Revenge: A clever genre critique of the final girl and the horror genre

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When Revenge Gets Deep

Revenge — Courtesy of M.E.S. Productions

The truly intelligent and even ground-breaking element of Revenge doesn’t come solely with the action-packed second half of the film. The foundation for Revenge‘s critique of the horror genre’s treatment of women, specifically in slasher films, is built upon in the film’s slower first half, where we are introduced to the film’s story, setting, and characters. The first act’s main purpose is to hook the audience in with strong characters and a gripping story to boot and Revenge has that in spades.

The film begins with Jen and her wealthy boyfriend, Richard, having fun and getting ready for a trip to his vacation home in the middle of the desert (how convenient). Richard is far from a loving man, however, as it is seen that he is currently married to another woman, who gets a brief batch of lines spoken over the phone to her husband. Proclaiming his love for her not 30 minutes after throwing himself over his younger girlfriend. He doesn’t really love either woman, but he sure loves ogling Jen’s body and having sex with her as often as he can.

Jen is introduced in a manner that would make you think that Richard himself wrote the script, directed the movie, and handled DP duties. Jen is a bubbly and beautiful woman and the film’s opening shots showcase her physical beauty to a borderline exploitative degree: she wears bright T-shirts, lets her hair loose and is introduced slowly savoring a lollipop in her mouth. She is a woman who is fully aware of how she looks and seemingly embraces her physical beauty, casually lounging around the house in nothing but a T-shirt and underwear. Revenge‘s main protagonist is a woman that is often defined by society as a beautiful all-American girl.

Where Revenge begins to take an interesting turn is her internal characterization, which couldn’t be farther from the characterization of the final girl in slasher movies. She is not shown to be particularly smart or motivated, at least in the traditional sense. Jen is not dumb in any manner, but she is shown to have a questionable decision-making process, happily entering a relationship with a much older man and spending time lounging around in a permanent state of bliss and ignorance.

Revenge — Courtesy of M.E.S. Productions

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Much of her free time in the first act of Revenge is spent getting intimate with Richard, sitting around and drinking, playfully dancing for the three men (much to their perverse amusement), and being seemingly content with her position in life as the beautiful girlfriend to a wealthy and presumably powerful man.

Even the attempts at deeper characterization for Jen are swatted away in favor of exploiting her physical beauty for attention. One very telling scene is near the beginning of Revenge, when Jen and the three men are sitting outside by the pool, drinking and having a good time. A careful ear will catch Jen’s conversation with one of Richard’s friends, in which she shyly explains her goal to move to Los Angeles in the hopes of, as she puts it, “getting noticed.”

It is never fully explained exactly what Jen aspires to be, but her need for getting noticed displays a desire to be known for more than just her looks and what she is as of now. Then again, maybe her dreams could be something simple like being gawked at by people the world over. Who knows? At the end of the day, she can do whatever she wants.

In the midst of Jen happily explaining her goals, Richard’s other friend is too busy looking at her lips through binoculars, in an obvious example of the male gaze taking precedence over the conversation and what she is saying. The friend she is speaking with is not that much more attentive, promising her with a snake-like attitude that he’d follow her wherever she went, in a very clear attempt at flirting with her, dismissing her dreams of moving and starting a new life in favor of what might be in it for him.

Even when Richard comes back, he never entertains her dreams, instead moving the conversation to one about drugs, all while he asks her to go and put his peyote away, effectively dismissing her from the conversation.

This leads to one of the most disturbing scenes in the whole film, as Jen, in an attempt to “get noticed” and manage to keep the guys’ attention, puts on a song and starts dancing in front of the three men. Her dancing has hints of a flirtatious nature to it, as she dances closely to one of Richard’s friends, who is suddenly very attentive, gladly getting close to her and watching her dance in a short skirt and revealing top for him and the rest of the men.

Jen demands attention in the only way she knows will get a response and while she seems to enjoy dancing quite a bit, there’s a hint of desperation in her attitude, as she longs to be noticed, but is trapped in being nothing more than the cute girl to stare at.

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