If you’re like me, you can’t stand watching a horror movie that portrays women as ridiculously weak, to the point of ruining the movie. Oh really, the female lead tripped while running from the killer, again? The only survivors are the men, and their girlfriends, who hid behind them the whole time? Pass. Another trend I’m sick of is how movies will use the only women in the movie as a contrast of ‘what not to do’ while showing men as the only ones capable of handling stressful situations. These frustrating and harmful narratives are just another way sexism is represented in popular media. Thankfully, not all horror films are created equal. Here’s a few of my favorite examples of strong women in horror films. (Because when you watch a scary movie the only thing you want to be worried about is the killer, not the patriarchy).
As I will be discussing movies in full, this is your official spoiler alert for the following movies: Midsommar (2019), Friday the 13th (2009), Hush (2016), and Death of Me (2020).
Midsommar (2019)
Midsommar follows Florence Pugh as Dani Ardor and Jack Reynor as Christian Hughes, a couple having some serious relationship issues. The movie opens with a scene of the trauma that sunk Dani into a depressive state; the murder-suicide of her family. Christian becomes increasingly distant while Dani is struggling with her grief. The couple are invited on a trip to Sweden to experience a midsummer celebration that only occurs every 90 years. There they are met with gruesome and shocking traditions that the commune participates in, which do not actively reflect actual midsummer traditions practiced in Sweden. Dani, already sensitive to death and violence, is intensely shocked by these horrific traditions. She goes to Christian after members on the commune commit suicide by jumping off a cliff in front of the group, under the guise of tradition, and asserts to him that something doesn’t feel right. Christian excuses instance after instance of these horrific traditions and gaslights Dani constantly.
We watch Dani become ostracized by the group on the trip, left to deal with all of this on her own. Towards the end of the movie Dani is drugged before participating in a maypole dance competition, and wins, resulting in her crowning as May Queen. Dani is unaware that this means she will be choosing the last victim for a sacrifice. She has a choice to either select one of the members of the commune or Christian to be the final sacrifice. Instead of choosing a near stranger, she picks Christian. The movie shows you the strains of their relationship and Dani’s struggles with her mental health, and finally her breaking point. While it isn’t exactly the best message, Dani gets her revenge against Christian after years of being with someone who emotionally abused her.
The movie ends with Dani smiling and is a refreshing take on women in horror movies because of how differently women are portrayed. Not only does Dani come from a place of darkness (and possibly is one of the last survivors because of it), but other women in the commune play an equal role in the horrific traditions making them just as menacing as the men.
This movie is on Paramount Plus with 83% rotten tomatoes.
Friday the 13th (2009)
There have been twelve Friday the 13th movies, all surrounding Jason Voorhees. The legend is that because of the neglect of camp counselors he drowned in the lake at Camp Crystal Lake. After many mass murders around the lake, it is gains the reputation of being cursed.
In this specific film, Jason’s mother is a serial killer who murders those who come to the camp. A camp counselor beheads her, while Jason watches, and decades later he continues what she had started. One night, a group of campers near the lake is killed by Jason, all but Whitney Miller. Jason imprisons and spares her because she looks like his mother. Later, her brother Clay Miller comes looking for her.
Whitney uses this resemblance and Jason’s weakness to it, to her advantage; many times she calls out to him and tries to calm him, all to distract him so she or her brother can kill him.
The scene that makes this one of my favorite slasher films, and has led me to declare it a movie with a strong female lead, is Jason’s death scene. Whitney and Clay are caught up in an intense fight against Jason. They immobilize him with a chain around his neck and Whitney grabs his machete. Whitney says “Jason! Say hi to mommy, in hell” before plunging his own machete into his chest, killing him.
I enjoyed that for once it was a woman who was depicted as intelligent, a survivor, and actually ends up killing the main antagonist.
This movie is on HBO Max with 25% rotten tomatoes (I mostly attribute this to it being the 12th Jason movie; viewers are becoming bored of the recycled plot).
Hush (2016)
This slasher film follows Maddie, a deaf woman who lives in a house in the woods. One night she is visited by her friend Sarah, who is murdered by a masked man just outside the house. The masked man quickly figures out that Maddie is deaf because she did not react to Sarah’s screams or banging on the doors. It is here that he chooses her as his next victim.
He does not simply break in and kill Maddie, though he has a few chances, he decides to stalk and taunt her. One of the most chilling scenes is after Maddie realizes he’s stalking her, she writes on a glass door “Won’t tell, didn’t see face, boyfriend coming home” to which the man takes off his mask in front of her. This is where Maddie realizes he has every intention to kill her.
Throughout the movie we both see her struggles of being deaf and mute, but also we are shown the ways she has learned to utilize her other senses, which leads us to not completely discount her as capable of fighting back. Her boyfriend does later arrive, but the masked man poses as an officer shortly before killing him.
After Maddie is shot by the man her situation becomes more dire; if she didn’t kill him, she would surely bleed out inside, she could not simply wait him out. She ends up fighting him in the kitchen and stabs him in the neck with a corkscrew. She calls 911 and waits for them on her porch. The movie ends with the cop cars arriving while Maddie is sitting on her steps, petting her cat, and smiling.
This movie had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Many scenes have no discernible audio, putting you in Maddie’s shoes as she is being stalked. Instead of her being classified as easy prey because of being deaf and mute, she is the only one to successfully fight back against the man, subsequently winning in the end. I also found her to be a clever and dynamic character as she tries many different tactics to distract or attack the masked man.
I highly recommend this one, it’s on Netflix with 93% rotten tomatoes.
Death of Me (2020)
I’m going to be honest; this is not a popular movie. It has 31% rotten tomatoes and ended up on Netflix shortly after being released. It got backlash because many criticized it for using culture and rituals as a horror theme, though unfortunately many horror films are guilty of this.
Midsommar, The Apostle, Hereditary, and more, all use these dramatizations of rituals as a basis for thrillers; all popular movies that demonized certain mostly innocent traditions. Death of Me is set on a Thai island, and the movie builds up to a final sacrifice which the island residents believe is necessary to protect them as well as promote prosperity. To clarify, today Thailand is mostly Buddhist with some other added spiritual superstitions, and there have not been human sacrifices since the 17th century.
The movie opens with a couple waking up hungover and disoriented after a night out. They watch a video taken from the night before which shows Neil murdering Christine. They attempt to retrace their steps to understand what had happened, but the more they interact with the people native to the island, the more bizarre and unsettling their vacation becomes. They become trapped there, because unknown to them, Christine is meant to be used in a sacrifice.
Throughout the movie we see seemingly innocent traditions with scary music playing in the background, part of the movie’s downfall. What interested me about the movie was Christine’s role. She is repeatedly drugged, hallucinates on and off, watches Neil kill himself in a gruesome way, all while the people of the island are manipulating her. She struggles with reality and hallucinations, and still ends up escaping the ritual, and surviving a typhoon that wipes out the rest of the island.
Other horror films have more tastefully used themes of ritual sacrifice while separating it from current cultural practices today. This movie was set in modern times and kept current practices and imagery from Thai culture, which sets the tone of the movie as xenophobic. Midsommar is set in modern times but the extreme nature of the rituals mirror something closer to the show Hannibal, which effectively separated it in the minds of viewers from reality. Another reason that Midsommar isn’t nearly as problematic is because the commune is made up of white people and doesn’t vilify a minority group. While there is a strong female lead in Death of Me, it is important to acknowledge that this movie is wildly problematic otherwise. I included this movie because I think it is good to analyze the media we consume, to be aware of harmful narratives that may be embedded in them, and to critique them based on that.
On Netflix with 31% rotten tomatoes.