So, on 15 April 2012, I spoke at the tail end of the annual British Association of American Studies conference at the University of Manchester.
I had initially written this paper, and upon reviewing it en route, realised that I could not, in good conscience, read what I had written. First, I made a couple of blatantly unsubstantiated claims, which are easily disproved. I made them in the first place because I was working on my fallacious memory of films that I had not seen since I was about 11. Even though I rewatched them, my early faulty memory dominated my textual analysis- always a bad move. Second, the writing style was incredibly stilted, and I could in no way comfortably read this without boring everyone, including myself.
With powerpoint presentation in hand, including several film clips, and a list of quotes and references, I proceeded to use these sources to create a presentation based on my entirely revised memory of viewing these films. What I came out with was a far more accurate account of the similarities between the texts I was researching.
For your amusement, however, I am here publishing my original paper in its horribly misguided form. The areas highlighted in red are entirely untrue and were excised from the final presentation. Some other claims are extremely tenuous, and I left those out as well in my presentation. However, quite a bit of this did make it in, placed in a more conversational manner and organised slightly better, I feel, without having to worry about the information matching my speech cadence. I also added in a couple of references at the bottom that I included, but couldn't quite fit into the format of this paper.
Enjoy, and if you want to ask anything, please do!
Wick.
PS- I'm NOT including a Bibliography, but if you want a reference, ask anytime.
Like Death, But Faster: Superheroes and the American Slasher
Although within the last ten years, superhero films have been a moneymaking staple of the Hollywood film industry, examples of successful superhero franchises are still apparent from the mid-80s and earlier. Although comic books appear to be the primary medium for the appearance of these stories, popular television series such as “Superman” starring George Reeves, “Batman” starring Adam West, and “Wonder Woman” starring Linda Carter were all significant cultural artefacts within the 50s, 60s, and 70s, respectively. Although the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman series is the only example of a significant superhero-based film franchise. Roz Kaveney analyses Christopher Reeve’s Superman as the perfect balance between tongue-in-cheek humour and serious steely integrity, (2008; 233) and David Hughes claims that Christopher Reeve as the right choice, in retrospect, to play Superman properly. Other films, such as the film spin-off, Batman: The Movie (1966; dir. Martinson) starring West, and Supergirl (1984; dir. Szwarc) starring Helen Slater are notable additions to, what can essentially be considered a subgenre of action.
Based on box office figures, the popularity of these films ascended and declined simultaneously with that of franchise slasher films, such as Friday the 13th and Halloween. However, while the Superman franchise died out, the slasher franchises appear to have adopted formal traits of the superhero film, giving it a new lease on life. While initially adopting a distinct form, different from the superhero films, the slasher, beginning in 1984 with the appearance of A Nightmare on Elm Street and its seemingly indestructible antagonist, Freddy Krueger, with his own set of overbearing strengths and obscure weaknesses, began to infuse these antagonists with characteristics of the superhero. What results is a group of film series finding new life by appropriating elements of these dying superhero films, resulting in an antithetical framework: the anti-superhero, or, indeed, the super anti-hero. An observation of the narrative styles and film forms demonstrate similar framing of not only the stories as they are told, but also the appearance and presentation of these antagonists; Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th films, and Michael Myers from the Halloween films; in comparison to Superman, Batman, and Supergirl. By doing this I aim to demonstrate both the aesthetic influence of these superhero films, and the way in which the generic interplay of these conventions, in turn, informed later superhero films to create a form of dysfunctional superhero with considerably more depth and darkness than the Superman who fights for “truth, justice, and the American way”.
The narrative structures of the early superhero films are fairly standard across the superhero genre. Firstly, the narratives are largely episodic as opposed to causally driven. Typically, each film establishes the superhero and the antagonist/s separately, each at the centre of various set pieces. Eventually, however, the antagonists cause a problem with which the superhero becomes involved, and gradually the antagonists attempt different ways of dispatching or using the superhero until the climax, where he/she defeats the villains.
This is the same with the late-80s slasher franchise films: the protagonists and super-antagonists are developed individually through a series of set pieces. Eventually the protagonists and super-antagonists become aware of each other, and after a series of meet-and retreat encounters, they face each other in the climax.
Also, the superhero films and slashers share narrative elements regarding identity and anonymity. For example- Batman/Bruce Wayne wears a mask, as do Jason from Friday the 13th and Michael from Halloween. Superman’s disguise is Clark Kent, but this serves the same purpose- to blend in with others so that he can walk around undetected. However, there is a distinct difference between the killers such as Jason and Michael and the superheores like Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent: Michael’s mask is linked to his murderous actions, though it isn’t addressed in the original franchise, and Jason’s mask covers his deformity, the uncovering of which Ian Conrich notes as a climactic feature of the Friday the 13th films. (2010; 180) One can almost imagine this as the case with superheroes as well. However, the discovery of the true identity of either the superheroes or the masked killers appear as significant narrative drives of these films, except in the Superman films, where this search is peripheral. However, it plays a major part in Batman: The Movie, and the entirety of A Nightmare on Elm Street is dedicated to discovering who Freddy is, what his powers are, and how he can be defeated.
