Men, Women and Chainsaws reading questions

1. What does Clover mean by 'female victim-hero'?
Clover explains that the "female victim hero" is the main female character who fits into both the role of the victim but also resolves the matter in the end. The example given in the extract is from the movie Carrie. Where Clover explains how the character Carrie is bullied for being the awkward student in school and an incident involving her starting her period end her up getting extremely humiliated in the girls locker room. By the near end of the film Carrie takes revenge on all of the popular who have ever bullied her and upset her by using her mind telepathic powers to kill then and the whole school too. So in effect she overcomes her bullies but not in the most fashionable way by killing the majority of them, but however, she is then put into the role of the hero as the evil towards her has been avenged and destroyed.

2. Why does Clover say that males relate to the females in horror films, in particular, the 'final girl'?
Males can relate to females within horror films because the actions caused upon a female are more typical for something to happen to a boy. From the extract it explains that from the film Carrie, that the "pulling gym shorts down and thumb-rubbing glasses" are things that boys do to each other or that boys do to girls, so similarly when these kind of actions were caused to Carrie, many males could relate as these actions were probably done to them when they were back in high school as an adolescent boy.

3. Why does Clover suggest that horror research is problematic?
Clover suggests that researching horror audiences is problematic as horror films were typically made independently and in addition horror films had short theatrical runs which meant that many horror films made their profit from videocassette rentals, buyers normally remain unknown and therefore it is difficult to do research when most of the buyers of horror films remain hidden.

4. Who does Clover suggest makes-up the typical horror audience?
Clover suggests that the typically the horror audience is made up of adolescent males either in groups going to the cinema. Research was partially done on people renting out films on video cassettes. It was discovered that men rented out 4 time out of 5 when it came to the film "Ms. 45". In total 9 out of 10 men rented out horror films which suggests that the horror audience is made up of mainly men under the age of 25.

5. Was there parity between horror audiences in regards to those who watched horror films at the cinema and those who watched them at home through rentals?
The parities between horror audiences who watched it through cinemas compared to watching them through rentals, is that there is a more hidden audience when it comes to rentals compared to cinema. In addition many went in groups to see horror films in cinema yet when it come to rentals individuals will rent them out to watch on their own. The differences between the circumstances of how they watched the horror film is a huge variable in this because some may feel either embarrassed to go to the cinema on their own to watch a horror whereas its less "frowned upon" when it comes to  people renting them out.

6. What are the two ways identified by Clover in which audiences identify with characters?
The primary identification is the use of camera work, using angles and techniques like POV shots to see through the perspective of characters and giving the audience a better understanding.
The second is secondary identification which is when audience can relate towards the actual characters both physically and emotionally, depending on what the characters situation is and how they're are portrayed during a film.