feminist criticism | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre edited by Alison Peirse

Rutgers University Press, 2020

ISBN-13: 9781978805118

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Women working in the horror industry today are severely underrepresented. Although they have been making horror for centuries, many women have been cut out of that history and/or had their authorship and creative influence denied. What is more, women also enjoy consuming horror. Women Make Horror explores women’s creation and enjoyment of the genre through analysis of experimental cinema and filmmaking. The book includes seventeen essays, global in scope, discussing creatives, films, and festivals. While I think every one of these chapters deserve attention, I will highlight some that stand out.

“Women Make (Write, Produce, Direct, Shoot, Edit, and Analyze) Horror” by Alison Peirse provides a solid introduction to the text. Peirse discusses how she garnered and selected the texts for this volume. She asked three questions of the writers: why do women make horror; what kinds of stories do women tell in horror; and what makes a horror film a feminist film (p. 8-9). Every contributor has a unique perspective as to how they answered these questions.

“The Secret Beyond the Door” by Martha Shearer discusses Daria Nicolodi’s authorship and, subsequently, creative content of the original Suspiria. In “Why Office Killer Matters”, Dahlia Schweitzer provides valuable information on this film and argues that it is a film that not only restructures the representation of gender representation, but how horror films are expected to conform to specific tropes (p. 89). Donna McRae, in her chapter titled “The Stranger with My Face International Film Festival and the Australian Female Gothic”, discusses the development of this essential film festival, as well as “considers the influence of a female-centric genre filmmaking in Australia today” (p. 146) and how it has been a force for good in creative circles. Erin Harrington’s “Slicing Up the Boys’ Club” provides an excellent analysis of the existing state of anthology and omnibus films and their lack of diversity, as well as a discussion regarding the women-led anthology, XX. Harrington poses some good questions regarding representation for readers as well. “The Transnational Gaze in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” by Lindsey Decker presents an analysis through the lens of Hamid Naficy’s Islamicate gaze theory rather than the typical male gaze theory used so often in feminist film analysis.

In “Gender, Genre, and Authorship in Ginger Snaps“, Katarzyna Paskiewicz analyzes the film Ginger Snaps, which makes connections between a werewolf legend and a girl’s coming-of-age story. Paskiewicz describes her study as having two purposes. She seeks to answer how the film might be productively read through a lens that recognizes filmmaking as a collective art form” (p. 106), as well as wanting to “register the significance of women’s film authorship within the horror genre histories in which they have been traditionally overlooked” (p. 106). Early in the chapter, the author argues that directors are not the only creative voice in a film project. Editors, screenwriters, set designers, and more have influence over various aspects of a film (this is precisely why my colleague and I created Women in Film: A Film Index, to recognize other creatives in horror. That the sentiment is recognized in this seminal text is encouraging).

Other chapters cover directors such as Gigi Saul Guerrero, Lucile Hadžihalilović, and Alice Lowe. There are also chapters that focus on the New French Extremity, Korean horror cinema, fans as filmmakers, international films and events, and much more. The end of each chapter includes notes, and there is an extensive index at the end of the book.

Women Make Horror is a much-needed collection of feminist horror film criticism. Some of these essays, such as Molly Kim’s delve into Korean women-made cinema, are the first of their kind. and others showcase someone’s overlooked or misappropriated contributions, such as Alicia Gomez’s chapter on Stephanie Rothman’s The Velvet Vampire, a film originally credited to Roger Corman. Women Make Horror would be an excellent resource for horror scholars or even an addition to a film studies course on the genre. The general reader could enjoy it, but there are many chapters that read more like an academic work. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Editor’s note: Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Award.

( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Sady Doyle

Melville House Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13 : 978-1612197920

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Sady Doyle has written a witty, chatty, insightful, and angry book on female monstrosity. Her premise is that women who claim ownership over their voices and bodies are constructed as monsters because they violate the social and biological norms that threaten men’s control over them- they are a threat to the patriarchy. Doyle identifies three key roles women fill in our patriarchal society and divides the book into sections on “daughters”, “wives”, and “mothers”. She has a lot to say about mothers: that section gets twice the number of pages as the other two sections combined.

Doyle has combed through pop culture, history, literature, fairy tales, myths, horror, true crime, sociology, and personal anecdotes to find examples and support for her theories, and when she does a deep dive into a topic (as she did on a number of girls and women, including Annelise Michel, Bridget Cleary, and Augusta Gein), or a critique of The Conjuring, it is fascinating and memorable. However, Doyle jumps around a lot, and it isn’t always clear how things are related. Her writing flows well, and she does a nice job making it relevant and tying it to recent events.

If you’re looking for an enjoyable feminist take on monstrous women, you’ve found it.

The book includes an annotated list of works cited, endnotes, and an index.

Recommended.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Sady Doyle’s premise is that female monstrosity is determined by patriarchy, which she describes as a social, cultural, and moral structure that is founded in men’s absolute power and control over at least one woman, generally through instilling fear in them. Doyle contends that women who claim ownership over their voices and bodies are constructed as monsters because they violate social and biological norms that threaten men’s control over them. She identifies three key roles women fill in our patriarchal society, and devotes a section of her book to “daughters”, one to “wives”, and one to “mothers”. She chooses from a variety of literary, legendary, historical, and pop culture examples and stories to discuss female monsters, both fictional and real, that exist outside society (or are ostracized by society), and the female victims of monsters that the patriarchy requires.