As progressive as genre cinema has often sneakily been, both in the analyses of their texts and their opportunities for marginalized groups behind and in front of the camera, there is still a startling lack of female directors in horror filmmaking – particularly for studio-funded horror films. And while we still have films likeNia DaCosta’sCandymanremaketo look forward to, there’s much more progress to be made.
To help celebrate this corner of the genre – and to keep on inspiring female horror filmmakers – we’ve accrued a list of 15 of the best horror films directed by women. These films are terrifying, unique, often savage, and often incendiary – essential entries into the genre canon. We’ve absolutely missed many essentials, but we hope this serves as a helpful tip of the iceberg when it comes to female genre directors. Here’s to 15 of the best horror movies directed by women – and here’s to more opportunities for women behind the camera to come.
American Psycho
Director: Mary Harron
Writers: Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner
Cast: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Cara Seymour, Justin Theroux, Guinevere Turner, Reese Witherspoon
How can such a nihilistic film be so friggin’ entertaining?American Psycho, the queasy 2000 horror-satire from directorMary Harronand starChristian Bale, continues to successfully punctuate its pervasive sense of pitch-black humor with shocking disruptions of surreal violence upon contemporary viewing.American Psychoplows through the hornet’s nest of “1980s American class warfare and rich assholery” from the vantage point of, well, the rich assholes – and while the movie possesses little empathy for said assholes, it cannily dissects the shit out of them. Patrick Bateman (Bale) exists in a world of superficial, disposable, utterly useless masks. From his lavish skin care regimen to his robotically cheerful analyses of pop music, Bateman wears humanity like a flimsy slip tearing at the seams. To paraphrase the man himself, he simply is not there. Bateman’s only course of action in an inherently pointless world? Causing chaos and violence in the form of abrupt killings. His targets move with increasing desperation from peers (Jared Leto’s Paul Allen gets brutally axed in the film’s most iconic sequence) to those objectively below his social status (prostitutes and homeless people) – only one person he intends on killing (Chloë Sevigny) escapes his wrath in a rare, inadvertent eruption of mercy, of admission to purity existing within a human. The film is based on a novel fromBret Easton Ellis– upon its publishing in 1991, it was immediately controversial in its fetishistic descriptions of ultraviolence, painted as a vulgar anti-feminist screed. Harron and co-writerGuinevere Turnerexpertly circumvent these issues by keeping its violence, while disturbing, relatively contained, and by leaning in heavily to the material’s pointed satire, its criticism of, not celebration of, male consumerism.American Psycho’s conclusions about what this all means are, by design, pointless, perhaps existing only in the lurking terrors of male imaginations and subconscious. Somehow, this is a compliment, not a criticism, of Harron’s masterwork.
The Babadook
Director/Writer: Jennifer Kent
Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney, Daniel Henshall, Barbara West, Ben Winspear
No modern horror movie has fucked me up more thoroughly thanThe Babadook.Jennifer Kent’s exercise in unbearably sustained tension runs laps around other “contemporary prestige horror flicks that are mostly about family traumas” likeHereditary, saying so much with simple techniques and tactics.Essie DavisandNoah Wisemangive barnburners of performances, anchoring Kent’s script with a haunted portrayal of a mother and son attempting desperately to move past the trauma of losing a husband and a father abruptly. The performers’ eyes tell us everything we need to know about the story, shifting from open, aching vulnerability to focused attacking within the same scene. Their arguments, conflicts, and attempts to merely live drive much ofThe Babadook’s horrors; I could literally feel my nerves pinch and my guts tighten at the harried relatability of uneasy terror that comes when “a mom is more upset than normal at a child.” Oh, but, like, what about the titular monster? Yeah, the Babadook is pretty scary, too. Before he became an inadvertent LGBTQ+ icon thanks to a delightful Netflix boink-up, Mister Babadook was the center of a particularly morbid pop-up book, lensed in surprisingly sweeping pushes and moves by Kent and DPRadek Ładczuk(let them make a big-budget action blockbuster, please). And when that monster manages to escape the cages of his pages and lurk in the shadows of real-ass life, he scares the bejeezus out of us because of, not despite, Kent’s less-is-more aesthetics. She eschews jump scares and maximalist visions of carnage for shadows, homemade effects that fade in rather than peak, and a wholly unique vision that’s nonetheless in dialogue with silent horror, German expressionism, and maybe, like, if a Giallo film was desaturated and all the kills taken out and replaced with family members yelling at each other. It’s hard to think of a more satisfyingly upsetting modern film experience thanThe Babadook– but then again, I haven’t seen Kent’s follow-up,The Nightingale, yet.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writers: Eric Red, Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Tim Thomerson
To date,Kathryn Bigelowis the only woman to have won the Academy Award for Best Director, for 2009’sThe Hurt Locker. In some ways, that film, a nail-biting examination of the horrific circumstances and paralyzing outcomes of searching for IEDs in the Iraq War, is a horror film, crackling with suspenseful set pieces and characters on the brink of psychosis. If you enjoy that film, and want another Bigelow-directed movie that’s also about “a found family dealing with horrifically stressful shit” but is explicitly in the genre space (though cross-pollinated enough to be more than meets the initial eye), check outNear Darkas soon as possible. Starring ‘80s genre vets likeAdrian Pasdar(Top Gun),Lance Henriksen(Aliens), and the absolutely dominatingBill Paxton(The Terminator,Commando,Aliens, et al.),Near Darkis a postmodern vampire flick that has low-key influenced nearly every postmodern vampire flick in its wake, fromFrom Dusk till DawntoTwilight. When vampireJenny Wright(Out of Bounds) bites the attractive human Pasdar, it sets off a chain of events within her vampire family. Should they kill him? Welcome him to the fold? How does this tale of star-crossed lovers impact the family’s general plans for consumption and carnage? Much of the film takes place in scuzzy, all-American locations like dive bars and RVs, giving it all a refreshingly blue collar take on what’s typically a higher-class genre of horror. These vampires, particularly the out-of-his-gourd Paxton, feel dirty, and Bigelow’s compositions (with DPAdam Greenberg) both heighten their lack of panache with lived-in imagery while simultaneously elevating them as new American myths. WithNear Dark, Bigelow managed to make a wholly unique vampire, Western, and romance film, all with startling aesthetics and visceral violence. Sink your teeth into it posthaste.
The Slumber Party Massacre
Director: Amy Holden Jones
Writer: Rita Mae Brown
Cast: Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella, Debra Deliso, Andree Honore, Gina Mari
Like many pieces of horror schlock from the 1980s,The Slumber Party Massacre’s poster tells quite a story. Three scantily clad women cower in fear, positioned low, powerless, looking straight up at the figure of power: A killer with a drill pointing toward them, positioned strategically from his private parts. It’s the kind of image not uncommon in the world of 1980s slasher flicks, the kind of image that needs to be unpacked, the kind of image that advertises a film that is likely uninterested in doing that kind of purposeful unpacking. IsThe Slumber Party Massacre, from directorAmy Holden Jones, “that kind of film”? Thankfully, the answer is somewhere in the middle, resulting in a woozy sneak-attack Trojan horse of a watch. Yes, there are plenty of reliable “prurient Reagan era slasher flick” tropes for you to enjoy/sometimes wince at, from its phallic-on-purpose kills, to its punishment of women enjoying sex and drugs, to its “spying on women changing clothes” sequence. Heck – the inherent premise and title of the picture buzzes with problematic ‘80s slasher delight. But under the hood, the engine tells a slightly different story. The original script by activist-turned-writerRita Mae Brown(who also wrote the novelRubyfruit Jungle, a seminal work in lesbian fiction) was entitled “Sleepless Nights,” and was explicitly constructed to be a satire of slashers at the time. But when producers bought the script, they decided to make it as a straight slasher. As such, under the assured, self-aware direction of Jones,The Slumber Party Massacreplays within the space between parody and earnestness. It’s a horror film that’s somehow both campy and right down the middle, a beyond curious film with a beyond curious history that deserves more attention than it gets.
