499 Nights of Female-Fronted Frights
487 movies 3 tv shows
With the horrors of 2020, do you need a horror movie a day to keep the demons at bay? I do, and if you do too, challenge yourself to discover more of the powers of women in cinema. Many believe female horror directors and their films are impossible to find, particularly certain, ahem, studio execs. To prove them wrong, aid others in pursuit of a good scare, and challenge myself, I decided to put together a list of female-directed horror to watch and rate. To date, I have found almost 500 feature-length creeps and scares from women all over the world, with many more coming out in 2020. In this list, I have organized the films I’ve found so far by title. I encourage others to use this list as a jumping-off point to dive into new discoveries in horror. A warning: some inclusions are multi-genre or have major horror elements used for dramatic purposes while not being horror per se. I aggregated many other people’s lists and did a lot of my own research and digging, but can’t verify anything until I complete this watching project myself. Suggestions for additions welcome! Big thanks to Lyzette’s <a href="https://boxd.it/tz9G">list of Women-Made Horror</a>, which helped me form the basis for this list. Not on Letterboxd: Let’s Go Home (2019).
Blue My Mind (2017) [Movie] Douban TMDB WikiData IMDb
Blue My Mind
director:
丽莎·布吕尔曼
actor:
卢娜·韦德勒
/
佐伊·帕斯提尔·赫斯泽恩
…
other title:
블루 마이 마인드
/
ブルー・マインド
…
15-year-old Mia faces an overwhelming transformation which puts her entire existence into question. Her body is changing radically, and despite desperate attempts to halt the process, Mia is soon forced to accept that nature is far more powerful than she is.
Blue Steel (1990) [Movie] Douban TMDB WikiData IMDb
Blue Steel
other title:
霹雳蓝天使
/
蓝天使
…
Rookie cop Megan Turner orders a burglar to drop his gun. He whirls to shoot. Too late. Turner fires, killing him instantly. When someone lifts the assailant's gun from the crime scene, the police hold Turner accountable for killing an unarmed man. That same someone carves Turner's name into the bullets and uses them in a series of murders. Turner teams up with detective Nick Mann to clear her name and catch the killer. But she is drawn into a deadly game of wits with a psychopath who's always one step ahead… and much closer than she thinks!
Bluebeard (2009) [Movie] Douban IMDb TMDB WikiData
Barbe Bleue
director:
凯瑟琳·布雷亚
actor:
达芬妮·百维
/
Lola Creton
…
other title:
蓝胡子
/
Barbe Bleue
…
Anne reads her younger sister, Marie-Catherine, the story of Bluebeard. In 17th-century France, another set of sisters — also named Anne and Marie-Catherine — are left impoverished by their father's death. Marie-Catherine dreams of marrying into money, and soon falls for wealthy divorcé Bluebeard. Grateful for the chance at a life of comfort, Marie-Catherine marries Bluebeard — in spite of rumors that he has made a hobby of murdering his wives.
Body at Brighton Rock (2019) [Movie] Douban TMDB IMDb WikiData
Body at Brighton Rock
director:
罗克珊·本杰明
actor:
艾米莉·奥尔索斯
/
米兰达·贝利
…
other title:
布莱顿惊魂
/
바디 앳 브라이튼 록
…
When an inexperienced park ranger finds a dead body under mysterious circumstances on a remote mountain trail, she must guard it overnight until authorities can arrive, forcing her to confront some of her deepest, darkest fears.
Boxing Helena (1993) [Movie] Douban IMDb TMDB WikiData Skybridge
Boxing Helena
other title:
盒装美人
/
情碎海伦娜
…
A top surgeon is besotted with a beautiful woman who once rebuffed him. Unable to come to terms with life without her, he tries to convince her that they need each other. She has other ideas, but a horrific accident leaves her at his mercy.
The Boy from Hell (2004) [Movie] Douban IMDb WikiData TMDB
日野日出志のザ・ホラー 怪奇劇場 第一夜 地獄小僧
other title:
怪奇！地狱小僧
/
日野日出志のザ・ホラー 怪奇劇場 第一夜 地獄小僧
…
A mysterious old woman appears before Setsu, who has recently lost her only child in a tragic accident. She says she can bring Setsu's son, Daio back to life. After agreeing to this sinister proposal, Daio returns to his mother, but to Setsu's horror, he is half decomposed and inhuman. To make him human again, he needs fresh human organs. Setsu does everything she can to reincarnate her son, but Daio just turns into a different kind of monster. No one can stop him as he continues to feed his hunger, claiming victim after victim.
The Boys Next Door (1986) [Movie] Douban IMDb TMDB WikiData
The Boys Next Door
director:
佩内洛普·斯皮瑞斯
actor:
Maxwell Caulfield
/
查理·辛
…
other title:
邻家男孩
/
반항
…
Sheen and Caulfield are Bo and Roy, respectively, two California high school grads who vent their frustrations by going on a killing spree. In a hard-hitting, semidocumentary-like style, the film examines the damaged psyches of these two killers as they wend their way throughout Los Angeles randomly choosing and then murdering their victims. The murder scenes are especially brutal, but don't border on the gratuitous as they serve to illustrate the duo's twisted minds. There's a subplot of gay bashing (one of the film's most disturbing sequences) which brings to light Roy's closeted homosexual feelings.
Gay sexual repression resulting in a spree of rage and death is the disturbing theme to this teen drama. Two male high schoolers and best friends go on a rampage of violence, killing a gay man (that they pick up in a gay bar) and then killing with abandon. Could the unresolved sexual attraction and tension between the two be the cause of their psychotic behavior?
