Is the future of horror female?
In the November 2020 horror special issue of Sight & Sound magazine, Anna Bogutskaya (co-founder of the feminist horror collective The Final Girls) picked 10 contemporary films pointing to a “new wave” of female directors “who have bent rules, blurred lines and broadened our understanding of the scope of horror cinema.” Bogutskaya rightly hails the emergence of these women’s voices in the male-dominated horror industry as a female filmmaking renaissance.
Halloween may be over, but it's not too late to treat yourself to some of the films made by these up-and-coming women directors, whose ranks include Ana Lily Amirpour, Anna Biller, Julianna Rojas, Leigh Janiak, Julia Ducournau, and Sophia Takal. These movies are available either to stream on Kanopy or Hoopla or to watch on DVD.
1. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Ana Lily Amirpour's stunning 2014 debut was called a “Persian vampire western” due to its stark black-and-white cinematography and eclectic Western soundtrack. Set in a ghost town called “Bad City," it chronicles the relationship between a lonesome, chador-cloaked female vampire (Sheila Vand) and an alienated young man (Arash Marandi) struggling to take care of his drug-addicted father. The two bond over their desire to escape their troubles and start new lives. Amirpour’s film arguably kicked off the female horror renaissance and led to her subsequent access to both Hollywood (2016’s The Bad Batch with Keanu Reeves) and television (where she has directed episodes of Legion, Castle Rock and Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone reboot). Available on Kanopy, Hoopla and DVD.
2. The Love Witch
In this stylishly campy tribute to 1960s technicolor horror films, Samantha Robinson plays a modern-day witch who uses potions to make men fall in love with her. The trouble is, they fall too hard and she eventually has to kill them. Director Anna Biller (Viva!) updates classic horror conventions with this feminist revision on witchcraft and narcissism. Biller also designed all the sets, props, and costumes. The Love Witch won the Trailblazer Award at the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle Awards and was nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Sitges-Catalonian International Film Festival. Available on Kanopy and DVD.
3. Good Manners
In Portuguese with English subtitles
When lonely nurse Clara (Isabel Zuaa) is hired as a nanny by wealthy Ana (Marjorie Estiano), she hardly expects anything like the friendship she finds with the lonely, pregnant woman. However, both women have dark secrets which will engulf all that they hold dear as a fateful night changes their plans. Good Manners won the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival and the Jose Luis Guarner Critic's Award at the Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival. Available on Kanopy and DVD.
4. Honeymoon
Young newlyweds Paul (Harry Treadaway) and Bea (Rose Leslie) travel to a remote lake cottage for their honeymoon, where the promise of private romance awaits them. Shortly after arriving, Paul finds Bea wandering and disoriented in the middle of the night. As she becomes more distant and her behavior increasingly peculiar, Paul begins to suspect something more sinister than sleepwalking is happening. Many horror movies have been built around the concept of the male protector as a betrayer, but Leigh Janiak turns that gender trope on its head as Bea is revealed to be the one hiding secrets. Available on Hoopla and DVD.
5. Black Christmas
A group of female students are stalked by a stranger during their Christmas break until the young sorority pledges discover that the killer is part of an underground college conspiracy. Director Sophia Takal is a young filmmaker comfortable working on both sides of the camera—be it directing (Always Shine, Black Christmas), acting (31 credits), or both (2011’s Green, which she also wrote)—and in multiple genres. Though best known for her work in independent “mumblecore” features (such as her husband Lawrence Michael Levine’s Gabi on the Roof in July and Wild Canaries and Joe Swanberg’s All the Light in the Sky and 24 Exposures), Takal expanded her range by directing and co-writing this remake of Bob Clark’s 1974 horror classic Black Christmas (considered the first “slasher” film and available to see on Kanopy), which updates the original with a nod to sexual politics reflecting the #MeToo movement. Takal is currently working on another installment of the franchise.
6. Raw
Where’s the beef? In Julia Ducournau’s hands (and various other body parts), it’s an all-too-human question. When Raw’s vegetarian veterinarian student tastes meat for the first time, she develops a craving for a carnivore diet that Hannibal Lechter knows all too well. The spirit is willing and the flesh is sweet.
7. We Need to Talk About Kevin
This one wasn’t on Bogutskaya’s list, but New Yorker critic Richard Brody argues that Lynne Ramsey’s We Need to Talk About Kevin "masquerades as a psychological puzzle but is essentially a horror film full of decorous sensationalism." Kevin is a strange, “bad seed” child whose acts become increasingly dangerous as he grows up, culminating in a shocking finale. The film, based on the novel by Lionel Shriver, was critically acclaimed and director Ramsey and actress Tilda Swinton (playing Kevin’s mother) were nominated for numerous awards. Available on Kanopy, Hoopla and DVD.