Weird fiction is a subgenre of fiction that is difficult to define. It combines elements of horror, suspense, thriller, and science fiction to create unsettling and unique stories that test boundaries. Weird fiction is known for the effect that it has on audiences — deep-seated dread, impaired sense of reality, and “wow, that is weird” reactions.
This genre originated in the late 19th and early 20th century with short stories like “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood and “The Color out of Space” by H.P. Lovecraft. Weird fiction was a male-dominated genre for a very long time, but there is plenty that is more diverse, especially in recent years. Outlined here are some of my favorite pieces of weird fiction media — books, movies, and television shows — that center on women and more diverse experiences.
“Wilder Girls” by Rory Power
Raxter School for Girls, a boarding school on an island, is infected with a mysterious disease called the Tox. Put under quarantine with orders to wait for a cure, teachers start to die one by one, and the girls get infected, which causes their bodies to change and mutilate in strange ways.
“Wilder Girls” is a gory and atmospheric novel that serves as a nice introduction to the modern-day weird. Its characters are flawed and self-serving girls that you can’t help but root for. It will make your skin crawl, and the ending will leave you with more questions than answers — classic characteristics of the weird genre.
“Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer
The first installment of The Southern Reach Trilogy, “Annihilation” follows a group of four women who embark on an expedition into the mysterious and influential Area X. Their mission is to map the terrain and record observations of their surroundings and each other, while trying to avoid being contaminated by Area X. But these expeditions have a history of ending in disaster, and these women know to expect the unexpected.
“Annihilation” is filled with unsettling interactions and ambiguous, strange horror. Area X wraps you in its intriguing embrace, making you wonder if you should run like hell or stay there forever. Underneath the sci-fi storytelling, VanderMeer explores real-world environmental issues like climate change, sparking new ways of looking at the environment around us.
“Paper Girls” by Brian K. Vaughan
On the night of Halloween, 1988, a group of newspaper delivery girls uncovers the secret to interdimensional time travel. All of the insane and trippy sci-fi magic that you could possibly imagine ensues, and the girls try to stay afloat as they simultaneously navigate the horrors of growing up.
This series of graphic novels contains six volumes, each one increasing in weirdness. Past, present, and future collide as the girls attempt to survive and grow into people they would be proud of. Exploring themes of race, queerness, friendship, and family, “Paper Girls” is a series with wonderfully endearing strangeness.
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006)
In 1944, a young girl, Ofelia, goes to live with her new stepfather in the Spanish countryside. Once there, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun claiming that Ofelia is the long-lost princess of an underground kingdom. To return to the kingdom, Ofelia must complete three dangerous and gruesome tasks.
Set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, it is unclear if what Ofelia experiences is truly magic or all within her imagination. Blurring the boundary between reality and what is happening inside someone’s mind is a classic trope of the weird. This film also features body horror, abject creatures, and a sense of the uncanny, cementing it as a fantastically weird watch.
“The Midnight Club” (2022)
“The Midnight Club” is about a group of teenagers and young adults at a hospice for the terminally ill — an eerie mansion in the woods called Brightcliffe. The patients meet every night at midnight to tell each other elaborate stories — often filled with horror — and make a pact that the next of them to die will send a message from beyond the grave.
Blurring the lines between the characters’ lives and the stories they make up, “The Midnight Club” will haunt you in the best possible way. This television series perfectly balances jump scares and creepy horror with meaningful reflections on life, death, and what it means to be remembered.
“Yellowjackets” (2021)
A high school girl’s soccer team is stranded deep in the Canadian wilderness when their plane crashes on the way to nationals, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves. With a split timeline depicting their time in the woods as girls and their adult lives decades later, “Yellowjackets” explores the horrors of isolation, starvation, and exposure to the elements — and how those experiences haunt them.
The Yellowjackets are complex, brutal, and intense girls both in their youth and adulthood. This show is filled with gore, suspense, and mystery, and it really embraces the weird genre with its elements of insanity, the supernatural, and being unable to tell which is which.
Weird fiction promises an interesting experience for its audience, whether you want a television series packed with disturbing body horror or a novel with a haunting atmosphere. I hope that the list of weird fiction media above provides a good starting point for women wishing to see themselves reflected in the genre.