Who was Carol Clover?
Carol clover is an American Professor who works at the University of California, she studies many subjects including film studies, rhetoric language and Scandinavian mythology. In her book 'Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Film'. She is also known for developing 'Final Girl' Theory. This changed both the popular and academic conceptions of gender within the horror films.
What has Carol Clover done for Horror?
Carol clover has developed many theories within the horror genre, these include theories such as; Killers childhood issues, Terrible Places, Weapons, victims and the final girls.
Killers childhood issues:
Many of the killers within Horrors tend to have childhood issues, for example Freddie Kruger was a child molester who was sexually disturbed from a young age. This scares the audience as it shows that the killers have psychological problems and therefore they feel more empathic towards the killers this makes it more scary because it ends up with the audience feel sorry for a ruthless killer just because it shows a bit of their life. The fact there is very small information about this person life it makes the person seem ominous and scary and therefore it adds to the scaryness to it.
Killers childhood issues:
Many of the killers within Horrors tend to have childhood issues, for example Freddie Kruger was a child molester who was sexually disturbed from a young age. This scares the audience as it shows that the killers have psychological problems and therefore they feel more empathic towards the killers this makes it more scary because it ends up with the audience feel sorry for a ruthless killer just because it shows a bit of their life. The fact there is very small information about this person life it makes the person seem ominous and scary and therefore it adds to the scaryness to it.