl on some of the endings where she survives. She is 'innocent' and resourceful, like most final girls in films. This game breaks the trope by giving the players the chance to let her die or to fight o the end for her survival. Another great thing about this game is that you can play as other characters: the 'jock', the 'bimbo' or even the villain himself.


Ultimately, there are many things that can be fixed in the final girl trope to better represent women in digital media. However, it will be a part of story telling for years to come. It has worked for years and had proven itself to be a very effective narrative device.


Alien. (1979). [video] USA: Ridley Scott.
Cabin in the Woods. (2012). [DVD] Vancouver: Joss Whedon.
Telltale. (2012) The Walking Dead. Xbox/PS4/PC. California: Telltale Games
Supermassive Games. (2015) Until Dawn. PS4. Surrey: Sony Computer Entertainment

Weekly Summary: 8

New Final Piece:

After talking to Chris, I decided to follow his suggestions by working on this design. He suggested that I take aways the tree and just focus on the character. I've always been worried that I avoid environments because of my lack of knowledge. However it's okay for this particular task because we are briefed to design a character. I also feel that an expressive face could make up for the simple 

background.

I wasn't sure if the witch should have a maniacal smile. Djinns were created to tempt humans and I was thinking that maybe it was her intention all along to have the warrior kill her.

I decided to go with a shocked face because This scene is only the introduction of the story. I think it would give too much away or possibly be confusing if she was smiling.

I tried very hard not to draw without outlines as it is a good practice. I'm pretty proud of this piece. It definitely needs work in terms or lighting, colours and values which I will work on improving  in the future.

Weekly Summary: 7

Model Sheet:

I really like the illustration I made for my character sheet so I reused it for my model sheet's profile view.

This was a fairly straightforward process because I didn't have to generate ideas. However I think it really helped me with my 3D awareness because I was thinking of the possibility of modelling it. I had to think of how much information to put so that it can be seen as a model while also not cluttering it with unnecessary details.

Final Piece Thumbnails and Experiments:

Above: Some sketches for final piece ideas. I really wanted a vertical panorama of witch waiting by the tree showing the underground space.

  Above: Iterations of my chosen design.

I mixed the upper and lower levels of 2 designs and fixed the perspective of the bottom part.

 

Above: Colour experiments. I like them all but I can see the scene set during sunset with purple and red hues. My original plan is to get inspiration from Edmund Dulac or Arthur Rackham as shown below. However it proved to be quite difficult their colour palettes and style.

Eventually I went back to just drawing it for now just to get my final piece finished.

Final choice for colours and composition

Something wasn't quite right with my thumbnail so I sat down and analysed it and I realised the character seems a bit lost in this image so I moved her a bit to the right to show her as well as the hole in the tree.

At this point I knew I want to try a completely new design because the brief says to 'maintain a tight focus on the character and pose to emote'. It seems to be a recurring problem that I don't read the brief enough. Maybe it would be worth printing out a copy so that I can keep looking at it and meet the criteria. 

I thought I was in too deep already so I kept colouring this piece hoping that I would eventually like it.

After looking at some sunset photos, I noticed that most trees are silhouettes so I darkened the tree and lowered the saturation. I have now decided to abandon this design and start a completely new one because I'm not going to be happy with it. 

Dulac, E. (2007). File:Edmund Dulac - The Garden of Paradise - Fairy of the Garden garment.jpg. [image] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/32/Edmund_Dulac_-_The_Garden_of_Paradise_-_Fairy_of_the_Garden_garment.jpg/478px-Edmund_Dulac_-_The_Garden_of_Paradise_-_Fairy_of_the_Garden_garment.jpg [Accessed 3 Nov. 2015].

Rackham, A. (2011). File:Arthur Rackham King Thrushbeard.jpg. [image] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Arthur_Rackham_King_Thrushbeard.jpg [Accessed 3 Nov. 2015].

Weekly Summary: 6

Iterations:

My first idea was to sketch some body types to develop my character. I focused on 3 and tried to create personas that could be used in my version of the story.

After getting critiqued by my peers, I've decided to choose the first iteration due to the fact that it makes the most contextual sense. I think it makes for a stronger character if the witch is young. The hunched back and the limp adds vulnerability which helps entice the warrior to help her. It doesn't seem too out of place if a disabled woman is in the forest by herself; she was probably driven away by society due to prejudice. I think my idea fits the structure of folklores and fairy stories.

Clothes Pattern Iteration:

Persian aesthetics are most commonly known for their intricate patterns. I did some quick iterations from patterns I found online. I am still undecided at this point although I am leaning towards the first 3. The 4th and 5th ones are a bit too busy for my eyes and I don't think I can spend hours working on a final piece with crazy patterns like those.

Head Gear/ Walking Stick Iteration:

I also did some iterations of the head gear and the walking stick. I could have iterated the dress but with the buys patterns would make it hard for any other design aspect to come through. I decided to go with the 2nd Head gear because I enjoy drawing fabric and I think the draping would be interesting to draw. As for the walking stick, I went with the last one because the most interesting silhouette and it could be fun to figure out how it balances.

Initial Character Sheet:

As I have mentioned before, I love character sheets. The more I work on my djinn character, the more motivated I get to make a character sheet to the best of my abilities. I thought I was doing well until Nigel pointed that my character's centre of gravity was off and that she's not properly balanced. It took me a few attempts with the help of some references to get it right. It did make me a little bit paranoid that my drawings aren't correct because I wouldn't have known something was wrong with it until somebody else pointed it out. I learned to step back and ask other people for opinions more otherwise I would have done a whole character sheet with a character that has no balance.

I then decided that I was spending far too much time on it so I abandoned the idea of an orthographic view and went with a profile view instead.  I then encountered another problem, the smoke. I wanted the smoke to look stylised and hazed and it was solved with trial and error. I think my initial design(above) is too blurred. I wanted the effect to be a mixture of her phasing and smoke.

As shown above, I changed the layout of my character sheet a couple of times in order to maximise space. I really enjoyed creating this and I think it reflects on my work. I can say that I'm proud of it because I had so much fun with it and I learned a lot from it.