Fifty More Horror Clichés That Should Be Left to Spoil

#11: Strong Plot Armor Female Characters

  Today, I am going to describe the characterizations of two female horror characters. Through these two characterizations, I am going to help identify a huge issue plaguing most horror media today and all the way back to the 1970's; unjustified powerful female characters.

Before you guys start filling the comments with accusations of sexism by me discussing this issue at all, please hear me out. I am not at all saying powerful female characters are not allowed to be present in the horror genre at all. When a female character like any other cast member in the narrative is written well, they are allowed to be strong against the forces of evil similar if not the same to the male characters. This does not mean though that just because the character is female that they can be allowed unlimited access to plot armor.

The two female characters discussed today are both well known protagonists from the horror medium. One is a textbook example as to how any female character, or really any character in general, should be written when placed into an extremely dangerous situation. The second is one with too much plot armor, who only lives so long in the narrative due to convience. I will be describing both of these characters in vast detail, without spoiling too much to each respective story. However, I will not reveal who is the well written character and who is the Mary Sue until I finish describing both of them. It is through this that I want you guys to try figuring out who fits each role, testing your analytical brains. Hopefully, you guys can immediately find out the answer before I even reveal it.

First off is Ellen Ripley from the first three films of the Alien movie franchise. Once a warrant officer on the mining space ship The Nostromo, her life changes forever after a mysterious alien creature breaches security and ends up killing the crew one by one. This terrifying creature is known as a Xenomorph, who uses facehuggers to infect human hosts with their eggs, which rip out of the chest once fully developed. Ellen Ripley is forced to watch in horror as her crew slowly is killed off, showing emotional vulnerability in the situation through her desperate struggle to survive. However, she eventually finds a way to push these feelings to the side, and fight the lone creature off through strategic thinking. She survives, but the horror is far from over for her.

No one from the rescue squad or the company she works for though believes Ellen Ripley's story after the fact. Due to this, she is deemed insane and is demoted to a much lower paying position. This move makes Ellen Ripley lose a lot of faith in people, and just contributes to the nightmares she still has about the Xenomorph. Ellen Ripley though does not waste any time when she hears about reports of disappearances on the space colony Hadley's Hope, which just happens to be on the planet where the Xenomorph is located. She takes a mission immediately with the Colonial Marines and fights hard a second time to save the lone survivor of the colony, Rebecca Jorden/ Newt. The mission ends up going terribly wrong after Xenomorphs invade the ship as her crew tries to escape, crashing it on the prison planet Fiorina 161. Again, Xenomorphs invade the colony and Ripley has to put her fears to the side one final time to make things right. (I know there are other movies in the franchise, but after the third movie, Ellen Ripley's clone is the protagonist.) Ellen Ripley's legacy from these two separate events causes her to gain a high amount of respect from the individuals who once shunned her claims, and allow her to grow in body as well as mind.

Next up is someone you guys might have heard of before; Ellen Brody. She is the wife of the iconic Jaws movie franchise character Martian Brody. Believe it or not, she was the protagonist in the fourth movie of the franchise; Jaws: The Revenge. In the film, Ellen Brody is recently widowed and suspects that a random Jaws-like shark is trying to kill her family. To escape its grasp, she suddenly goes to The Bahamas, where she falls in love with the pilot there, Hoagie Newcombe. However, her grievances are far from over when the shark ends up following her to The Bahamas, lying in wait to strike. Spending most of her time just romancing Hoagie, Ellen Brody only takes action once she notices the shark's presence. Taking random action, she rams a ship into the shark, which causes it to somehow explode. The shark is now gone and Ellen Brody can rest easily.

So, who is the well written character? If you guessed Ellen Ripley, then congratulations, you earned yourself a cookie. She deserves her three separate victories against Xenomorph aliens through great character development that allows her to become a believable heroine against these foreign threats. Ellen Ripley is an iconic suspense genre character for a very good reason, and more than deserves the title of a true strong female character.

As for Ellen Brody, she really only succeeds because of plot armor. The only type of growth she gains throughout the movie's narrative is a closer relationship with Hoagie Newcombe. She never confronts the shark on a truly personal level like her deceased husband. She only got lucky with her choice of slamming the boat onto the shark, which was the wacky way the writers felt she could defeat the shark. Ellen Brody is not only the product of a notoriously terrible film, but an example on how to not write a strong female character.

  For writing a believable strong female character in horror fiction, Ellen Ripley is the perfect template to start from for reference.  Not only does her characterization feel human, but she additionally gains a lot of development throughout the narrative, both good and bad, to kick sone alien butt.  You emotionally gain an attachment to her, making the journey you spend with Ellen Ripley as the protagonist in all three Alien movies to be extremely rewarding.  She is the reason so many great horror female characters exist among the sea of underdeveloped ones.  You wouldn't have movies such as Scream existing with strong female characters without Ripley standing as a great example to create one.

  So when crafting any strong female characters in the horror genre, keep in mind that they need a strong layer of complexity to be convincing.  Internal and external struggle need to be apparent from the start, not established on the fly.  Everything needs to be structured to make the female character's powerful arc memorable and not seemingly a last ditch decision just to make the plot politically correct.