Have a Feminist Halloween By Screening These Films

All of my childhood nightmares were either about ET or Baba Yaga, both fictional characters that could definitely NOT cause me any real-world physical harm. And that’s just the beginning, I used to get terrified by anything remotely scary. Then, about 10 years ago, I realized I wasn’t scared anymore. No movie made me lose sleep, no story made me afraid to walk down a dark hallway. I had been transformed into a brave person, and was free. So I caught up on spooky stuff. And now, for Halloween, I’m going to share some of my faves with you.

~~ A few days later ~~

I realized that what I had actually made was a list of feminist horror movies and, uh, what a feeling to have your personality ever just sneak up on you and smack you in the face! I edited out some because they didn’t fall within my accidental theme, but I’d like to mention Hell House (the doc about Christian haunted houses, worth renting), The Haunting of Hill House (which I wrote about already), and Marianne (A French TV show on Netflix that I have not finished but am loving).

Our first category is one I’d call “Women Who Are Atoning, Grieving, and/or Seeking Salvation.” These three movies feature women who are yes, in a spooky-scary situation, but their stories are about far more than jump scares. I would not recommend reading any Wikipedia synopses for these three, but you can do what you like.

The Orphanage, or El Orfanato, is a Spanish film directed by JA Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro. It’s the story of a woman who returns to the orphanage she spent part of her childhood in, with her husband and their adopted son, to fix it up and reopen it as a home for disabled children. But the orphanage in full of mysteries, and after her son goes missing, she is determined to figure out not only what happened to him, but also what happened at the orphanage all those years ago. The Orphanage is available to stream on Hulu.

Triangle is a horror movie in the sense that it has people being picked off my a masked assassin, but it’s also a sci-fi film, because it’s centers around characters stuck in a time loop. Melissa George plays a woman who goes on a boat trip with some friends, but things are weird before they even leave the dock. She realizes she needs to break the loop and escape, but then learns she’s in a different kind of purgatory. Triangle is available on Amazon Prime.

Irish Horror is a genre full of such riches, when I see a horror movie is from Ireland that all I need to know before I hit play. A Dark Song is one of the best films Irish Horror has to offer. A desperate woman moves into a creepy old house with a reclusive occultist, with the hope of him walking her through some dark rituals to bring back her dead child. But as the ritualistic horrors increase, so does the woman’s motivation to move through them to get to her ultimate goal. This movie has a similar vibe to Triangle but is 1) More overtly spiritual and 2) a better film. A Dark Song was taken off Netflix recently but it’s worth the $3 or $4 to rent it. I thought about the ending for weeks afterward, and still do!

Our next category is women who do NOT want to work through anything, they just want to say, “Fuck it” and do what they want. I suppose you could see both these protagonists as terrorizing villains, but you are wrong, and in fact they are heroes.

Carrie is a horror movie that I saw as a kid that, shocking, did NOT scare me. I thought it was delightful. I didn’t read the book until I was much older, and then I made my whole book club read it. I tend to be very resistant to controversial women characters being created by men, but Stephen King and Brian De Palma do alright by my girl Carrie White.

The Witch, I believe, was definitely influenced by Carrie. We’ve got a teenage girl who is misunderstood and feared by her family, so she says “fuck ya’ll” and goes on to live the life SHE wants and deserves. I will add 1) I needed to watch The Witch with subtitles, and 2) please, I beg of you, don’t show your whole ass by writing it as The VVitch,

A note about the featured image on this post: Large Marge is absolutely a feminist horror icon.