Gay sexual repression resulting in a spree of rage and death is the disturbing theme to this teen drama. Two male high schoolers and best friends go on a rampage of violence, killing a gay man (that they pick up in a gay bar) and then killing with abandon. Could the unresolved sexual attraction and tension between the two be the cause of their psychotic behavior?
Braid (2018) [Movie] WikiData IMDb Douban TMDB
Braid
director:
Mitzi Peirone
actor:
Madeline Brewer
/
Scott Cohen
…
other title:
迷离幻境
/
세 친구
…
Two drug dealers on the lam seek refuge inside their mentally unstable friend’s mansion. But in order to stay, they have to participate in her elaborate, and increasingly dangerous, game of permanent make-believe.
brides to be (2016) [Movie] Douban TMDB IMDb WikiData
brides to be
director:
Kris Boustedt, Lindy Boustedt
actor:
Carollani Sandberg
/
Angela DiMarco
…
other title:
准新娘
/
Brides to Be
…
Robin and Jenna are getting married. Robin is excited beyond words; Jenna is plagued by panic attacks and struggles to write her vows. But when they arrive at their secluded fairy-tale venue, sinister forces besiege them, threatening to tear them apart.
Broken Mirrors (1984) [Movie] IMDb TMDB WikiData
Gebroken spiegels
director:
Marleen Gorris
actor:
Lineke Rijxman
/
Henriëtte Tol
…
other title:
깨진 거울 속의 여인들
/
Die gekaufte Frau
…
Diane and Dora are two prostitutes who begin to rebel against their lot in life. Meanwhile, in another part of town, a murderer is at large.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) [Movie] IMDb Douban Eggplant.place TMDB WikiData
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
other title:
뱀파이어 해결사
/
バッフィ／ザ・バンパイア・キラー
…
Blonde, bouncy Buffy is your typical high school cheerleader. But all that changes when a strange man informs her she's been chosen by fate to kill vampires.
Bump in the Night (1991) [Movie] IMDb WikiData TMDB
Bump in the Night
director:
Karen Arthur
actor:
梅雷迪斯·巴克斯特
/
克里斯托弗·里夫
…
other title:
Stunden der Angst
/
渇きの代償
Martha "Red" Tierney used to be a hot-shot reporter, but that was before alcohol took over her life. One morning Martha's son, Jonathan, leaves for school, stopping first to meet his father for breakfast. But Jonathan never meets his dad. Instead, he is picked up by Lawrence, a pedophile who has been watching him. Now Martha must overcome her alcoholism and her bitterness towards her ex-husband and use her old investigative skills to find her son before it's too late.
Butter on the Latch (2013) [Movie] Douban IMDb WikiData TMDB
Butter on the Latch
director:
约瑟芬·戴克
actor:
Isolde Chae-Lawrence
/
Sarah Small
…
other title:
门闩上的黄油
/
門閂上的黃油
At a Balkan folk song and dance camp in the woods of Mendocino, California, Sarah reunites with her old friend Isolde and with a song she learned years before about dragons who entwine themselves in women's hair and carry them off through the forest, burning it as they go. When Sarah pursues a romance with a new camper Steph, the nights of sensual secrets and singing with Isolde come to an abrupt end. Sarah and Steph explore a simple attraction, but in Sarah's dreams, women spin their wild hair and Isolde darkly approaches. When reality and fantasy collide, Sarah finds that the dragons she's visioning may be inside her.
The Bye Bye Man (2017) [Movie] Douban IMDb WikiData TMDB
The Bye Bye Man
other title:
送葬人
/
冤亲债主(台)
…
When three college students move into an old house off campus, they unwittingly unleash a supernatural entity known as The Bye Bye Man, who comes to prey upon them once they discover his name. The friends must try to save each other, all the while keeping The Bye Bye Man's existence a secret to save others from the same deadly fate.
Candy Stripers (2006) [Movie] Douban IMDb TMDB
Candy Stripers
director:
凯特·罗宾斯
actor:
Scott Aaronson
/
Brian Lloyd
…
other title:
结晶艳舞
/
Sexy Killers (Candy Stripers)
Thanks to an auto accident, a parasitic alien manages to get into a hospital. It quickly moves from the crash victim into a candy striper. Among the patients at the hospital are some rather short high school basketball players. It is through them that we watch the events unfold. The infected, or inhabited, candy striper becomes predatory. She goes after men for sex and after women to spread. Infected women develop an incredible sweet tooth and devour anything sweet they can find. The horror then spreads. As the horror takes over more of the hospital and the CDC locks it down, the basketball players and a few friends do everything they can to try and get out of the hospital. But soon it becomes evident that the problem has spread too far. Now if they manage to escape it will only be to delay the inevitable if they cannot halt the spread of aliens before they get out and take over the whole world.
The Captured Bird (2012) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
The Captured Bird
director:
Jovanka Vuckovic
actor:
Skyler Wexler
A darkly poetic fable that begins with a little girl drawing figures of people with chalk on the cement of a playground. She takes notice of an unusual crack in the pavement that is seeping a mysterious black fluid, which she follows to an ominous building. Inside, she encounters several bizarre phenomena, including walls that bleed black and tentacles that emerge from the ceiling to touch her. She then witnesses the birth of five terrifying supernatural beings that threaten the existence of her world.
Carmilla (1999) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
Carmilla
director:
Tom LePine
/
Denise Templeton
actor:
Stacia Crawford
/
Marina Morgan
…
In 19th-century Styria, isolated Laura's quiet life is upended by the arrival of mysterious, beautiful Carmilla, a female vampire with whom she develops an intense, homoerotic bond. As Laura's life slowly drains, themes of forbidden desire, identity, and the supernatural are explored, culminating in Laura's discovery of Carmilla's vampiric nature and a confrontation with her ancient lineage.