K Is for Knife
The big question to ask of the knife is: who’s doing the holding?
Knives can be brandished menacingly or grasped desperately, becoming symbols of dangerous power on the one hand, and pathetic weakness on the other. Think of (sorry, here I go again, but it IS the best example) Barbara clutching that kitchen knife that she finds early on in Night of the Living Dead. Or Daniel Travis holding onto his scuba knife as he and Blanchard Ryan drift about impotently in Open Water. How much good is either knife going to do these characters? None at all.
Which is, of course, just the point. The knife is the perfect weapon for a doomed protagonist who is making a desperate-but-essentially-empty bid for strength and autonomy. Because we can’t imagine Barbara doing in so much as a loaf of bread with that giant knife, it becomes a kind of emblem of her inability to deal with the horrible things that are happening out beyond the walls of the farmhouse. The same goes for Daniel, who – in classic Weak Husband style – explains to Blanchard that though he knows the knife is of little use against the sharks beneath them, he just feels better holding it. Linus often said the same of his blanket.
Strength or weakness. Canniness or confusion. Good or evil. The knife is ready to go either way in horror films, or – as films like Carrie, The Omen, and the whole Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises are there to prove – both.
Best potent-and-dangerous knife in all of horror? The one that the shower curtain parts for in the original Psycho.
Personally, I think the knife is the best weapon that displays a character's character. Not only does it present the question of "Will they use it?" but also how they use it says a lot.
Look at Shelley Duvall in The Shining vs. Francis McDormand in Blood Simple. Both have knives, both use them. But Duvall just puts cuts and scratches on Nicholson's hand. McDormand uses enough ferocity to go through Walsh's hand and pin that sucker to the window sill.
For a non-horror example, think of the stabbing scene in Murder on the Orient Express. (SPOILERS for anyone who's never seen the movie) Each character, in turn, stabs the body, but each have an individual way of striking.
And then there's the whole impact of when a knife is lost or taken away. Misery anyone?
Then there is the whole other door of the knife which a lot of scholars have related to the phallis. Saying that the killers and slasher films of the 80's were veiled misogony for the director's inabilities to "get the girl" thus using the knife to penetrate his victims. While I don't buy into this line of thought some relevant points have been made to support such an accusation.
knives are definatley a horror icon. its the most popular weapon among psychos/killers. psycho was mentioned too, woohoo!