My first exposure to horror movies was when I was five or so, at a friend's house. Her Mum, unlike mine, was pretty liberal as far as 18 cert films were concerned, much to my excitement. We watched the opening sequence of 'American Werewolf in London.' As a young child, I simply could not comprehend what I was seeing, the blood, the gore, it blew me away. I was actually shaking with the adrenaline of the whole experience and my passion for gore was ignited. A chance viewing of 'Night of the Living Dead' a few years later ('a black and white movie that's cool, no way!') and zombies completed my fledgling obsession. Each of these films are pretty much male orientated, the only females present are either love interests (Jenny Agutter, 'An American Werewolf in London' ) or the down right annoying - I have no brain for zombies to eat but I'm gonna scream lots any way (Barbara in 'Night of the Living Dead'). My heroes were the guys morphing into werewolves or slaying an army of zombies, not the bland women at their sides.

I personally have always been quite happy to identify with male leads. If a character is portrayed well, with charisma, gender isn't relevant. And besides, when you are sitting in front of the TV screen shaking your head as the hysterical cheerleader/token damsel in distress ticks every 'don't do that in a horror film' only to come to a predictably bloody end, I'm pretty much on the side of the killer. Do us all a favour and put her out of her misery. In a sense the director is fulfilling some kind of criteria, getting us involved one way or another, the guys get violence and sex, the girls can 'imagine it was them' and hide behind their man's arm - for the movie going public on a Friday night, that's enough. Horror's supposed to be formulaic and fun in a morbid kinda way, right?

One of the first movies to begin to challenge this concept was 'Halloween', directed by John Carpenter in 1979. It is a groundbreaking contribution to the Horror genre for many reasons, especially in its depiction of female characters and teenage perspective. Jamie Lee Curtis plays an awkward, slightly geeky heroine and it seems to be these very characteristics which guarantee her survival over her school friends, who have a far more carefree attitude, especially sexually. And so the first horror gender 'rule' was set, if you're a girl DONT get wasted/indulge yourself in the pleasures of the flesh or act rebellious in any way for fear of death as the ultimate punishment!

Around this time another classic film was released and was utterly groundbreaking in the fact that its central character was female and strong. Rather than hiding behind men, she almost assumed a male persona herself and was more than capable of busting some balls! This film was the Sci-Fi horror Alien, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Siguorney Weaver as space explorer Ripley. Just part one of what was to become a quadrilogy, these movies would further explore the notion of gender as they progressed. Giger's visionary set design and aliens are all purposely phallic, and a sexual relationship develops between Ripley and said alien. Ripley also became something of an unlikely sex symbol. With her shaved head and slightly androgynous body, she redefined the notion of sex appeal popular at the time. What also intrigued me was the emphasis on her maternal instinct (She has a daughter on earth who she is unlikely to see again, but forms a pivotal relationship with a young orphan, Newt in sequel Aliens) and protectiveness of her comrades against the aliens. An interesting point to note is that the infamous facehuggers are symbolic of oral rape and the chestbuster scene is supposed to represent mans fear of giving birth. These are just a couple of examples of the fact Alien is so much more than just a straight up gore fest set in space and wasn't afraid to broach new ground within the genre.

So, with the latter setting two very new and contrasting female roles, who would horror choose to go with? The teen horror movie was guaranteed to put derrieres on seats, largely due to the fact that the cinema going public are largely under 30 and its a pretty straight forward formula to follow, cue busty blondes et al. Now there's nothing wrong with this in my opinion, but was there to be any successors to Ripley's throne? A couple may have grappled for this coveted place, but no one has truly managed to have the same impact. The first (and I feel best of the series) Resident Evil movie, based on the computer game, sees a gun toting Milla Jovavich as the heroine. Any love interests in the film are kept pretty low key, all the focus is on action and the story/characters survival. However, this all gets a little stale and formulaic by the third film, almost exploiting the females rather than promoting them.

Some films within the last few years have told their story from a shared male/female perspective. Examples are 28 Days Later, the hugely successful zombie revamp directed by Danny Boyle, the Dawn of The Dead remake and the highly anticipated but, I feel, truly shambolic Alien vs. Predator. 28 Days Later has two female and one male as its leads. One section of the film does see the previously equally represented female characters narrowly escaping being used by some wayward soldiers to 'help repopulate'. This gets thwarted by the lead male, who thus saves the day. The noughties version of George Romero's classic Dawn of The Dead has an extremely gutsy and intelligent female at its helm amongst a plethora of other random survivors. Wow, interesting and she still manages to look stereotypically appealing. Score! Contrast this with the superior original and there is a marked progression between the gender roles (ol' Georgey's female lead was pregnant and therefore rendered pretty helpless overall). Alien vs. Predator fails on many levels, but does at least stay true to its comic book origins, with a female human joining force with a Predator, after gaining his respect in battling with the Aliens. Out of the entire human race, the Predator, a highly seasoned hunter and higher life form, chooses one of us who menstruates to join forces with!

My personal favourite female on celluloid horror wise is the central character in French guts n entrails fest Switchblade Romance. This nasty little indie flick sees two girls, Marie and Alex taking a break at Alex's parents isolated country house. All is not as it seems though when a peaceful break turns into a bloodbath and homicidal nightmare. It is one of said girls who plays a dual role as the lines between victim and killer become blurred. Likewise to Switchblade Romance is the ultra shocker Sick Girl. Still doing the horror festival circuit, it tells the uncompromising story of psychotic maniac Sick Girl, who both nurtures and brutally slaughters with doe eyed appeal, challenging female vulnerability and sex appeal.

I think ultimately, having examined this broad subject a little within this article, women are represented in more varied ways now than in the past. However the most acceptable portrayal is that which excites the masses and brings in the dollary - just enough blood, babes and a dash of humour to scare a little and that's it. More gutsy female roles that challenge this seem to remain relegated to the indie corner of the market. And yet one of the most infamous indie films, The Evil Dead, has all of its most memorable characters, The Deadites, as women. The effect of which on hero Bruce Campbell is to transform him from young henpecked geek to full on witty womanizer. Now what the hell is that trying to say?!