edited by Alison Peirse contributions by Katarzyna Paszkiewicz, Maddison McGillvray, Molly Kim, Donna McRae, Erin Harrington, Lindsey Decker, Valeria Villegas Lindvall, Janice Loreck, Amy C. Chambers, Sonia Lupher, Alison Peirse, Alicia Kozma, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Martha Shearer, Katia Houde, Tosha R. Taylor, Dahlia Schweitzer and Laura Mee
Rutgers University Press, 2020 Paper: 978-1-9788-0511-8 | Cloth: 978-1-9788-0512-5 | eISBN: 978-1-9788-0514-9 Library of Congress Classification PN1995.9.H6 Dewey Decimal Classification 791.436522
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Winner of the the 2021 Best Edited Collection Award from BAFTSS Winner of the 2021 British Fantasy Award in Best Non-Fiction Finalist for the 2020 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Runner-Up for Book of the Year in the 19th Annual Rondo Halton Classic Horror Awards
“But women were never out there making horror films, that’s why they are not written about – you can’t include what doesn’t exist.”
“Women are just not that interested in making horror films.”
This is what you get when you are a woman working in horror, whether as a writer, academic, festival programmer, or filmmaker. These assumptions are based on decades of flawed scholarly, critical, and industrial thinking about the genre. Women Make Horror sets right these misconceptions. Women have always made horror. They have always been an audience for the genre, and today, as this book reveals, women academics, critics, and filmmakers alike remain committed to a film genre that offers almost unlimited opportunities for exploring and deconstructing social and cultural constructions of gender, femininity, sexuality, and the body.
Women Make Horror explores narrative and experimental cinema; short, anthology, and feature filmmaking; and offers case studies of North American, Latin American, European, East Asian, and Australian filmmakers, films, and festivals. With this book we can transform how we think about women filmmakers and genre.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
ALISON PEIRSE is an associate professor in film and media at the University of Leeds, UK. She is author of After Dracula: The 1930s Horror Film and co-editor of Korean Horror Cinema.
REVIEWS
"Clearly written by people who love the genre, but are also experts in their field. And while the level of detail is certainly indicative of scholarly journals, it is clear that the authors know what they are talking about, and are also excited to share their distinct viewpoints and theories. Women Make Horror is an excellent addition to any fan’s library who is interested in the scholarly examination of a genre that is often demonized or dismissed by critics."
— Conskipper
"This thrilling collection of essays confirms what women have known since Mary Shelley: patriarchy is scary, and the horror genre can gruesomely, gloriously play out its nightmares. It will jumpstart a new playlist of women’s horror cinema and will provoke us to rethink the films we’ve already seen."
— Linda Mizejewski, distinguished professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies at Ohio State University
“It’s about time a book like this came to light! Why wouldn’t women make horror? We’ve been dealing with it forever. As artists we often bring up the very things we are most afraid of as a way of facing them, and there’s a lot to fear in this world where men still dominate. May books like this -- eloquently written -- help to bring about a shift toward equality and embracing female artistic perspectives, whatever they may be.”
— Katt Shea, Feature film writer/director
"The aim and the encouragement of the book is clear. It points out the potential of the female voice in genre filmmaking and horror as a means of expression and as a challenge to the status quo, a possible path towards gender equality and resistance."
— Film International
"Women Make Horror would make an invaluable reference tool for anyone writing about or creating horror as its scope is broad and varying. Its tone is heavily academic but so rich in its offerings that there is no doubt that repeated readings will provide a rewarding experience. Upon finishing the book, I found to my great delight that I had amassed a treasure trove list of previously undiscovered films, festivals and resources to sink my teeth into. As a woman who often writes from a feminist perspective, I found this collection of essays (the first all-female and female edited book of its kind) deeply moving, oftentimes upsetting and always incredibly inspirational. As one contributor remarks: ‘the impossible can only become possible when we know it is already being done.'"
— Ghouls Magazine
"Women Make Horror excels in providing rigorous criticism of horror cinema in terms
of the genre’s production and reception....As a collection, Women Make Horror succeeds in this aim and provides new interpretative angles which will intrigue fans, students, and scholars interested in the future of horror cinema."