The Invitation
Director: Karyn Kusama
Writers: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
Cast: Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lindsay Burdge, Michelle Krusiec, Mike Doyle, Jay Larson, John Carroll Lynch
You ask me, the idea of going to any dinner party is terrifying enough without slapping any genre element on top of it. But wouldn’t you know it, directorKaryn Kusamafigured out how to make it worse.The Invitationis one of those gems that’s best experienced without knowing a single thing about it. It’s a sweater-tugger – one that promises a loose thread that doesn’t quite fit right, and then unravels satisfyingly as the characters can’t help but keep tuggin’ away.Logan Marshall-Green(Upgrade) stars as Will, a quiet man who’s attending a dinner party held by his ex-wife (Tammy Blanchard) with his current girlfriend (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Awkward! But not quite as awkward as the lurid secret seeming to hide within the seams of the superficially nice social gathering.The Invitationfollows in the footsteps of many other classic “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you” psychological horror films, while carving its own “being an adult in modern day LA sucks” identity. If you’re only familiar withJohn Carroll LynchasFrances McDormand’s loving husband inFargo, he’s gonna surprise the heck out of you as our symbol of bloodcurdling discomfort. Kusama expertly uses his “gentle giant” persona for a signpost of evil, a classic “frogs don’t notice a pot gradually boiling” character. In general, Kusama is working with a more understated tone than previous efforts, with character decisions simply generating all of the juice, proving that her psychological acumen in genre cinema is second to none. I simply cannot reveal much more about the twisted details ofThe Invitation, but I will say this: The final shot will flabbergast you.
Directors: Sofia Carrillo, Jovanka Vuckovic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Kusama
Writers: Jovanka Vuckovic, Jack Ketchum, Roxanne Benjamin, Annie Clark, Karyn Kusama
Cast: Natalie Brown, Melanie Lynskey, Breeda Wool, Christina Kirk
Here’s a delightful thing about the contemporary horror space: Anthologies are back, baby! From features likeV/H/SandThe ABCs of Death, to TV revivals likeThe Twilight ZoneandCreepshow, we’re in a neo-Golden Age of giving horror filmmakers a chance to explore one idea for a brief moment before getting the heck outta there. Of all these spookily segmented projects, one stands above the rest for its makeup behind the camera:XX, a horror anthology film with all-women directors (named cannily after the two chromosomes possessed by cisgendered women). More than other anthologies I’ve seen,XXdares to be different by allowing its segments to explore vastly different subgenres and tones within the horror space.Jovanka Vuckovicadapts influential horror novelistJack Ketchum’s short story “The Box” into a story equal partsTwilight Zone-esque moral psychological thriller andDavid Cronenberg-esque body horror (I hope that little kid’s okay!).Annie Clark(aka friggin’ alt-rock superstarSt. Vincent) directs “The Birthday Party’s “hide the body from the kid” shenanigans with brightly colored, grimly hilarious finesse.Roxanne Benjamin’s “Don’t Fall,” about a group of friends on a coed camping trip, features some of the gnarliest, most surreal creature design I’ve ever seen in a movie.Karyn Kusama’s “Her Only Living Son” unravels a disquieting underbelly at the center of normal seeming suburbia while explicitly dialoguing with movies likeThe OmenandRosemary’s Baby– and films some disgusting gore effects to boot! And finally, framing all of this: delirious stop-motion animation fromSofia Carrillo, whose creations drip with – and I sincerely mean this as a compliment – “edgy 2000sMarilyn Manson/Hot Topic aesthetics.” Somehow, by eschewing any sense of “consistency” within its framing device or thematic purview,XXwinds up being perhaps our most consistent contemporary anthology film.
The Love Witch
Director/Writer: Anna Biller
Cast: Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Jared Sanford, Robert Seeley, Jennifer Ingrum
You know what I love? I love a horror film that makes you feel “good” during and after. So much modern horror predicates on exploiting humanity’s inherent cynicism and misery. It’s downright refreshing to see a film so interested in campy joy, so earnset about everything it’s exploring, so infectiously styled to film nerd perfection – while simultaneously interrogating many of the problematic building blocks of such cinema landmarks.The Love Witchis a labor of love from writer/director/composer/editorAnna Biller, and she makes every frame of this thing count. Folks likeChristopher NolanandQuentin Tarantinoget all the press for the necessity of shooting on film, but Biller deserves just as much credit, having not only shot on 35mm film (with the masterfulM. David Mullenas DP) but edited on a 35mm original negative, something nearly always eschewed in favor of digital editing these days, even when something is shot on film. Biller’s sets, color schemes, and production design all radiate in their delicious retro luxuriousness (try pairing this withDown with Lovefor a fun meta-retro double feature!). Her cast is uniformly down to clown, withSamantha Robinsonabsolutely annihilating the title role with screen presence and charm for days. She plays Elaine, who is indeed a literal love witch – a mysterious, supernatural force who concocts spells and potions in order to make various men fall in love with her. Now, this may sound like a frothy premise – and in many ways it is, in the best way possible. But after you sip past that initial, delicious froth, you’ll find an engagingly rich taste in the center. In so much horror, particularly of the eraThe Love Witchpurposefully evokes, women are framed as powerless victims of male aggression. In Biller’s work, the script is flipped. Elaine, despite her daffy endearments (which eventually shift into something darker), is so literally in charge of the men that they’re put under her spell. And the men in the film are nearly uniformly powerless goofballs who recoil vividly at any expression of femininity.The Love Witchis one helluva movie. It will put you under a unique spell, one you’ll wish more filmmakers had the courage to cast.
Director/Writer: Julia Ducournau
Cast: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Laurent Lucas
Rawis a powerhouse directorial debut forJulia Ducournauthat announces the french filmmaker as a force to be reckoned with in the genre. Set in the sterile, clinical walls of a veterinarian school,Rawtackles the primal and the grisly through the story of a young woman who discovers who she really is and what she really wants when she’s kicked out of the nest and sent to college. Justine’s (Garance Millier) is shipping off to the veterinarian school that both her parents attended and her rowdy older it sister is currently enrolled, and with her first taste of adulthood comes a new taste for flesh when a bloody hazing ritual forces her to consume a raw rabbit kidney. Using cannibalistic cravings as an allegory for the pangs of sexual awakening,Rawis one of the very best in the monstrous coming-of-age horror movies (alongside spiritual sibling films likeTeeth,Ginger Snaps,andWildling) and Ducournau is a wise enough filmmaker to match every moment of carnal carnage with quiet, intimate revelations. And oh, there is plenty of carnage, from horse dissections to Brazilian wax gone wrong that’s so tense you’ll hold your breath till you see stars, and yes, a lot of people-eating.Rawis one of the best horror films of the last decade, a knockout work from Ducournau that transforms the universal into a piercingly specific nightmare. –Haleigh Foutch
Kiss of the Damned
Director/Writer: Xan Cassavetes
Cast: Josephine de La Baume, Milo Ventimiglia, Roxane Mesquida, Michael Rapaport, Riley Keough, Ching Valdes-Aran, Anna Mouglalis
Kiss of the Damnedis agorgeousmovie and it’s absolutely criminal thatXan Cassavetteshasn’t directed another film since her 2013 feature debut.Joséphine de La Baumestars as Djuna, a vampire living the quiet life until she meets a handsome young man she can’t resist (Milo Ventimiglia) and her toxic sister comes crashing back into town and turns everything upside down. Channeling Euro-horror of the 70s with a stunning eye for the shot and a true command of eroticism. Cassavettes creates palpable tension and desire by tapping into the lure of the forbidden, the dangerous, and the destructive.Kiss of the Damnedis flawed for sure, but it’s a hell of a striking directorial debut that hums along with crackling sensuality and some standout moments that tap into the existential angst of immortality. –Haleigh Foutch
Director/Writer: Alice Lowe
Cast: Alice Lowe, Kate Dickie, Kayvan Novak, Jo Hartley, Gemma Whelan, Tom Davis, Dan Renton Skinner, Mike Wozniak, Tom Meeten
There’s something inherently spooky about the way pregnancy challenges the authority over one’s own body, and while there have been plenty of horror films that tap into the grislier side of baby-making gone wrong, few have drilled down on the matters of identity and autonomy as well asAlice Lowe’sPrevenge. The English actress is best known for writing and starring inBen Wheatley’sSightseersand here, she writes, stars and makes her directorial debut as a seven-months-pregnant woman who believes her unborn baby is commanding her on a murderous rampage.Prevengedelivers some gruesome moments of slasher carnage, but its greatest success is as a witty and weird pitch-black comedy, with Lowe commanding the screen and relishing the clever lines she wrote for herself and baby’s creepy little sing-song voice narrating her darkest deeds all the way through. –Haleigh Foutch
