Feminist Anaysis of Urban Legend

Feminist Analysis of Urban Legend

The film Urban Legend (1998) follows a group of students in a New England university who are terrorized by a killer whose victims come to their end in the form of urban legends. Although the film has common feminine paradigms it does also show some aspects that are not always seen in the slasher horror sub-genre.

In the opening scene of the film we see the ‘first victim’ show pepper spray in a close up shot when she fears for her safety. This shows the preparedness of the female character as she has a way to defend herself against the attacks. This is rare to see in a slasher horror as the opening females are seen to be defenceless and an ‘easy’ kill the murder.
This sense of self defence is also shown in a mid-body shot of the female protagonist punching a male in the face. This action shows that female characters in the slasher sub-genre are becoming stronger in the sense that they are not easy victims, showing the evolution of the female character in the overall horror genre.

In this film the audience is also subjected to two stereotypical female tropes. The first one that the audience sees is the typical, busty female. This character can be applied to Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory. This theory states that women are objectified in films because heterosexual men are in control of the camera. We are exposed to the sexual nature of this female through the use of a mid-body shot whilst the character is shown to be flirting with the male protagonist. This character is also sexualised by the fact she is wearing a low tank top, therefore leaving very little to the imagination of the viewer.
On the other hand we also see a female character that is the stereotypical goth, dressed in black and seen as being severely anti-social and is not missed when she is killed. The presentation of these two girls could represent the divide in society as it seems that, we, as females are either confident or intimidated by the confidence of other girls. We also see this social divide in a wide shot in which we see the busty girls sitting next to the protagonist who is wearing much more conservative clothing, once again showing the two types of girls in our society. This also suggests that the character with the low cut top is more promiscuous compared to the covered up, more virginal character.

Like in many other horror films the theme of relationship occurs when a character questions whether another likes them or not. This is apparent in Urban Legend through the character of Brenda who is shown to pine after a male character who does seem to notice her interest in him. We see this exchange through a simple shot-reverse-shot sequence between the two characters. This sense of an almost unrequited love is extremely derogatory towards the female character as it shows that her only interest and worry is to find a boyfriend to depend him, making the female gender seem very dependent on males.

One female horror trope that has been cast out in Urban Legend is the appearance of the female protagonist. In many horror films, including the Scream franchise and Prom Night, the main female, or supporting character, has blonde hair. This promotes the stereotype that blonde girls lack intelligence and is usually emphasised by their early death in the film. However Urban Legend contradicts this idea by having the leading female being a red head, suggesting that this ‘final girl’ is intellectually superior to female characters in other films in the slasher sub-genre.

However even the apparent intellectuals of the film are still subjected to the common tropes of females in horror films. An example of this is when the protagonist is shown to be very emotional, but her hair is perfectly framing her face. This shows that, in horror films, women cannot be pretty and emotional and must always look to some degree attractive. The protagonist is then seen to have a vain nature as she fixes her hair in a brief moment of solitude, showing how girls are only seen to be worrying about the appearance, which is a male interpretation of how woman act.

Like in many horror films the female characters are used as sexual objects by the males. A prime example of this in Urban Legend is shown by a male character making a sexual advance on the female protagonist whilst she is clearly upset. Firstly, this scene shows how only women are the subject of emotional trauma at a frightening time, showing how easily women are over taken by their emotions and how it incapacitates them. Secondly, it shows the predatory nature of males in horror films as they believe that being overcome by emotions make woman more susceptible to sex. This idea of frailty is also shown when the protagonist asks the classic question “What if there really is a killer?” This is shot in a close up shot to show the fear in the females face. However this shot once again shows the idea that the woman is the only one affected by the events that are unfolding.

There are two main paradigm shifts seen in Urban Legend. The first is the fact that there is a female authority figure that has an impact on the plot. The character known as Reese is the only campus police officer and is also acts as the funny African American character in the film. On this level she is an independent woman as she has not officer to look up to, however she is ruled by the white, male authority figures of the university.
The more prominent paradigm in the film is its outcome. This is one of the very few slasher films where the killer turns out to be female. This is a huge paradigm shift as it shows women as being as capable of murder as men. This also shows how women are also susceptible to deranged mental states and are not always crying or screaming for help.

To conclude, the film Urban Legend shows many sides of feminism, most of them are negative and are derogatory towards women. However there are also some positive aspects, such as the appearance of the leading female that breaks the conventions that are commonly shown in the slasher horror sub-genre, therefore showing the evolution of the genre from the first films like Halloween and Friday the 13^th.