"There are many reasons why Women Make Horror is an important book: it responds to its time (the #metoo movement, the horror resurgence and the renaissance of women in horror), it starts the uphill battle of filling the gap in the scholarship regarding women as makers of horror and carves up space for filmmakers and the writers of the book to be recognised within the ‘boys club’ that is the industry and academia (as mentioned by Peirse in her chapter). The book stands as a point of entry for anyone who wants to delve into the issue of gender in the horror genre, while also offering avenues for research to be expanded."
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Women Make (Write, Produce, Direct, Shoot, Edit and Analyze) Horror
Alison Peirse
Chapter 2. Stephanie Rothman and Vampiric Film Histories
Alicia Kozma
Chapter 3. Inside Karen Arthur’s The Mafu Cage
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Chapter 4. The Secret Beyond the Door: Daria Nicolodi and Suspiria’s Multiple Authorship
Martha Shearer
Chapter 5. Personal Trauma Cinema and the Experimental Videos of Cecelia Condit and Ellen Cantor
Katia Houde
Chapter 6. Self-Reflexivity and Feminist Camp in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
Tosha R. Taylor
Chapter 7. Why Office Killer Matters
Dahlia Schweitzer
Chapter 8. Murders and Adaptations: Gender in American Psycho
Laura Mee
Chapter 9. Gender, Genre and Authorship in Ginger Snaps
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz
Chapter 10. The Feminist Art-Horror of the New French Extremity
Maddison McGillvray
Chapter 11. Women-Made Horror in Korean Cinema
Molly Kim
Chapter 12. The Stranger With My Face International Film Festival and the Australian Female Gothic
Donna McRae
Chapter 13. Slicing Up the Boys’ Club: The Female-led Horror Anthology Film
Erin Harrington
Chapter 14. The Transnational Gaze in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Lindsey Decker
Chapter 15. Gigi Saul Guerrero and her Latin American Female Monsters
Valeria Villegas Lindvall
Chapter 16. Uncanny Tales: Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Évolution
Janice Loreck
Chapter 17. The (re)Birth of Pregnancy Horror in Alice Lowe’s Prevenge
Amy C. Chambers
Chapter 18. The Rise of the Female Horror Filmmaker-Fan
Sonia Lupher
Notes on Contributors
Index
edited by Alison Peirse contributions by Katarzyna Paszkiewicz, Maddison McGillvray, Molly Kim, Donna McRae, Erin Harrington, Lindsey Decker, Valeria Villegas Lindvall, Janice Loreck, Amy C. Chambers, Sonia Lupher, Alison Peirse, Alicia Kozma, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Martha Shearer, Katia Houde, Tosha R. Taylor, Dahlia Schweitzer and Laura Mee
Rutgers University Press, 2020 Paper: 978-1-9788-0511-8 Cloth: 978-1-9788-0512-5 eISBN: 978-1-9788-0514-9
Winner of the the 2021 Best Edited Collection Award from BAFTSS Winner of the 2021 British Fantasy Award in Best Non-Fiction Finalist for the 2020 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Runner-Up for Book of the Year in the 19th Annual Rondo Halton Classic Horror Awards
“But women were never out there making horror films, that’s why they are not written about – you can’t include what doesn’t exist.”
“Women are just not that interested in making horror films.”
This is what you get when you are a woman working in horror, whether as a writer, academic, festival programmer, or filmmaker. These assumptions are based on decades of flawed scholarly, critical, and industrial thinking about the genre. Women Make Horror sets right these misconceptions. Women have always made horror. They have always been an audience for the genre, and today, as this book reveals, women academics, critics, and filmmakers alike remain committed to a film genre that offers almost unlimited opportunities for exploring and deconstructing social and cultural constructions of gender, femininity, sexuality, and the body.
Women Make Horror explores narrative and experimental cinema; short, anthology, and feature filmmaking; and offers case studies of North American, Latin American, European, East Asian, and Australian filmmakers, films, and festivals. With this book we can transform how we think about women filmmakers and genre.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
ALISON PEIRSE is an associate professor in film and media at the University of Leeds, UK. She is author of After Dracula: The 1930s Horror Film and co-editor of Korean Horror Cinema.
