Almost always, the male character is portrayed as the killer/the dominant/powerful figure. This as been typical for the past few decades. Most horror films have always placed women as the weaker sex, they are the victims who are usually brutally murdered and the first few to die by the murderer / deranged stalker, etc., who is a male.
During this time, the film industry itself has portrayed these woman in a number of ways with a frail, weak and fragile persona. However the iconography of women in horror films in modern day films as changed rather dramatically in the sense that these women are now able to defend themselves and 'fight back'; protecting themselves with weapons and literally psychically fighting the villain. This would never have occurred in a film such as 'Nosferatu'. An example of this change is 'Resident Evil' - Alice fights her way through the swarms of zombies protecting herself with a gun. As well as standing in a threatening manner, looking 'sexy', on the horror films poster. This creates huge awareness of her authority and dominance to the audience.
Carol J. Clover, a popular and prominent feminist film theorist and critic actually wrote a book entitled “Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film” in 1992. Clover coined the term “final girl” in her book. She explained that a “final girl” character is the last surviving female in the horror film who manages to kill the murderer on her own or at least manages to escape successfully and hence, lives to tell the story. Since the start of 1974 and thereafter, there have been many horror films that contain “final girl” characters and Clover (1992) added that since 1974, the survivors in horror films were mostly females.
However on the other hand, a lot of films - old and recent - have the attractive female running (tripping and falling all over the place) around, failing to escape her killer. For example in the original Scream; the killer pysco plays mind games with Casey, fooling her only to frighten her more. This leaves the audience waiting for suspense or in other words, something terribly awful to happen.
Some films show the deathly scene involving the act of sexual activity; such as Halloween, seconds before Michaels sisters death. As well as the scene of which the couple have just finished making love, Michael eliminates the man, leaving the women defenceless and alone with Michael.
Usually in horror films with similar context, the woman is court up in a 'cat and mouse situation' with the villain. Of course, the chase will eventually end with the killer achieving his ruthless murder. However during this climax, the situation will switch where the victim takes her chance to injure the killer thinking she has won the deathly battle, only to be fooled and finally defeated to her death. In other situations her escape may be blocked or trapped leaving simply no hope for herself.
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