15 Female Filmmakers That Could Kill It At Horror [Hi, Jason Blum!]

Movie producer Jason Blum rightly found himself in the doghouse yesterday after he asserted, in an interview with Polygon, that his horror giant Blumhouse has never hired a female director because “there are not a lot of female directors, period, and even less who are inclined to do horror.” To save face, Blum’s team then rattled off a number of female directors (read: ungrateful bitches) who purportedly turned down their oh-so-tantalizing offer to helm a “Fantasy Island” film. Sure, Blum offered a swift, respectable apology yesterday. Still, many loudly disagreed with the exec after his comments, few more so than women themselves and quantifiable facts.

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The latter show not only that female directors exist, but also that female directors are so glaringly absent from the mainstream because the industry is stacked against them in every conceivable way. As Amy Adrion highlighted in her documentary “Half the Picture,” female directors have to contend with scant funding and a one-strike industry that only allows them to produce a single dud (say, a “Fantasy Island” reboot?) before they’re lowballed for life. What makes a female-directed movie a “dud” varies wildly—even if a film is critically acclaimed (as in Maggie Betts’ “Novitiate”) or a box office blowout (Catherine Hardwicke’s “Twilight”) both audiences and execs overlook and dismiss female-created (or even –centric!) works based solely on their womanly associations.

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This phenomenon, which cultural critic Lili Loofburouw brilliantly named “the male glance,” seems to have afflicted Jason Blum on the day of his Polygon interview. Unfortunate symptoms of the male glance include shit taste in movies/books/art/television, co-morbid foot-in-mouth disease, and, apparently, total ignorance of brilliant and kick-ass female horror directors.

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As treatment for that last ailment, we’re listing a few modern horror directors below who are all—believe it or not, gasp, could it be?—women. – Lena Wilson

Julia Ducournau
The New French Extremity movement has brought films that transgress with shock and awe. Leading that charge in horror is Julia Ducournau, whose film “Raw” is a crowning achievement of repulsion and the intimate journey of female sexuality. Ducournau’s film notably caused audiences to faint due to the unbridled graphic depiction of young Justine’s first term in Veterinary school. With strong roots in art house, Ducournau is commanding but restrained given the gorefest of the film. The director found herself nominated for four major awards at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, winning the FIPRESCI Prize. The film was called, “An impressive debut with a strong visual language. The director tells a dark coming of age story and uses themes from horror movies to express the solitude of sexual awakening of a troubled teenage girl.” Not bad for a first, feature-length debut. – Julia Teti

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Jennifer Kent
Outside of a handful of ’70s and ’80s grindhouse-ish cult classics, Australia doesn’t have much of a reputation for great horror, but something of a movement (Sean Byrne and Greg McLean) has been growing. Easily the best of the group, and the director behind one of the great recent horror movies from anywhere in the world, is Jennifer Kent, the filmmaker behind “The Babadook.” Kent began as an actor (brief appearance in George Miller’s “Babe: Pig In The City”) before training under Lars von Trier on the set of “Dogville.” The link between the two elder directors might not be immediately apparent —“The Babadook,” about a grief-stricken mother, her behaviorally-troubled son and the monster from a storybook who might be real, is an aesthetically very different affair from a von Trier picture. But their shared interest in psychology soon becomes apparent, and the metaphorical rigor of Kent’s film adds an extra layer of terror on top of the director’s immaculate craft. William Friedkin called the film the most terrifying he’d ever seen —he directed the goddamned “Exorcist,” so he knows what he’s talking about. Kent also recently appeared with her follow-up “The Nightingale” in Venice and it wasn’t quite a knockout, so perhaps a return to pure horror would do it, Mr. Blum?

Ana Lily Amirpour
Ana Lily Amirpour is no stranger to genre-bending and capturing engrossing worlds. Having directed and written notable short films, Amirpour debuted her feature-length film “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” with stylish fervor. It’s perilous world dripping in black, white, and blood. The film was lauded for its look and quiet resistance by The Film Independent Spirit Awards and an Audience Award nomination from Sundance Film Festival. Her follow-up, “The Bad Batch,” won Amirpur the Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize and earned a nomination for Golden Lion as the story unfolded of a desert world where a young girl is kidnapped by cannibals. Amirpour recently dabbled in television, directing an episode of Hulu’s “Castle Rock.” Amirpour will return to the big screen with “Blood Moon,” about a young girl with disturbing powers. – JT

Anna Biller
Stylish, serene, and wickedly creative, Anna Biller cast a hypnotic spell with her feature “The Love Witch.” A film that should have bolstered her name, Biller flies under the radar too often. She directs, costumes her actors, designs the sets, and edits. Biller is a tour de force behind the camera with an aesthetic in her films that is indisputable, paying homage to styles and cliches and using them to the fullest. With “The Love Witch,” Biller creates a picture like nothing you would see today. Completely stylized and sincere, in her feature-length debut, to quote our review, “Biller explores female fantasy in the most diabolical of ways imaginable and gender politics are dissected with a brutal honesty that could infuriate some feminists with its observations. Biller proves to be an auteur in the truest sense of the word: she directed, wrote, produced, and edited the film, and created many of the spectacular costumes and set decorations. She also, quite possibly, has created a new cult classic.” Biller will return to form with her interpretation of the Gothic tale “Bluebeard” with her signature style and flare in tow. Who wouldn’t want the queen of a new cult classic working with their banner? – JT