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Monday, January 25, 2010

Gore-Gore Girls: Female Horror Directors

"It is women who love horror. Gloat over it. Feed on it. Are nourished by it. Shudder and cling and cry out-and come back for more."
--Bela Lugosi

Mary Harron, American Psycho

Katt Shea, The Rage: Carrie 2




Mary Lambert, Pet Semetary

Rachel Talalay, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Kathryn Bigelow, Near Dark

Bonus:
"Here you will see a man's kidney ripped out and eaten, a chair leg pushed through a head via the eyeball, a roomful of men wiped out by the Punisher revolving upside-down from a chandelier and firing machine-guns with both hands, a widow and her wee girl threatened with mayhem, heads sliced off, victims impaled and skewered, and the villain thrown into a machine that crushes glass bottles in much the same way concrete is mixed."
--Roger Ebert on Punisher: War Zone, directed by Lexi Alexander


...I do think though that hollywood is sending a message that women want vampires who sparkle in the sun and girls who can’t make decisions for themselves. But that is just my opinion. I really just fear the onslaught of Chick Flick Horror or as the amazing Rebekah McKendry (one of the only woman who works for Fangoria) refers to it perfectly as: “Lifetime Horror.”
--Hannah Neurotica


17 comments:

  1. Been meaning to write this one for a good long while. Debated on whether to include Freddy's Dead & The Rage because they are not as well-known as the others; but you know, *I* liked those two movies, so fuck it.

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  2. You know, thinking about it:
    If I have to choose between Patrick Bateman and Edward Cullen, I'm going to have to go with Bateman. I know that's kinda sick, but so is slick-sparkly skin that looks like someone just jizzed on your face.

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  3. "[Edward Cullen's] slick-sparkly skin looks like someone just jizzed on your face."

    This quote must go on the box art of the DVD!

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  4. Plus, Patrick Bateman isn't old enough to be your great grandfather. I'm pretty sure all that sparkling is just a mixture between dandruff and shingles.

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  5. You don't get the full Edward jizz effect until you see the Barbie doll version. He has the sparkles glued to his face in this creamy smear.

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  6. "He has the sparkles glued to his face in this creamy smear."

    I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

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  7. Mattel, can I have that doll in a non-creamy version pls?

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  8. Anonymous5:53 PM

    Oh God.

    Lifetime.

    The channel that is so afraid to do things right.

    I saw The Pregnancy Pact on it the other day, and half of me actually wondered if it was a horror film.

    I also saw Twilight for the first time. Holy crap. The reviews do not do it justice.

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  9. Yeah "Pregnancy Pact" is gaining quite a reputation.

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  10. Has anybody ever noticed that Kourtney Kardashian's husband, or boyfriend, whichever he is, looks like Patrick Bateman from American Psycho? He's got the same hair and he wears suits and ties.

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  11. Kathryn Bigelow... for.. the... WIN!

    Notice how in the Ebert quote, he gives precedence to the "widow and her wee girl threatened with mayhem" over the stuff that comes to his mind after that...

    "Oh yeah, and some people were impaled, skewered and crushed. But that mayhem-threatening to a widow and her wee girl really took the cake!"

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  12. Haven't seen American Psycho. How is it?

    Not a huge horror fan, but I read the book due to its commentary on the Reagan 80's. You do have to wade through pages and pages of Patrick's shallow observations about his environment, which can drag even though it's part of the point. Overall, the book was all right (I especially loved the music digression chapters).

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  13. i'd like to add Antonia Bird who did the awesome Guy Pearce/Robert Carlyle cannibal movie "Ravenous"!

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  14. Anonymous12:57 PM

    "Ravenous" is wonderful. It is a fantastic film.

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  15. It's true: women write better horror stories because they deal with some of the most traumatic things in the world, mentally and physically. They know how to REALLY scare the viewer/reader.

    I never thought about the feminine side thing until now.

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  16. Anonymous10:11 PM

    The most horrible thing about the Twilight movie (and I assume the second one) is that the director did it so super seriously. There was no sense of humor or playfullness in that film.

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  17. Roald Dahl once said women make the best horror writers.

    Though he also said they make terrible writers of other genres, so take it with a grain of salt.

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