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Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre
Winner of the the 2021 Best Edited Collection Award from BAFTSS
Shortlisted for the 2021 British Fantasy Awards - 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.
Shortlisted for the 2021 British Fantasy Awards - 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.
270 pages, Paperback
First published September 17, 2020
37 people are currently reading
1370 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 25, 2022
3.5 stars. Some of it went WAYYY over my head, but loved the sections I understood 😂
March 23, 2021
It isn't any surprise that I love horror and that I love horror by women. But I haven't turned as much of a critical eye on horror films as I have on horror fiction, so I was really interested to learn more.
This is a fabulous and much-needed collection of film criticism. Both by women and about women, these essays explore the horror genre and women's often overlooked contributions. With essays on directors and writers, mainstream and experimental cinema, and movies all over the world, this work offers a historical corrective, and I can only hope we'll see more criticism in this vein.
Some of the essays came off as more academic than others, and while that isn't necessarily my cup of tea, I do appreciate any challenge to read outside of my comfort zone. I think there could be a good market for a more trade-friendly version of this book. I learned a lot from all the essays and know there are pieces that I will return to again. I also have a pretty good list of movies to find now too!
My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this one to read and review.
This is a fabulous and much-needed collection of film criticism. Both by women and about women, these essays explore the horror genre and women's often overlooked contributions. With essays on directors and writers, mainstream and experimental cinema, and movies all over the world, this work offers a historical corrective, and I can only hope we'll see more criticism in this vein.
Some of the essays came off as more academic than others, and while that isn't necessarily my cup of tea, I do appreciate any challenge to read outside of my comfort zone. I think there could be a good market for a more trade-friendly version of this book. I learned a lot from all the essays and know there are pieces that I will return to again. I also have a pretty good list of movies to find now too!
My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this one to read and review.
January 8, 2022
You ever read something that offers you so much to consider that you know it'll take you ages to completely process? That's this compilation of essays. I want to offer sincere thanks up to everyone who contributed to this book because holy WOW, I needed it and I've loved the time I've had with it, and I know I'll be digesting it for a while yet to come!
December 21, 2024
I had a great time reading this book. It’s a collection of essays about women who make horror movies, mostly directors and screenwriters. The book is a great blend of covering more well known films as well as discussing indie filmmakers, foreign films, and movies that cross over into experimental or art film territory. Reading this has definitely expanded my ever growing watchlist.
This is pretty academic in tone, so it wasn’t something I was able to fly through. But because it’s a collection of essays it lends itself to reading it slowly in small chunks. As with any collection of writing by multiple authors, I found some chapters to be more interesting than others.
This is pretty academic in tone, so it wasn’t something I was able to fly through. But because it’s a collection of essays it lends itself to reading it slowly in small chunks. As with any collection of writing by multiple authors, I found some chapters to be more interesting than others.
April 29, 2021
A great collection of scholarly insight on women in horror writing and filmmaking. Definitely plan to add this to my shelves at home!
February 7, 2023
This is an interesting and mostly far-more-readable-than-the-norm academic collection on women film-makers and how they approach horror. I'm a horror writer myself, which developed out of being a horror fan, but I'm not a film-maker, so I find it appealing to see how other women with the same horror interests use a visual medium to tell their own horror stories, instead of a purely written one.
There's rather more practical than theory here, although the latter does exist - the various papers tend to be latched on very heavily to one or more examples, which is useful (and which, helpfully, adds to my to-watch list). There's also a tempting variety of papers from various academics, and while I enjoyed nearly all of them, I think my favourite chapters were the ones on Korean cinema, the subverted gaze in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and the uncanny in the French eco-horror film Évolution - I actually have a paper coming out on that last film myself soon, and mine is nothing like Loreck's take on it, so that was really fascinating to read. We've taken completely opposite approaches - Loreck's looking at Évolution through the lens of the uncanny, while I'm looking at it through the lens of the intertidal zone.
Well worth reading for film-makers, I think, and quite interesting for the rest of us too.
There's rather more practical than theory here, although the latter does exist - the various papers tend to be latched on very heavily to one or more examples, which is useful (and which, helpfully, adds to my to-watch list). There's also a tempting variety of papers from various academics, and while I enjoyed nearly all of them, I think my favourite chapters were the ones on Korean cinema, the subverted gaze in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and the uncanny in the French eco-horror film Évolution - I actually have a paper coming out on that last film myself soon, and mine is nothing like Loreck's take on it, so that was really fascinating to read. We've taken completely opposite approaches - Loreck's looking at Évolution through the lens of the uncanny, while I'm looking at it through the lens of the intertidal zone.
Well worth reading for film-makers, I think, and quite interesting for the rest of us too.
November 8, 2021
it's hard to rate an anthology of essays, as your mileage may vary in terms of what appeals to you. the essays on films with which i wasn't familiar didn't grab me quite as much as the ones i knew intimately, but that's more due to the academic nature of many of these essays. that said, the pieces on ginger snaps, prevenge, and other films which i've seen many times made me appreciate them on another level i didn't think possible.
November 3, 2023
to quote peirse: "our histories are faulty", and that is why a work like this is so important! as a longtime horror fan and woman, reading a book like this affirmed and informed me. i took a horror film class earlier this year and i am currently working on a project that focuses on the relationship women have with the genre, so this book has proven to be not only entertaining, but helpful as well!! definitely recommend for any horror fans; regardless of gender identity 👻
December 2, 2024
I found this book easier to put down than I would like. Significant as this essay collection is for the study of horror given its explicit focus on women involved in a wide array of stages in the horror-making process, I do find that much of this book reels more niche. I recommend looking at the table of contents to determine whether this book is best suited for an individual scholar’s work.
April 10, 2021
An excellent collection of current scholarly articles on women in horror. Highly recommend as a bookend with Dread of Difference. Covers many topics and sheds new light on previous areas of discussion as well as introducing new areas of thought.
December 5, 2021
A must read in horror and feminist theory. It is the most updated text so far, with a rich bibliography and overall high quality essays. It is fully theory, not easy and kind of academic, not a light read but nevertheless excellent.
May 7, 2021
Don’t go in expecting this to be a list of important women in horror. Well, it is kinda that. But this is written more like an essay.
May 22, 2021
I feel: perturbed.
July 7, 2021
-Clearly, this one is very on-brand
-Would recommend!
-Would recommend!
November 8, 2021
It's very insightful and a great modern read to follow up 'Men, Women, and Chain Saws', and 'The Monstrous Feminine' which are both 30 years old now.
March 18, 2022
This is a must read for anyone interested in film. An excellent dissection of women's continued contribution to horror. I've a huge list of films I am desperate to watch now.
October 13, 2022
A great collection of essays! I really enjoyed that with some chapters I was familiar with the subject matter, and for others it was fascinating brand new information.
October 16, 2023
3.5 It's just hard to rate an anthology of essays. Some were good, some were less good, but it's also all subjective based on what I am going to particularly enjoy and find interesting.
June 4, 2024
Lots of interesting material in here -- and plenty of titles to add to my horror watch list!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews