Jeremy Tunstall's theory was to recognize characters related to woman's roles in society by doing this he had created 4 roles which were Domestic, Sexual, Consumer and Marital. In the film Cabin In The Woods, There are 2 of the roles that Tunstall's theory applies to, these are domestic and sexual. The domestic role is played by our final girl of the film Dana. Dana is a typical College Major shown from the start of the film. At the start of the film Dana is seen to be a domestically wanting to study, she intends to try and pack books but latter stopped by Jules as she rather would want to see her in a bikini having fun in the water showing off to the boys. As Jules mentions this Dana becomes self conscious tries to avoid bringing them. Throughout the film Dana is proven to be the more self catered females out of the two rather than being more sexually appealing than Jules is. Jules however plays a more sexual role, this shown through the manipulation of the "Typical Blonde". The blonde stereotype is through the sexual appearance of the character and how she is portrayed as a whore. Jules is obsessed with her boyfriend and is attached to Curt 24/7 showing her sexual prowess even beyond the eyes of her closest friends. In the scene where the friends are drinking Jules shows off her body by wearing denim short shorts, and 3 buttons undone of her shirt in comparison Dana had undone 1-2 buttons from her shirt. Beyond the fire place Jules lap dances around all the characters interesting Marty and giving the eye to Curt where he eventually takes her out to have sex.
2. How Is Dana Typical Of Clover's "Final Girl" Theory?
Clovers's theory related to modern horror film that revolutionized feminist horror. The final girl theory related to a girl who was most likely to be androgynous and who would defend for the lives against the killer. They took up traits of the other gender making them different from the stereo typical woman who would be sexually appealing and doesn't pay any attention to their surroundings and therefore would be one of the first victims to die. Dana follows the way of which she is the final girl by having the instincts of piecing small hints together when they are attacked by the Buckner Clan. For example, after she had read the diary, she and Holden tried to figure out what they were and around the time near the end of the film she realizes when she combines her and Marty's theory together they are on a reality TV show that watches young teens die or fight for survival. With these pieces she finds out that she chose how they die and for what reason they are dying for, which we would of never seen Jules figure out. Examples showing she should be the typical final girl is at the start of the film where we are introduced to Dana and Jules where they are packing for the trip. Dana typically packs books and other equipment from college having the intention to study, but instead stopped by Jules to bring a sexy swimming costume to graduate the eyes of the males. Dana is the opposite to Jules and is not sexually frustrated and looks for attention through her appearance but rather she cowers her appearance making her self conscious and would want to look like Jules. Through this we indicate that she is not the typical whore character as she always is dubbed with ginger hair which is a typical study freak. This is supported by the fact she has more focus than any other character apart from Marty who has the same mentality as her but is immune to the effects of drug symptoms as he is influenced by the drug high he smokes.
3. Jules Undergoes Mental And Physical Transformations During The Film, What Are They And How Do They Cause Her To Become A Horror Archetype?
At the start of Cabin Of The Woods, when we are introduced to Jules she explains to Dana how she got her hair dyed to a blonde color, this then typically sets off the mood that she is now going to be the dumb blonde who is a whore and wants to do sexual things with the opposing gender. She uses her sexual prowess to become a typical Whore. For example before the door is flipped up in the Cabin and they rise the Buckner clan, we see the friends drinking and Jules dancing, which is very sexual, whilst the friends play truth or dare, she is dared to kiss the wolf by Marty, who is high and thinks the Wolf is a Moose. By doing this dare she becomes very sexual shown by her strut in her footsteps and the body composition when she starts walking towards the wolf. When we see the POV through the wolf we see that she acts all girly and slutty towards the wolf before engaging her lips with it. As the film progresses she leaves the Cabin with Curt it is clear she cares and focuses her attention to curt and doesn't follow anything else. As her attraction to Curt takes over, she posses the typical girl who wants to run away into a dark but open space where they can have pleasurable sex. Her whorish actions comes back when she strip teases for Curt instead of him taking her shirt off. Her pleasure desires take over and forward attention towards Curt. This is just before her hand is stabbed by one of the Buckners. Finally as a defenseless dumb blond stereotype, she screams and tries to rely on her strong boyfriend to help her, but instead takes the first fate of death. The whore or blonde is the first typical character to die as they don't pay enough attention to their surroundings and therefore becomes distracted and therefore is the easiest target to kill out of the 5 other types. This engages the prominent rampage killing of the Buckners throughout the film.
