Abstract
Carol J. Clover opened the fourth chapter, ‘The Eye of Horror’, of her book Men, Women, and Chain Saws with the statement: ‘Eyes are everywhere in horror cinema’ (1992, 167), and Linda Williams (1983/1996) before her had already insisted on the importance of the male, female and monstrous characters’ ‘looks’. Both critics are highly indebted to Laura Mulvey’s famous thesis that Hollywood narrative films posit a male gaze that punishes and/or fetishizes the female body. Clover has argued that the horror genre is just as much concerned with the ‘reactive gaze’, figured as feminine, of the spectator, and thus linked to the victim, as with the ‘assaultive gaze, figured masculine, of the camera (or some stand-in)’, and thus linked to the monster or killer (181). The fact that Clover’s corpus comprises exclusively post-Psycho (1960; dir Alfred Hitchcock) and post-Pee** Tom (1960; dir Michael Powell) horror films and mainly slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s — unlike Williams, Clover has very little to say about the classical Hollywood movies — would tend to suggest that her insights are especially pertinent when considering contemporary American horror films.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 David Roche
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Roche, D. (2015). (In)Stability of Point of View in When a Stranger Calls and Eyes of a Stranger . In: Clayton, W. (eds) Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137496478_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137496478_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-49646-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49647-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)