I don't know who I am if I am not burning: racialized trauma and affect theory in constructing an alternative final girl

Abstract

The slasher film has been entertaining (and scaring) audiences for decades. In a typical slasher film, a (usually) masked murderer stalks, torments, and murders young women over the course of a night. Only one survives the carnage - she is the “final girl.” But who gets to be the final girl? What about her identity grants her the privilege of survival? In this project, I discuss and broaden the scope of the white, middle class, straight “final girl” trope in horror through an intersectional analysis directed by affect theory. I take the reader through the planning of my short film and discuss it in relation to the established library of slasher flicks. I will move the relevance of these films beyond gender to consider how race is fundamental to understanding how a “new final girl” represents the aftermath of trauma in contemporary Western subjects.