1000 Women in Horror

by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Spanning 1898 – 2018, 1000 Women in Horror is an exhaustive love-letter to both the stars and the often ignored, invisible women who have been so important to making the genre what it is today. From Classical Hollywood to alt-Nollywood, mumblegore to J-horror, 1000 Women in Horror considers figures whose work has left a significant mark on the genre, both behind and in front of the camera.

Genres: Horror, Film, Nonfiction, Anthologies, Horror Thriller, Media Tie In

Unknown Binding

First published July 17, 2020

About the author

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is a film critic, research academic and the author of seven books on cult, horror, and exploitation cinema with an emphasis on gender politics. She has recently co-edited the book ReFocus: The Films of Elaine May for Edinburgh University Press, and her forthcoming book 1000 Women in Horror has been optioned for a documentary series. Alexandra is also a programming consultant for Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, the largest genre film festival in the United States.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished just in time for WiHM (Women in Horror Month), founded by Hannah Neurotica, who is interviewed in this book. It's a reference work and most readers won't read it cover to cover, as I did. It's a profound undertaking and there's something charmingly retro about a reference work that is in book form rather than online.

It's so retro that it's radical. It accomplishes Heller-Nicholas's goal of reclaiming lost history in a way that pushes back against the way everyone's significance is diminished on the internet, except for a rare few who "trend" or stake a claim on enough eyeballs that you can't help but notice them. The nature of information inflation in online discourse is such that any one piece of information is almost certain to effectively disappear in the sheer glut. Everyone knows that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an iconic horror film, and I've read a hundred pieces about it online. But only Heller-Nicholas got me to stop and think about Sallye Richardson, who helped direct and edit the movie and was living with Hooper during the shoot. Information about Richardson is massively more difficult to find online than information about Hooper, but thanks to Heller-Nicholas, her name is written in the book which we can take down from the shelf whenever we want.

Now, for every entry like Richardson's, that taught me something invaluable and expanded my mind, there are several entries that go like this "[x] starred in this movie [not a good movie] and we know almost nothing about her." These entries can be a little exasperating, in a sense they are padding out the roster to 1000. But they serve the purpose of saying, "There's a risk of losing a piece of film history, and maybe someday someone else can fill in the blanks."

Certain individuals get not just a brief entry but a whole interview. The interviews are sometimes incredibly informative, there's one with director Mattie Do that contains a wealth of good advice for new filmmakers. The entries are lovingly written. There's an offhand reference to the Neil Jordan film Greta as a "grand dame guignol homage" which says so much in four words that I just want to kiss the air. And if you love trivia, the book is a treasure trove. One favorite bit is when Sara Paxton and Sandra Peabody land next to each other, due to alphabetical order, and it turns out they both played the same character in the original and the remake of Last House on the Left, and Heller-Nicholas spotted the connection. I suppose not many will read it cover to cover, but it was actually a fun read for me.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference book! Have made a list of horror films I have yet to watch but now need to from this book

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent resource!! This is a GREAT starting place for anyone looking to start doing research on women in horror, but by no means is it a complete project, which Alexandra Heller-Nicholas freely acknowledges. I asked my local library to purchase this for their collection, but I am wishing I had my own copy so I can deep dive on some of these names.

I also took the trouble to create a letterboxd list of the appendix at the back, with over 700(!) horror films directed by women, but I left it on private since I am not sure if that violates copyright?? Also, not even all the films are on letterboxd, much less actually accessible for viewing (a problem I had with AHN's (also excellent) A-Z horror list she did for Vulture last year (here: www.vulture.com/2018/12/womens-horror...), but I am excited to start to try and cross some off)

I knocked a star for the several typos and punctuation mistakes. This book needs a good copy edit. Also sometimes I thought the wording or phrasing was a bit unwieldy? These are minor nitpicks.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference book.