Horror Of Dracula essay

In the film the Horror of Dracula the director Terence Fisher has purposely created the film to make women look inferior. This is done in a number of ways, firstly Dracula is seen by the audience as mighty as he has power over all the women he come into contact with. The film shows sexism as the women are the victims of Dracula and they can’t do anything about it. Also in 1958 men were seen to be dominant, so this reflects on why the director Terence Fisher has created the film in this way. If women weren’t seen to be inferior then they would be the vampires and the men would become the victim. This wasn’t the case so due to them not being dominant in the 1950’s the film wasn’t produced in that way. The codes and conventions of horror can relate to this, one of the codes and conventions in a horror films is that there is usually a victim that is left alone and has no protection. In this films case the victims are the women as they are the victims of Dracula. This is another way women are shown to be inferior compared to men. Moreover another code that occurs regularly in a typically horror film is that there is a blonde girl that is a victim, in this case the blonde victim is Mina. She is seduced by Dracula and later in the film she is found unconscious or supposedly dead. Non-diegetic sound is used when the women are going to become victimized by Dracula, this build tension but can show that Dracula authoritative compared to his women victims. Furthermore Fisher shows women as inferior as there are more women victims in the film compared to men. Throughout the film cinematography is also used to show the men are more dominant than the women. The use of a worms eye view shows the power and authority that Dracula has over all of his victims. Close up of his victims show there expressions and provide the audience with an incite to what possibly they could be going through.

Not all of the women in the film the ‘Horror of Dracula’ are presented as sexualize beings. The child in the film is presented as a young innocent girl, she almost becomes a victim when Lucy follows her and tries to bite her. Lucy is shown to be desperate, as she will do anything to try to get blood, this is why she tries to lure an innocent girl into the woods. The director Terrence Fisher has shown the women such as Lucy as uneducated, this is because when Dracula seduces them every time they fall for him. As well as desperate she is also a victim as she was once a victim of Dracula.  The maid is shown to disobey Dr. Van Helsings word and remove the garlic from Lucy’s room; she done this because Lucy asked her to. This shows that she is a caring person and would do anything for her. Due to the woman being seen as the less dominate gender they are the people that are seen to be the sexualised being rather than the men. In the beginning of the film there is a vampire woman who is wearing a white dress. In the 50’s women wore clothes that cover the whole body, but the vampire women wore a dress which was low on the upper part of her body she then could be seen as a sexualized being because of the way that she dresses. Before Lucy allows Dracula into her room she takes off a necklace she is wearing. The necklace that she is wearing is a Jesus Christ cross, her taking off this cross could be seen to as her going against what she believes in.

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist and she came up with the male gaze. The theory has been used by the Director Terence Fisher throughout the film. One of the main scenes in which it is used is when audience first learn of the woman vampire. This point relates to what I previously said, the use of cinematography indicates the male gaze. The use of a long shot is a major use; this is because this type of shot provides the audience with a view of her whole body. This shot concentrates on her figure outline. It is also used when Lucy is lying on the bed a medium close up is used this is used to enable the audience concentrate on the upper part of her body. The male gaze can be referred to how Dracula looks at his girl victims , an example is when Lucy is laying on her bed and he enters he stares at her with his eyes wide open.