What Do Female Filmmakers Bring to Horror Movies?

The relationship between women and horror has always been a twisting, contentious one. For too long, it was assumed that women didn't like or engage with horror, and that films featuring sex, gore, and violence were outside their interests. This was convincingly disputed by Carol J. Clover in her seminal book, Men, Women, and Chainsaws, who highlighted that women were, in fact, big fans of the genre. But it is only in recent years that we have seen a shift in the voices telling the stories, moving away from women filmmakers as a novelty item in the sea of male-dominated horror to better representation. From the rise of film festivals that center on women filmmakers, like the annual Final Girls Film Festival in Berlin, is clear that women are here to stay in the spooky sphere of horror. We have also seen that when women are given the opportunity to make horror, success follows quickly behind, with films like Candyman (2021) from Nia DaCosta debuting at number one at the box office.