The Gothic Film: From Classic to "Blockbuster"

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The Gothic Heroine: A New Heroic and Villainous Collaborator

With the recent form of gothic film, "these gothic heroines give up a conventional morality which has failed them, and improvise anew and equally imperfect morality of their own" (Harbin). These females are no longer victims in the classical sense of being sought after and abducted by the villain. They are still victims of societal conventions, but a different set of conventions from those involved in the early days of gothic film. Gothic heroines have gone from being helpless to self-sufficient characters. In the recent film, Underworld (2003), the heroine is a "darker" character, already a part of the "evil"; Selene is a vampire from the beginning of the film.

This transition into the independent woman who struggles more with the "goodness" of society than with the "wickedness" of the villain, has developed from the gradual adaptations taken on from societal conventions and beliefs. With past women's movements and developments, there is a closer sense of equality between women and men. Selene is a vampire who turns against her leader to aid Lucian (the villain) in his plans for creating a mixed race; she bites Michael (the hero), making him half lycan (werewolf) and half vampire. She is in love with and is loved by Michael, and saves his life by turning him into a new breed. Selene is not only the victim, as she is desired and saved by the men in her life, but she is the hero as she fights for the "good", and she is the villain as she aids "evil".

The heroine of today's society strays far from the original conventions of gothic film, to make it more of a style within other genres than a genre itself. Today's heroine is no longer part of the conventions of the gothic film narrative, instead, she is the image of equality for today's females, but in a gothic setting; she is no longer the classic image of the victim in gothic film, but is the collaborator within other film narrative genres that use gothic conventions other than the qualities of the heroine.