REVIEWS
"Clearly written by people who love the genre, but are also experts in their field. And while the level of detail is certainly indicative of scholarly journals, it is clear that the authors know what they are talking about, and are also excited to share their distinct viewpoints and theories. Women Make Horror is an excellent addition to any fan’s library who is interested in the scholarly examination of a genre that is often demonized or dismissed by critics."
— Conskipper
"This thrilling collection of essays confirms what women have known since Mary Shelley: patriarchy is scary, and the horror genre can gruesomely, gloriously play out its nightmares. It will jumpstart a new playlist of women’s horror cinema and will provoke us to rethink the films we’ve already seen."
— Linda Mizejewski, distinguished professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies at Ohio State University
“It’s about time a book like this came to light! Why wouldn’t women make horror? We’ve been dealing with it forever. As artists we often bring up the very things we are most afraid of as a way of facing them, and there’s a lot to fear in this world where men still dominate. May books like this -- eloquently written -- help to bring about a shift toward equality and embracing female artistic perspectives, whatever they may be.”
— Katt Shea, Feature film writer/director
"The aim and the encouragement of the book is clear. It points out the potential of the female voice in genre filmmaking and horror as a means of expression and as a challenge to the status quo, a possible path towards gender equality and resistance."
— Film International
"Women Make Horror would make an invaluable reference tool for anyone writing about or creating horror as its scope is broad and varying. Its tone is heavily academic but so rich in its offerings that there is no doubt that repeated readings will provide a rewarding experience. Upon finishing the book, I found to my great delight that I had amassed a treasure trove list of previously undiscovered films, festivals and resources to sink my teeth into. As a woman who often writes from a feminist perspective, I found this collection of essays (the first all-female and female edited book of its kind) deeply moving, oftentimes upsetting and always incredibly inspirational. As one contributor remarks: ‘the impossible can only become possible when we know it is already being done.'"
— Ghouls Magazine
"Women Make Horror excels in providing rigorous criticism of horror cinema in terms
of the genre’s production and reception....As a collection, Women Make Horror succeeds in this aim and provides new interpretative angles which will intrigue fans, students, and scholars interested in the future of horror cinema."
"There are many reasons why Women Make Horror is an important book: it responds to its time (the #metoo movement, the horror resurgence and the renaissance of women in horror), it starts the uphill battle of filling the gap in the scholarship regarding women as makers of horror and carves up space for filmmakers and the writers of the book to be recognised within the ‘boys club’ that is the industry and academia (as mentioned by Peirse in her chapter). The book stands as a point of entry for anyone who wants to delve into the issue of gender in the horror genre, while also offering avenues for research to be expanded."
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Women Make (Write, Produce, Direct, Shoot, Edit and Analyze) Horror
Alison Peirse
Chapter 2. Stephanie Rothman and Vampiric Film Histories
Alicia Kozma
Chapter 3. Inside Karen Arthur’s The Mafu Cage
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Chapter 4. The Secret Beyond the Door: Daria Nicolodi and Suspiria’s Multiple Authorship
Martha Shearer
Chapter 5. Personal Trauma Cinema and the Experimental Videos of Cecelia Condit and Ellen Cantor
Katia Houde
Chapter 6. Self-Reflexivity and Feminist Camp in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
Tosha R. Taylor
Chapter 7. Why Office Killer Matters
Dahlia Schweitzer
Chapter 8. Murders and Adaptations: Gender in American Psycho
Laura Mee
Chapter 9. Gender, Genre and Authorship in Ginger Snaps
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz
Chapter 10. The Feminist Art-Horror of the New French Extremity
Maddison McGillvray
Chapter 11. Women-Made Horror in Korean Cinema
Molly Kim
Chapter 12. The Stranger With My Face International Film Festival and the Australian Female Gothic
Donna McRae
Chapter 13. Slicing Up the Boys’ Club: The Female-led Horror Anthology Film
Erin Harrington
Chapter 14. The Transnational Gaze in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Lindsey Decker
Chapter 15. Gigi Saul Guerrero and her Latin American Female Monsters
Valeria Villegas Lindvall
Chapter 16. Uncanny Tales: Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Évolution
Janice Loreck
Chapter 17. The (re)Birth of Pregnancy Horror in Alice Lowe’s Prevenge
Amy C. Chambers
Chapter 18. The Rise of the Female Horror Filmmaker-Fan
Sonia Lupher
Notes on Contributors
Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
