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

Mary Harron
It’s both upsetting and unsurprising to see how few feature films Mary Harron has made since her terrific Christian Bale showcase with “American Psycho.” While she’s had a number of films since, along with various shorts and television stints, if she were a male director, she’d have a franchise under her belt, and then some, by now. As is the case with many of the directors on this list, Harron demonstrated an ability to build horror from the ground up with a simultaneously chaotic and suffocating atmosphere as we find ourselves submerged in Patrick Bateman’s disturbed psyche. She turned a novel by the often insufferable (and sexist) Bret Easton Ellis into a film that celebrates the female gaze while also showcasing the damaging effects of male ego and the violence that can come from that entitlement. Harron is the perfect, infuriating example of how women get opportunities based on years of experience while men are granted those same opportunities based on promise alone. – Ally Johnson

Jennifer Phang
While she’s cut her teeth on the television scene, directing episodes of genre-leaning shows such as “Riverdale,” “The Exorcist,” and “The Expanse,” director Jennifer Phang‘s most noteworthy output to date is the hauntingly beautiful and tremendously tragic “Advantageous.” The horror depicted on screen is less in visual jumpscares or shocking reveals (through one image, in particular, will linger long after the film has ended) but in the insidious societal prescription to youth and beauty that keeps femininity labeled in tidy and toxic boxes. Phang contextualized the idea of women experiencing their own versions of horror movies in everyday life. Horror masters have been inspired by real-life demons since the genres conception and Phang’s ability to draw on real-life trauma, along with an eye for evocative visuals (all on a very tight budget), promises a director who has only just begun to explore everything she is capable of. – AJ

Veronika Franz
Austrians are a little creepy, weird and funny, right? I mean, they’ve given us Michael Haneke (twisted), Fritz Lang (obsessive) Otto Preminger (sometimes abusive) and Billy Wilder (funny). Can we add Veronika Franz to the list? She’s known for, along with Severin Fiala, directing “Goodnight Mommy”), the critically-acclaimed Austrian creepshow hit “Goodnight Mommy” (twisted, funny, f’d up), which screened at film festivals all over the world including a world premiere in Venice, and stops at the Toronto International Film Festival, AFI Fest, New Directors/New Films in New York and more. Franz and Fiala also directed a segment within the horror anthology movie “The Field Guide to Evil” (segment “Die Trud“). The duo has a new horror/drama/thriller “The Lodge” due out sometime in 2019—which stars Richard Armitage, Riley Keough—so they’re clearly on the radar. Yours Mr. Blum? How about some askewed and eerie international flavor? Can’t be worse than “Truth Or Dare,” right?” – Rodrigo Perez

Leigh Janiak
Leigh Janiak certainly wasted no time getting her career off the ground. Inspired by Lena Dunham‘s DIY, “Tiny Furniture” film and its preoccupations with the seemingly mundane and small and turned the idea of “how seemingly beautiful things can become ugly and monstrous,” into her debut feature “Honeymoon,” about a newlywed couple who finds their lake-country honeymoon descend into chaos by a series of strange events. Oh, and it was an interesting enough of a script to attract Rose Leslie (“Game of Thrones“) and Harry Treadaway (“Penny Dreadful“). Some careers can stall after a breakthrough indie. Not Janiak’s. Following “Honeymoon,” she was tapped direct episodes of “Outcast,” “Scream: The TV Series” and more recently, helm and executive produce “Panic,” Amazon Studios’ YA pilot. She clearly has original scripts in the queue she’s been working on with screenwriting partner Phil Graziadei, and just imagine Mr. Blum, instead of “Fantasy Island 4” or whatever you’re peddling today, you could like, actually even make that one of your next movies… – RP

Alice Lowe
Horror can be a little heavy and self-serious at times. So, Mr. Blum, you could use some comedy to balance out the nutritional diet of the kinds of horror movies you want to release (it can’t just be Jordan Peele, right?). How about Alice Lowe, who is funny, a writer and director, an actor and conveniently has worked in a lot of comedy horror? Known for her roles in the “Garth Marenghi” series co-created by Richard Ayoade, she’s also co-starred in Ben Wheatley’s very funny, dark and disturbing “Sightseers.” And how about that she does her own thing having written and directed the excellent horror comedy pregnancy slasher “Prevenge” about a pregnant widow (yes, she starred in it too) who is convinced her unborn fetus is compelling her to embark on a killing spree as revenge for the death of her husband. Premiering in Venice, playing TIFF, BFI London Film Festival, AFI and many more (not too shabby), she’s funny, she’s talented, she’s hirable. – RP