The 2020s have already proven to be an ambitious and successful decade for horror films. With pleasantly chilling surprises like Barbarian, an Americana cannibal romance like Bones and All, and indie studio A24’s first franchise with Ti West’s X and Pearl, this is a wonderful time for horror fans. Horror has also always been a safe space for women, starting from films like Carrie and and becoming even more prevalent today.
However, with that great development, no movement comes without error. The recent conversation of male directors portraying women and their struggles in their films has resurfaced in the horror community. While directors like Ti West and Jordan Peele have done a fantastic job at giving women a main role in their horror movies, some directors have shown that they don’t entirely understand what it means when a woman says “I hate all men.”
MEN: YEAH THAT’S THE NAME OF THE MOVIE
Could it have been any more subtle? Alex Garland’s 2022 horror flick Men follows in the footsteps of his hits Ex Machina and Annihilation, both featuring strong female leads. Ex Machina is a wonderful, tense story of a man who befriends an AI robot who struggles with the fact that she is not entirely human; plus, Oscar Isaac plays her inventor and he’s always a great addition to any film. Annihilation also features a female lead with Natalie Portman as a biologist who takes on an expedition in a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply.
Maybe Oscar Isaac not being in Men jinxed it. Just kidding, but Garland’s third feature film definitely lost its luster when it came to portraying women’s struggles. This movie is about a woman named Harper who takes a vacation after her husband falls off their balcony in a town filled entirely with men. While the movie makes the interesting choice of having all of the men in the town being played by the same actor, they take the “all men are the same” message a little too far by the end. I won’t describe the disgusting ending of this film, but let’s just say they get very gritty with this message I mentioned before.
In addition to that, the main character is given basically no depth; she has no distinguished personality and is really only there as an audience stand-in. Harper gets upset and frustrated with the men that eventually end up haunting her, just to have a very small impact on what actually happens in the story. She barely does anything of substance throughout the film involving its mystery, and by the end of the film you are left scratching your head, “that was it?”
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO: MY GUILTY PLEASURE
Edgar Wright’s 2021 movie Last Night in Soho, featuring Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie, was one of my favorite movies of that year. This movie follows McKenzie’s character as she finds Taylor-Joy’s character in her dreams and finds out she was supposedly murdered in the 1960s. I loved the 60s setting and colorful yet nightmarish tone; it was right up my alley. However, after a handful of re-watches, I noticed something: the men in this film are very one-note.
For a film that comments on very real topics like stalking and men who take advantage of sex workers and women in general, it handles these subjects in a very surface level manner. All of the male characters except for our protagonist’s love interest are very forward about their sexual and bad intentions, and that makes them feel very cartoonish. There was an opportunity to show a lot of depth with the different ways that men can behave horribly, but they just harass these female characters very openly.
In this case, I feel like the intentions were good in trying to show the struggles that women can face. The only problem is that those struggles are portrayed as mostly sexual. I couldn’t tell you how many times the word “slut” is used in this movie, and I just wish this film went into more depth with struggles in that area and had more to say. Luckily, Anya Taylor-Joy’s character takes her revenge on her tormentors and the protagonist escapes her nightmares. This is one I’d actually recommend, if you can get past the somewhat shallow message.
DON’T WORRY DARLING: OLIVIA WILDE DOESN’T GET IT EITHER
Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling was one of the most talked-about movies from 2022. From on-set drama to premiere night tension, this movie does indeed have a lot to discuss. Somewhat similar to The Truman Show, this movie follows Florence Pugh’s Alice in a 1950s suburban town that has some mysterious things going on. Spoiler alert: her husband, Harry Styles’ Jack, has been keeping her captive inside this world, which is a virtual reality.
I don’t even want to get started on how the logic of this world within the film works, so let’s get to the point. This movie also creates the idea that men use women solely for their own pleasure. Again, this was a great opportunity to say some meaningful commentary about how women can be used; but it’s still very surface level. I have found that two of the three movies that I’ve mentioned before end with their female leads not exactly victorious. Men ended with Harper ambivalently sitting on the lawn having made no important choice or change, and this one ends with Alice waking up, but still captured. It makes you wonder if the men of these films actually won in the end.
MOVIES TO WATCH INSTEAD
The phrase “women hate all men,” to me, is not meant to be taken so literally. It is referring to the patriarchy established by men that is still looming over us today and how that must be dismantled. “All men” represents the idea of a man that this world has created and how women have to live in a world built to work against them. When someone says that phrase, they are referencing those moments when they are walking home alone or have dealt with sexism in the workplace. Trust me, women are waiting for the day when this saying becomes a thing of the past.
Here is a short list of female-centric horror films either directed by women or by men that write their female characters properly and provide a compelling story and message for them.
- Possession (1981)
- Malignant (2021)
- Perfect Blue (1997)
- Ginger Snaps (2000)
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
- Fresh (2022)
- The Love Witch (2016)
- Bones and All (2022)
- Jennifer’s Body (2009)
- Suspiria (1977 + 2018)
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- Us (2019)