Mulvey's Theory Gaze is procrastinated to create woman as a sexual figure instead of finding them as an equal like a man. We see Mulvey's Theory through Jules and Dana. Although Dana is less common, it is presented in the film that she is still a sexual figure for example when we are introduced to Dana and Curt tells her she is still in her underwear she is intimidated but we see that she is a sexual protracted figure as she isn't fully dressed and is exposing her body. This also happens when Holden is looking through the mirror into Dana, As she undresses we see Holden stare at her to know what her figure is, as a man Holden is interested in her figure and wants to uphold more, But as a gentleman he stops Dana from taking off all her clothes as he is secretly watching. Jules is presented to be the sexual figure of the film as she is the typical blonde. There are a variety of ways she is presented through the gaze. For example as we see her Lap dance and we get a Medium Long Shot of her body to present her overall amazing figure. This then takes interest to Curt who cheers her on, through this we see a typical male gaze through the perception we saw of Curt. Any female who dances in a sexual way showing their figure would interest the male audience to their attraction. The Wolf Scene where we see a POV shot of Jules is where we see a main attribute of the Male Gaze. As we are in a POV shot, we are watching from a Boy's perspective to show her sexual needs. As Jules talks to the wolf we see close up shots of her body for example her legs and moving upwards to her head. We perceive this as a male gaze as they are interested in these figure parts of a woman. This makes her the biggest sexual figure and everyone watches including Dana which indicates this might be a pleasure for all genders. Another scene is when Jules teases Curt by about to take her shirt off but in the end she decides not to and run further away into the forest. This then leads to a scene where all male men maintenance crew all gather around for the scene to see Jules strip to expose the top half of her body. We see this at a low angle to make Jules very tall and see her whole body image.
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?
In character representation we as the voyeurs find the sexual appearance of the characters, This appeals to both the male and female gender. An example shown is the mirror scene, When Holden takes down the painting he see's Dana in the mirror but Dana can't see Holden. This illusion sets of a whole contrast of the Male Gaze but as a voyeur from the perspective of Holden, As we see Dana start to get undressed we see Holden's interest in Dana's figure and therefore carries on watching, he then debates this whole action what he is doing and calls Dana to stop before she exposes her full body. By doing this it shows Holden's manners towards Dana but his certain interest to show the audience how much he likes to view a females body.After the transaction change we see Dana's perspective of being a voyeur showing a females perspective on a males body, When Holden takes his shirt off, Dana is intrigued and hesitates to carry on watching, she later stops when she remembers the value of respect Holden gave to her and then puts the painting on top of the mirror and then the cover on top of the painting. This as voyeurs shows the sexual interests of each different sex in the scene to provide evidence that we are interested in the sexual appearance and figures of others.
6. (Briefly) Summarize 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 Fulfill Another Role/Purpose
To extents of the film the woman are portrayed as sexual figures of the film, but rather the virginal is not portrayed to have the role of pleasing males. For example When Curt and Jules are engaging their sexual activity outside the cabin, before she takes her shirt off and teases Curt we see another shot of every Male that is part of the facility maintenance team all staring waiting for Dana to take her top off, In relation to this they are unsatisfied as she doesn't. This shows how much of a sexual figure Jules is in the film as all Males attended her just to see her body. Throughout the film Dana is not seen as a sexual figure apart from when Holden stares for a little bit to capture the true sight of Dana. But she isn't completely shown as a sexual figure as she never takes all her clothes off to show any nudity. We see in the film that no one is interested in the virginal which is Dana, this is because she doesn't play the typical Whore role and is projected to be a sexual figure but rather an independent smart girl who likes to keep above her studying. When Dana is undressing in the Cabin we know there is CCTV camera's in every room, but unlike Jules we don't see a whole maintenance team seem that interested like they were with Jules even though she was about to strip. This counteracts that the satisfaction that men needs to be provided isn't always the case. For Holden he had the mentality and respect to stop Dana and make her out as a sexual figure, he would rather get to know Dana and then move on from a relationship which we furthermore see when they kiss after Marty walks outside to get fresh air and latter bumps into Curt.
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