Why we need to be watching more female-directed horror movies

In case you didn’t know, February is Women in Horror Month and like other celebratory months it suggests an imbalance in representation. Sure, there are some iconic horror movies directed by women such as: American Psycho by Mary Harron, Carrie by Kimberly Peirce and Jennifer’s Body by Karyn Kusama, but when you consider that half of film school students are women, the number seems low. The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival—now in its fifth year—is one of many film festivals around the world this month that are putting a spotlight on horror movies made by women and non-binary filmmakers. .

“It is about showing something that counters this neutral male-gaze that we are so used to seeing,” Elinor Lewy, who founded Final Girls Berlin alongside Sarah Neidorf, tells SLEEK. “Even though not all of our films are overtly feminist, the act of them being made by women sharing their perspective, their fears and their anxieties, it is kind of a game changer. It is not about negating male directors, but adding things to the conversation and discourse.”

Getting diverse viewpoints becomes even more important when you look beyond all the fake blood and campy screaming—the horror genre goes deep into psychology by personifying the things that frighten us. This introspective take on scary movies inspired the talk subjects of Final Girls Berlin, including The Bad Mother in Mexican Horror and Outer Threats Inner Demons,  which deal with domestic and psychological antagonists.

“Horror is a great way of dealing with the things we repress the most,” Lewy says. “The genre plays a lot with the boundaries of what can and can’t be shown. The anxieties and the things that we don’t feel comfortable talking about are channelled in horror a lot of the time.”

Although Lewy doesn’t like to lump films into categories of female horror vs. male horror, she does notice that women directors tend to be more uninhibited when it comes to female monsters and going beyond what is socially acceptable with these characters in terms of aggression and being physically out of control.

“Women have the knowledge of being women and are in a way more daring to show women in ways that are unlikable,” Lewy says. “There is this idea that it is important for female protagonists to be shown as strong and competent women—it’s what being a good feminist is —but there are so many different ways of experiencing the world. The idea of this unlikable woman is something that people are starting to tackle.”

Among the films screening at Final Girls Berlin is Harron’s latest work Charlie Says (2019) which tackles the well-documented story of Charlie Manson’s cult, but from the perspective of the women who killed for him—Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins, who have to deal with the aftermath of the murders. In this way, it provides an example of  female-focused storytelling that showcases not just the horror of what happened, but how toxic relationships and sexist power structures affect identity.

Final Girls Berlin runs from 6-9 February at City Kino Wedding, featuring talks, films and exhibits.