Representation: The Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2012)

1.       What were Jeremy Tunstall's 4 character roles for women and do they apply to The Cabin in the Woods?

The 4 character roles for women that Jeremy Tunstall came up with were:
- sexual
- marital
- domestic
- consumer
Not all of these are used for the female characters in ‘the cabin in the woods’. The main roles that was used in this film was “sexual”, as the character Jules was seen as a “sex object” through the film. She was the one with a boyfriend, wore reviling clothes and was flirty. She also has the stereotypical dumb girl personality and the blond hair to match.

2.       How is Dana typical of Clover's 'Final Girl' theory? Please mention: the ending; Dana's appearance and her actions during the film.

Dana’s the most intelligent female in the film, she study’s rather than go out drinking and having sex, this alone makes her more alert. This contributes to Dana being the typical final girl. Also she wasn’t frighten to fight back which gave her more of a chance for survival. Dana’s appearance was the most ‘manly’ out of the female characters as she wore conservative clothing. Also her hair colour stops her from being the dumb blond girl. She survived through the film making her the final girl.

3.       Jules undergoes mental and physical transformations during the film, what are they and how do they cause her to become a horror archetype?

Through the film the character Jules goes through mental and physical transformations. At the beginning of the film Jules mentions that she had recently died her hair to blond, the straight away makes her the “sexualized” character simply because of her hair colour, and she is most likely going to get killed. Mental transformations that Jules goes through is when the games makers realised a hormone in her that makes her more aroused. This will make her guard go down as she will be wanting sex more instead of being aware of what’s happening. This is the cause of her death as she gets killed while having sex with her boyfriend in the forest.

4.       Is Mulvey's Male Gaze theory exemplified in the film and if so, how? Think about framing, camera angles and POV shots.

The males gaze theory is the way the camera angles and techniques are used to show the female as an ‘object’ to look at while making the males a ‘subject’ who would be looking. This is shown through the film, as in one scene while Jules is dancing the camera is facing up to her, so it is if the audience is watching her from the sofa like the characters in the film. Also the camera is very low and is showing the audience a close up of her butt, legs and hips.

5.       In the film we, as an audience, are made to be voyeurs; when does this happen and why is it important in regards to representation of character?

The audience is made to be voyeurs when Holden removes the picture from the wall and sees that he can see into Dana’s room. However Dana has no idea that he can see into her room and starts to get undresses. The audience becomes voyeurs as they are put into Holden’s shoes and feel the same sort of sexual tension as he does. However Holden turns away and tells Dana that he can see into her room and then offers to swap rooms with her, this showing him to be a nice guy as the normal males would have just watched the girl get undress. Also when Dana is told about him being able to see her she quickly covers herself and is embarrassed, this shows that she is an innocent character as other female character might have not cared and just carried on.

6.       (Briefly) summarise the way women are represented in The Cabin in the Woods. Are they objectified and there to provide satisfaction for heterosexual males and/or do they fulfil another role/purpose?

In the cabin in the woods there was two different representations of women, there is the stereotypical dumb blond female who is more focus on sex then what’s happening and the danger around them, then these is the male-like female character who survives and fights back so they are able to survive. Jules was the ‘girly-girl’ character who was more interested in sex and dressed in reviling clothes. She was provided the satisfaction for the heterosexual male characters whereas Dana was the tom-boy female who was intelligent and survived.