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).

Movie

The Evil Gene (2016)
The Evil Gene IMDb TMDB
other title: 惡因 / 恶因
FBI agent Griff Krenshaw is dispatched to solve a murder at a federal correctional facility for inmates with a rare genetic defect that leads to psychosis and violence. Once there, Griff becomes convinced that the facility is plagued by a much darker force.

Movie

Evolution (2015)
Évolution
★ 6.0 19 ratings
露西尔·哈兹哈利洛维奇 actor: 罗珊妮·杜兰 / 茱莉-玛丽·帕芒提耶 …
other title: 에볼루션: 새로운 탄생 / エヴォリューション …
11-year-old Nicolas lives with his mother in a seaside housing estate. The only place that ever sees any activity is the hospital. It is there that all the boys from the village are forced to undergo strange medical trials that attempt to disrupt the phases of evolution.

Movie

The Eyeslicer: Halloween Special (2018)
The Eyeslicer: Halloween Special IMDb TMDB
Featuring a dozen segments of spine-tingling surrealist horror, The Eyeslicer Halloween Special takes viewers on the cinematic equivalent of an acid trip down the Halloween aisle at Party City! From an X-rated Halloween party hookup to a coming of age story set on the eve of Ted Bundy’s execution; from a documentary about pumpkin carving and misogyny to a supercut about the gendered dangers of the bathtub; from a cursed stand-up comedy set to a woman ( Carrie Coon) trapped inside a Red Lobster commercial; from a John Carpenter homage (featuring a cameo by Carpenter himself) to a sequel to The Eyeslicer’s now infamous Gwilliam, The Eyeslicer Halloween Special is an experience like no other – a deranged, proudly transgressive anthology carving out a bold new space in the Midnight movie genre.

Movie

Face of Evil (1996)
Face of Evil WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: La cara del mal / Der Tod kam als Engel
Using her girl-next-door looks to her advantage, Darcy Palmer is a calculating thief and murderer. After killing a young college student and taking her identity, Darcy enrolls in the victim's New England school in her place. At the university, Darcy gets to know her new roommate, Jeanelle, and her handsome father, Russell Polk, who soon play into her next scheme. When Darcy has to alter her plans, both Russell and Jeanelle become quite expendable.

Movie

Faceless (2007)
Faceless WikiData IMDb TMDB
In an eerily familiar city, a calendar reform has dispensed with the past and the future, leaving citizens faceless, without memory or anticipation. Unimaginable happiness abounds - until a woman recovers her face...

Movie

The Falling (2014)
The Falling WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
★ 7.7 6 ratings
other title: 堕落 / 폴링 …
England, 1969. The fascinating Abbie and the troubled Lydia are great friends. After an unexpected tragedy occurs in the strict girls' school they attend, a mysterious epidemic of fainting breaks out that threatens the mental sanity and beliefs of the tormented people involved, both teachers and students.

Movie

Farhope Tower (2015)
Farhope Tower WikiData IMDb TMDB
Five paranormal investigators venture into the infamous Farhope Tower, known for its dark history of unexplained suicides, with dreams of landing a Reality TV deal. But they get more than they bargained for when they enter the strangely ever-changing layout, lair of the most powerful spirits they’ve ever faced. For once inside the derelict structure an omnipresent evil begins manipulating the team, and the higher they climb the more everything spirals out of control. For heaven’s sake, don’t go up! From the filmmakers behind 88 and DEAD BEFORE DAWN 3D comes a classy chiller to leave you super-creeped out.

Movie

Zero (2014)
零~ゼロ~ WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
★ 4.6 20 ratings
other title: 零 / 零~ゼロ~ …
High school student Aya Tsukimori becomes cursed and is unable to leave her school dormitory. Meanwhile, many students begin reporting ghost sightings at the school, while others go missing and are later discovered to have drowned mysteriously. Soon, Aya attempts to communicate with fellow student Michi Kazato, who begins investigating the disappearances of her friends.

Movie

The Father's Shadow (2018)
A Sombra do Pai WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
加布里埃拉·阿马拉尔 actor: 爱德华多·戈梅斯 / 迪诺·利马·弗洛尔 …
other title: 父亲的影子 / A Sombra do Pai
When a child is forced to become the house's adult because her father is sick and her mother is dead, there's an inversion in the natural order of things. Childhood becomes a saga. And the frustrated parenthood turns into a conviction.

Movie

Fausto (2018)
Fausto IMDb TMDB Douban
★ 5.3 6 ratings
other title: 浮士德 / 海边的浮士德(港) …
On the Oaxacan coast of Mexico, rumblings of previous times are never far from the surface. Tales of shapeshifting, telepathy and dealings with the Devil are embedded in the colonization and enslavement of the Americas. Characters from the Faust legend mingle with the inhabitants, while attempting to colonize and control nature through a seemingly never-ending building project. Through literature, myth and local entanglements, the frontier between reality and fiction, and the seen and unseen, no longer apply.

Movie

Fetish Factory (2017)
Fetish Factory IMDb TMDB
Pin-up vixens vs. bloodthirsty zombies, set in post-apocalyptic Hollywood. Imagine a wickedly saucy by invitation-only stage show and posh private peeps in which your every fantasy can come true, fulfilled by the likes of luscious ladies imitating the sex goddesses of yore: Bettie Page, Jayne Mansfield, and Suzie Wong.

Movie

The Forever Dead (2007)
The Forever Dead IMDb TMDB
other title: Forever Dead
A crazed rabbit goes zombie on a small community, turning its inhabitants into zombies. Six people struggle with their own inner demons, some of which are more frightening than the zombies they are trying to survive.
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