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Chloe Acerra

A Gentle Pair of Hands Around the Neck: The Rise of Women’s Storytelling in Horror Films

By Chloe Acerra

SYNOPSIS

Horror has always been mutable and has followed many directions in its history as a film genre, from the foreign monster films of the 1930s to the slasher flicks of the 70s and 80s. In recent years, horror films focusing on the lives of women and their experiences have emerged as a new trend, and women directors are the forces behind these stories. Though women have been directing horror films since the early years of film history, the past decade has seen a sharp rise in women-directed horror. This growing trend marks a new chapter in the genre’s contemporary history, as women-directed, women-centric horror films continue to appear in theaters and on streaming platforms for mass consumption. Films in this emerging movement are attracting attention because they are bringing new elements to the genre while maintaining allegiance to the scary, gory, and socially conscious aspects that define horror.

In this thesis I consider recent films like Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014), Julia Ducournau’s Raw (2016) and Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge (2017), tracing the rise in women-directed horror as well as the themes that continue to appear, which above all, are themes of womanhood—in the many forms that femininity appear and the many ways that women’s identities take shape. Women creators are subverting the genre by questioning objectification and a self-conscious handling of female victimhood and sexuality. These themes are folded into generic structures and constructed as horror films, and are being distributed to audiences as universally relatable stories that are not bound by gender identification.

 

As increased awareness is brought to Hollywood’s systematic discrimination against women directors, there is increased space for conversations about women in the creative process. Horror’s evolution as a place for women directors to tell their stories fits into the growing concern over marginalized creators. My exploration of the rise in women horror directors will contribute to conversations about women in Hollywood and offer new perspectives on women creators, their stories, and their modes of storytelling. Women continue to be drawn to horror, both as audiences and creators, and are creating horror that is being consumed by mass audiences—both in theaters as well as through the festival-to-streaming model. A genre that has historically been connected to low budget production and distribution, women-directed horror is finding success in an updated distribution model that echoes the alternative nature of low budget horror. Like the past example of straight-to-video releases, women-directed horror is succeeding in the festival-to-streaming system, a model that encompasses the critical success, short theatrical runs, and continued success of women-directed horror on streaming platforms. Women are creating horror films outside of the Hollywood studio system and are finding audiences and critical success at film festivals. The rise of women directors is not a statistical anomaly but rather a social shift that can be seen in representation in streaming sites, film criticism and curated content.

 

CONTACT

Email
chloe.acerra@gmail.com

Website
www.galsonfilm.com

Twitter
galsonfilmblog