It’s the best time of the year to have fun dressing up as your favorite horror characters and one thing that we can’t forget to do is: get some popcorn, gather your friends and do a horror movie marathon.
But have you ever noticed who is behind those films? In a world in which the industry is dominated by men, women are still fighting for their place as horror movie directors. Especially in the last few years, they have been rising in the field and helming chilling features. However, they still don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Here you are going to see films that are directed by incredibly talented women. It is very gratifying to see that women are more and more getting their space in the Hollywood business. The least we can do is honor their incredible work. Check out this list of horror movies to watch this time of the year!
- Pet Sematary (1989) – Mary Lambert
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Based on the book with the same name, written by Stephen King, this film is one of the biggest horror classics and was directed by a woman: Mary Lambert. The story is about a family who moves to the countryside of Maine, where there’s a mysterious pet graveyard, which is believed to resuscitate animals – and other living things – that are buried there. A lot of strange things start to happen after the family cat dies and they decide to bury him in the said graveyard. Later, their son, Louis, tragically loses his life and is buried there too.
Here’s an interesting fact: the author, Stephen King, makes an appearance in the movie. He plays a priest in the funeral scene and he was present during most of the film recording.
The director Mary Lambert began her career directing music videos, she worked with Madonna directing “Material Girl” and “Like a Prayer”, this movie was her second job as a film director. It actually was not supposed to be directed by her, the first choice was the director Tom Savini, who is a horror effects technician, but he declined the offer.
- American Psycho (2000) – Mary Harron
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The film is directed by Mary Harron and is considered her most successful work. She was also involved in TV series like “Six Feet Under”, “The Following” and “The L Word”. The movie is an adaptation of the controversial book written by Bret Easton Eliis in 1991 and it tells the story of a young professional called Patrick Bateman who lived in New York and had a double life: he was a serial killer by night.
The iconic lead role of Patrick Bateman is played by Christian Bale, but one actor who is very known was considered for the role, Leonardo DiCaprio. One of the reasons that made him gave up this part was because of the possibility of damaging his image, after all, he thought that the imagine of the newest big actor of hollywood playing a murdered could be a big risk for his career.
- Carrie, the Strange (2013) – Kimberly Pierce
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This is another classic movie based on the book written by Stephen King, but he wasn’t very excited about it, the responsible for publishing was his wife. He wrote it but didn’t like the result so he threw it away. His wife took the manuscript, loved it and encouraged him to publish. The first novel written by King tells the story of Carrie, a very shy girl who has a repressive and religious fanatic mom.
In school, she is persecuted by her classmates and teachers. However, on her graduation day she discovers she has telekinetic powers when the popular kids completely humiliate her in front of everyone on prom night. The famous scene where Carrie is on the stage covered in blood took 3 days to be shot.
This is not the first movie adaptation of the book, in 1976 “Carrie, the Strange”, directed by Brian de Palma and starring John Travolta, was released and it was a huge success. This new adaptation is directed by Kimberly Pierce, who is best known for the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry” and Carrie was her first production after 5 years away from productions.
- Fear Street Trilogy – Leigh Janiak
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The 3 films are an adaptation of the book series that have the same name, written by Robert Lawrence, however the whole collection has 51 books. The director, Leigh Janiak, directed the movie “Honeymoon” (2014) and episodes of “Outcast”, “Scream – The Series” and “Panic”, from Amazon Prime Video. To make the first “Fear Street” movie, in 1994, which takes place in Ohio, where she grew up, she used her own experiences at the time her and her friends were teenagers as inspiration for the situations in the film.
The movies tell the story of a group of teenagers that have to face an evil force that has been terrorizing the city for centuries after a series of brutal murders.
This movie has many references, one of them happens in the opening scene of the first film, “Fear Street Part One: 1994”, where we can see a clear reference to the movie “Scream”, directed by Wes Craven, which is the best teen horror of the 90s. We can also see in the book store copies of the “Fear Street” in literary form and the author has his name abbreviated to R.L. Stine.
And obviously the greatest horror writer, Stephen King, couldn’t be left out! In the second film, “Fear Street Part Two: 1978”, the book “Carrie” is quoted and in another scene Nick says “the new book of Stephen King looks good” referring to the book “The Shining” that was released the year before the movie takes place.
- The Babadook (2014) – Jennifer Kent
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This movie tells the story of a widow tormented by the death of her husband and with difficulties to love her son. The boy gets terrified after finding a mysterious book believing that there is a monster that wants to kill him.
The director, Jennifer Kent is also an actress and is known for “The Nightingale” (2018) and her short film “Monstro” (2005). She based this movie on her short film. She chose the name “Babadook” because she thought it was an easy name and that a child could have invented it. The director of “The Exorcist”, William Friedkin, said that it was one of the best and scariest horror movies he’s ever seen.
The feature was nominated for several awards, like the Critics Choice Awards 2015: for Best Horror Movie and Young Artist (Noah Wiseman).
Now that you know a little bit more about these films and their directors, don’t waste your time anymore, grab a seat and have a great marathon!
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The article above was edited by Amanda Moraes.
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