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Despite what you may have hear , women have always ruledhorror . The genre ’s roots back to Mary Shelley , whom at the supply ship age of 20 , unleashedFrankenstein ; or , The Modern Prometheuson an unsuspecting public in 1818 , in essence , turn over birth to modern horror and all that was to follow .
The Mafu Cage (1978)
Karen Arthur ’s motion-picture show about an astronomer , Ellen who does her damndest to take care of her ferine babe after the death of their anthropologist Church Father sport a calling - best other performance by Carol Kane as the childlike and red Sissy .
Raised in the wild of Africa , wild - haired , bare - footed , and eternally babbling about her “ mafus ” ( apes that she loves literally to death ) , Kane ’s lineament is one of cinema ’s dandy forget madwomen . Arthur , along with screenwriter Don Chastain stage the destruction of the Sister with a sense of barbarous destiny that ’s almost Shakespearian . WhetherThe Mafu Cageis racist and trade in Afro - Orientalism or is actually an anti - colonialist screed is up to the watcher to decide , but there ’s no denying that this character - study is disturbingly in force and utterly unforgettable .
Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
Amy Holden Jones ( who made a name for herself as the screenwriter ofMystic Pizzaand co - created Fox’sThe Resident ) famously perish up the opportunity to editE.T.to address this slasher penned by feminist creative thinker , Rita Mae Brown . burgeon forth with a four - person crew in 35 mm for independent picture palace maven Roger Corman , Slumber Party Massacrewas a tiny output that nonetheless allowed Jones to take a spin in the director ’s chair , an opportunity that eluded her at larger studios .
What take in the plastic film so exceptional is the mildly satiric nature of Brown ’s script , which turns the typical lady friend - in - peril narrative into a lightheaded - hearted women’s rightist take on the ever - problematic slasher genre . Somewhat frustratingly , Jones and her producer were more interested in shooting a square horror feature than a spoof , so the parodic tone is often barely detectable , but the feminist backbone of Brown ’s handwriting remains entire , makingSlumber Party Massacrean substantive entry in the 80s slasher canon .
Near Dark (1987)
As the only cleaning lady to ever nab a best director Oscar ( and one of the only five nominated for the award in the institution ’s 91 - year story ) it ’s interesting to note that Kathryn Bigelow ’s filmography is peppered with genre exercises that most pic snobs would twist their noses up at . One such oddment is the neo - westernNear Dark , which stars Jenny Wright , Lance Henrikson , and Bill Paxton as a band of drifting vampire who seek to educate a freshly - engender youngster ( Adrian Pasdar ) in their own ways .
Birthed from Bigelow ’s desire to direct an offbeat westerly , she and co - author Eric Red adopted vampire lore to capitalise on the popularity of Tom Holland ’s ( not Spider - Man)Fright Night , resulting in a revolting and extortionate hybrid that fail to catch ardour at the box - office but has aged signally well . Both poetic and copiously bloody , Near Darkis kickass reimagining of the vampire mythos that first exhibit the deft directorial hand that Bigelow would expend to make photographic film history decades subsequently .
Pet Sematary (1989)
This 1989 adaptation ofPet Semataryis neither the bad or great Stephen King film , but it ’s successful in its gauche means , and to date , the only of the writer ’s major works to be take aim by a adult female . As one of King ’s darkest and most emotionally taxing novels , something is truly lost in translation , but Mary Lambert ( good - known for creating music videos with Madonna and Janet Jackson ) makes it all knead by lean into the EC comics vibe when thing get too sticky .
The bad isbad , but the good mostly outweighs it , and something of the clammy , gruesome - stomach grief of King ’s meanest and most dreadful novel manages to glint through . This twelvemonth ’s remake may make Lambert ’s intervention of the story an anachronism , but its a rare mainstream horror effort helm by a female theater director that occupies an immovable place in the heart of many fans .
American Psycho (2000)
Few female filmmakers would fall within spitting distance of an angry , brutally violent novel by a noted woman hater , but Mary Harron try herself an artist of both bravery and attainment when she not only agreed to adapt Bret Easton Ellis ’ troublesomeAmerican Psychobut created one of the unquestioned revulsion classics of the 2000s by teasing its indulgent depravity into sharp-worded satire without shy away from its view of cruelty and femicide .
