Hunting women

For over two years I have been documenting dozens of things from mainstream movies relating to the sexualization of women and violence against women. I have analysed over 400 movies--most of them from Hollywood--and written nearly 700 pages about what I have discovered. One of the numerous things I keep track of is occurrences of men hunting women in film. It is common enough and does not only happen in movies about serial killers--far from it. Consider the following sample of examples: a young woman is hunted by a man in Don't Breathe (2016, US$159 million at the worldwide box office); Brad Pitt is shown hunting Angelina Jolie in Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005, US$486 million WBO); Julia Roberts is hunted by men who want to kill her in The Pelican Brief (1993, US$187 million WBO); Whitney Houston is hunted by a man in The Bodyguard (1992, US$410 million WBO); and a teenage boy hunts two teenage girls in Prom Night (1980, US$15 million at the U.S. box office). In the 2008 remake of Prom Night (US$57 million WBO) it is a man who hunts a teenage girl. This small sample represents the tip of the iceberg. My complete list is much longer. To make manageable paragraphs I had to divide the examples into two groups: examples from movies of the 20th century and examples from movies of the 21st century. I deal with serial killers movies--and serial killers hunting women--in a separate chapter because there are enough to warrant a chapter. Given how often filmmakers show audiences women (and girls) hunted by men a person has to ask herself why men hunting women interests men so much. I say men because the vast majority of filmmakers are and have been men.


 © 2018 Alline Cormier