1000 Women in Horror reminds us women can be scary too

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Lexandra Heller-Nicholas was only seven weeks old when he watched his first horror movie. His aunt was a babysitter, and he decided to bring him to the cinema to see William Friedkin. Disposal. Heller-Nicholas believes that this experience “puts him on his way”.

For the next few decades, Melbourne -based film critic went deep into the genre and Suspira And Psycho – Both of them are secretly watched (terrible films forbidden at home). But as the discovery of horror filmmaking continued, he was wondering again and again: Where are all women?

Not because there is no female creation. In fact, some of the oldest horror films were managed by women like Lois Weber’s 1913 silent film Decline. Women have long played a very important role in horror; Only a few people seem to notice them.

“Many people may not even notice that they had seen a fearful fear before. For example, Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000) and Mary Lambert’s PET SEMATARY (1989), he says Heller-Nicholas. “ Women’s labor has decreased historically and made invisible throughout the board of directors, and horror is an excellent case study to show it. “

Heller-Nicholas from this revelation ‘ Women in 1000 fear, 1895-2018 – The encyclopedic discovery of many women who shaped the species – was born. The book, which descended in 2020, was developed as a documentary with the same name that will play at the Melbourne International Film Festival later on this month.

The documentary directed by Canadian filmmaker Donna Davies, producer Sara Risher (A nightmare in Elm Street), screenwriter Akela Cooper (M3ganand actor Lin Shaye (Sly).

Like Heller-Nicholas, fear has appealed to Davies since childhood; At the age of 10, he founded a witchcraft club with his friends.

“How is my favorite thing [horror] It serves as a cultural mirror – it reflects that society is really scared at any time. “ Trauma works, quiet sound and provides catharsis. Fear, especially for women, has always been an area where anger, power and transformation can be discovered in ways that do not exist in other species. “

While making other documentaries about fear, Davies was increasingly disappointed because of the lack of recognition of women in space.

“Somehow, when men made horror films, he was celebrated as visionars. When women do this, Davies said, exploitation filmmakers or lucky accidents, Dav says Davies. “There is this disturbing truth where the horror of women usually focuses on very real fears – domestic violence, sexual assault, the horrors of birth and motherhood – the audience, especially the male audiences.”

However, until the book of Heller-Nicholas was published, Davies thought that there was the necessary evidence to open people’s eyes.

To achieve this, Davies configured the documentary around the female experience itself – hymen, school years, adulthood, business life, mother life and aging. “Every life phase brings different fears and different powers and we really wanted to honor this journey, or he says.

For example, school life is often associated with puberty, which is sometimes a terrible experience in the documentary. Ginger flutteringWritten by Karen Walton. For some women, motherhood is a horror film in itself. Actor Kate Siegel in the documentary (Hill House’s Haunting) Compares the c-section with body horror movies like Julia Ducournau’s Titan.

“Women often focus on psychological complexity against Gore for their own good. ‘Why’ are interested in the emotional truth of fear, Dav says Davies. “We understand that the most terrible monsters are not always the gears. Sometimes people in the office or the people in front of dinner.”

Mattie Do, a horror director of Laos, says that the horror community is more hospitable than others, but most kinds of filmmakers are still male. He says that he should work “three floors” to be taken seriously.

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Orum I feel here that I have to prove that I belong to as a filmmaker, not just because I was born with some chromosomes, but my works are useful because of merit, ”he says. Long walk.

Heller-Nicholas says things have developed. Now there are several film festivals dedicated to fearful women, including Los Angeles’s Etheria Film Festival, the Wench Film Festival in Mumbai and the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival.

Australia adds that there is a positive abnormality. “We were blessed by a really strong female filmmakers. People like Jennifer Kent Babadook It was very important. Natalie Erika James, ResidueAnother of our boss saints. “

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He goes further, he says. Ann Turner made Celia In 1989, which was initially created as a drama but later distributed to abroad as a fear. You have filmmakers such as Alice Maio Mackay, a 21 -year -old transgender woman who has so far further and many of whom have been featured by International Film Festivals and Flams such as Shudder.

“Alice makes Punk Queer horror with a low-budget-based Punk Queer horror in Australia,” Alice, Australia, “he says. “He’s not just a national treasure in terms of fear, but no one in the world does what he’s doing right now.”

Despite these success stories, Davies says that more women should be able to make more women in decision -making roles. This includes not only directors, but also producers, financiers and distributors, because the stories described are determined by those who control the financing.

Colorful women, LGBT women, trans women and women with different cultural backgrounds are actively sought on the board.

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Davies says that women’s contributions should be taught. “When the film schools teach the history of fear and leave these sounds out, they create new generation guards who don’t even know that these women exist.”

Finally, Heller-Nicholas says that people should realize that this is not a matter of “girls against boys”. Neither the book nor the documentary was made to exclude or criticize men.

“From traveling the world and filming festivals, I saw that men want to make these conversations as much as women… The common love of the species exceeds the gender identity.”