At once detestable and hilarious , this skewering of the Wall Street generation and its “ greed is in force ” ethos stars Christian Bale as a wealthy New York investment banker who spends his gratis clip playing with prostitute innards . Though Ellis ’ novel was long considered unadaptable , Herron did one well by flip-flop the account ’s manful regard – her camera sweeping longingly over Bale ’s absurdly fit physique in a gender - swapped showcase of costless T&A – and shoot it with mountain of machismo - deflate black humor .
Trouble Every Day(2001)
Claire Denis co - write and channelize this love story / titillating cannibal piece of music about a man ( Vincent Gallo ) who keeps his throw out of kilter married woman ( Béatrice Dalle ) under lock - and - key due to her bad substance abuse of violently remove – and occasionally eating – man .
The doyenne of French film brings a lackadaisical pace to this arthouse horror flick that tends towards the hypnotic , but its aim ambiguities and grainy violence marry the transcendent to the Grand - Guignol in a means that ’s devilishly effective . fuss Every Day ’s influence can be palpate in the DNA of other works of the French New Extremity , such as Pascal Laugier’sMartyrs(2008 ) , and most plainly , in Julia Ducournau ’s sleeper - hitRaw(2016 ) , which trade Denis ’ existential nidus and wilful obscurities for a more plugged - in , # woke intervention of female flesh - eaters .
Roman(2006)
Angela Bettis ’ sole directorial feature and a strange work of originative hybrid - pollination , Roman(2006 ) star horror director Lucky McKee as a sex - inverted take on the character she , herself played inhiscult classic , May(2002 ) . Roman Catholic , a only youthful man who yearn for companionship , is stuck in a sprightliness of tedium and emotional torture .
His only solace is his fixation with a beautiful neighbour ( Kristen Bell ) , who he accidentally murders during a fortune encounter . Romanis a moderately effectual lo - fi chiller that really opens up when viewed as a fellow composition to McKee ’s earlier film . It ’s a enchanting experimentation in which muse becomes artist and artist becomes muse – exploring the tenseness , give and take , tug and pull , between movie maker and subject through shared themes of obsession , loneliness , and isolation as projected through unlike directorial eye and grammatical gender - perspectives .
Jennifer’s Body(2009)
Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama , Jennifer ’s Bodywas mismarketed to adolescent boys and belly - flop at the box office upon outlet . Luckily , in the light of the Me Too movement , meme culture , and the originate taste for all things inner circle ( thanks RuPaul ) the film is being re - discovered as a cult classic .
This tale of the man - eat she - demon Jennifer ( Megan Fox ) and her co - dependent friendship with the bespectacled Anita aka “ Needy ” ( Amanda Seyfried ) is adequate partsMean GirlsandThe exorciser , and fill with witty slam that the unseasoned actresses give birth resplendently . What has play Jennifer ’s Body back from the idle , however , is the style it explores themes of female friendly relationship , patriarchal attitudes and assault through an admittedly titillating , wink horror genus Lens .
The Love Witch(2016)
A hand - craft , labor of love from top to bottom , Anna Biller ’s follow up toViva(2007 ) is another near orgiastic fade of retro stylization . star proportional newcomer Samantha Robinson as the titular amorous temptress , Biller create a world of gauzy - lenses sexcapades and pinkish chiffon that pull in upon sexual practice comedies of the 1960s/70s and attempt to reclaim them for the women .
A genuinely faultless pastiche with earnestness to save , Biller ’s attention to period style is much porno for the well - versify cinephile , and despite the studied hamminess of the matter , the finale bring off to be quite withering .
M.F.A.(2017)
Coralie Fargeat ’s excellentRevengewas a biz - changer when it premier in 2018 ( turning the typically exploitative violation - revenge thriller on its head word with a postmodernist feminist awareness and smartly executed scenes of ultra - fierceness ) , but Leah McKendrick and director Natalia Leite ’s broke similar ground the class prior with this unvarnished , no - nonsense squelch of on - campus colza culture .
star Francesca Eastwood as a fine artistic creation grad bookman who by chance kills her raper in a scene of craze , McKendrick and Leire stay firmly in their topical lane , mostly to the plastic film ’s benefit . A mature work that does n’t indulge in fantasies of violence or vindication , M.F.Atakes a probing looking at at the complex horror of intimate assault by strip away any common sense of glamor or easy resolution from the payback story .
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