A significant contribution provided by masks is that of visual and iconographic prominence. Here is a slide featuring the 3 primary superheroes and the 3 primary super-antagonists. Naturally, Superman and Supergirl look very similar, though Supergirl is a bit curvier. However, each retains a distinct visual look that clearly sets them apart from other characters, not only within each film, but typically within the whole of cinema. In fact, Conrich states, “Jason’s hockey mask is so much part of his identity – his one essential accessory – that without it he is incomplete and maybe even unable to function convincingly as the executioner.” (180)
Let’s look at the Slasher films from the period first. According to the documentary Going To Pieces, 1984 showed a point of low box office receipts for the slasher subgenre, though Friday 13th The Final Chapter fared well. However, later that year, A Nightmare on Elm Street took the slasher deep into the realm of the supernatural. Of course, this occurred as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning was in production, which attempted to use the same formula as previous films reconfigured, to use Vera Dika’s term, but relatively unsuccessfully, though it still made a profit. The A Nightmare on Elm Street series continued to create sequels, and in 1986, Jason Lives! Friday the 13th Part VI was released, using gothic imagery and sensibilities, and bringing him back from the dead via lightning bolt a la James Whale’s Frankenstein. In Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood from 1988, Jason faces against a teenage girl who is a telekinetic. That same year, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (dir. Little; 1988) attempts a closer return to the early 1980s slasher formula, and it introduces the character of Jaime, who is the daughter of Laurie from Halloween and Halloween II, who has died before the events of Halloween 4. Jaime, however, through nightmares, is able, on a small level to foretell the danger that Michael presents. This is followed by Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, in which Jaime is rendered mute by the traumatic experience of the previous film, but shares a psychic connection with Michael, in a similar way that the protagonist has psychic connection to Jason in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, released the same year. Significantly, this is the same year as the release of Tim Burton’s Batman.
Visually, all of these superhero and slasher films frame these characters prominently, in positions of power. (PICS). This varies greatly from the earlier slashers in that these tend to cover and disguise visual evidence of antagonists. For example, the early Halloween films largely shoot Michael Myers in the shadows, emerging occasionally. In fact, the character, in the credits, is referred to as ‘The Shadow’. In Friday the 13th Parts 2-5 Jason either is the embodiment of POV shots or is shot in fragments or from a distance until the climax. However, in the mid-80s, these films began to show these killers more frequently. Traditional conceptions of both superhero framing and super-antagonist framing are the use of low angles, with distinctive lighting, and featuring prominently the iconographic elements. However, what is most consistent between these presentations is how the body overall is presented. The physicality of the characters along with the feats of strength are highlighted through either fragmented close-ups which show the detail of the bodies, or full shots or long shots to show the whole figure, which is sometimes used to demonstrate the scale of feats of strength or the visual alternation between the two. This is the case with this clip of Superman:
One interesting overlap occurs- In 1987, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was released, in which Superman’s arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, creates a villainous superhuman counterpart for Superman using the sun’s nuclear power. Here is the sequence where he is first introduces. This has similarities to the presentation of slasher villains, as opposed to the villains in earlier Superman films.
Tino Balio includes Batman (1989; dir. Burton) along with a list of other late 80s-early 90s action films that have adopted a new formula within the Hollywood industrial context: Big antagonists, lone underdog triumphs over a system, and a non-Soviet troublemaker (174). Balio, however, is briefly summarising industry genre standards from the period. Batman, however, becomes the first film in the new superhero cycle to adopt and appropriate elements of the recently-utilised superhero-infused slasher film.
The significant difference between the earlier superhero films and Batman is that, while the earlier films show sequences of the heroes helping and saving people, Batman is focused almost solely on fighting and defeating the criminals. In the opening sequence he doesn’t come to the aid of the family being robbed, but hearing their screams, he seeks out the robbers. You can see from the clip they are already counting the money from the robbery. When he does finally come to save someone, Vicki Vale, she appears to be more of an inconvenience and a hindrance. This is a similar confrontation approach to Michael and Jason, who kill anyone or anything in their way.
Ultimately, by placing superhero narratives and framing within a darker, more violent genre and context, this, in some ways, informs the aesthetic of Batman and even Batman Returns. Observe, for instance the use of expressionistic aesthetics and gothic narrative devices within Friday the 13th Parts 6 & 7 next to Batman. Roz Kaveney states, “In its best sequences, the film is a wonderful blend of the action thriller of its own time and the expressionist gothic nightmares of earlier ones.” (2008; 240) What we end up with is an aesthetic and generic cultural interchange and symbiance, which has contributed to the progress and evolution of generic forms, resulting in culturally identifying this next wave of superhero not only darker and more complex, but dysfunctional through feeding off of cultural awareness and trends.
Roz Kaveney analyses Christopher Reeve’s Superman as the perfect balance between tongue-in-cheek humour and serious steely integrity.
