#femtober6

[femtober]

Happy Halloween Weekend!

Need some female-directed film recs for your horror marathon? Check out some of these Femtober Classics!

[femtober]

FEMTOBER BLOG: Centennials & Strikes

What do Sherlock Holmes fighting dinosaurs and French women having sex with cars have in common?

And what is Freddy Krueger's connection to Halloweentown?

Every Femtober, I try to include a category or two that's relevant to the events of the year so far. The double WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike is already unprecedented, but for it to happen on the centennial of two much-maligned studios is deeply ironic.

This year, I watched two movies from non-AMPTP studios, and two movies from Disney and Warner Brothers. Unfortunately due to the inherent lack of women directing for studios, finding a good match for Disney and WB was difficult, but the indie studio films also presented an interesting challenge.

Though women-directed films at Disney and WB are among the highest grossing of all time, the number of films women are directing for these studios is very limited. And on top of that, horror is an even smaller number, particularly in Disney’s family-friendly catalog.

I wrote previously about my Warner Brothers pick Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, which I had already seen. While the title of the film is pretty telling, it does ultimately feel like a bit of a franchise killer. Rachel Talalay really wanted to make something different, and she sure as hell did it, but at the cost of lessening some of the horror of the franchise. It feels very meta, but it's really not until New Nightmare that meta horror really takes shape. The overall story is lackluster, but it's a worthy experiment into a new approach to the genre that's largely unappreciated.

My Disney pick, Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge, was also a rewatch but one I had not seen in quite some time. I can't say I really have fond memories of Halloweentown II specifically, but I do remember Disney Channel playing the commercial for it constantly.

What was most surprising to me about this DCOM was how scary it actually was. I initially struggled between choosing this movie, Hocus Pocus 2, and Ravenous. They all would be rewatches, but Hocus Pocus 2 is just bad, and as much as I love Ravenous it's already been in 2 previous Femtobers. I was worried listing Halloweentown II as a horror was a bit of a copout, but it's definitely horror by way of kid camp. There's something Tim Burton-esque about the first and second installments, and in general the Halloween DCOMs always tended to give me the creeps. It wasn't until I was in high school that I rewatched Don't Look Under the Bed, which scared the crap out of me as a kid.

For having such a tame reputation, Disney has some surprisingly effective scares. On top of that, the thing that really struck me about Halloweentown II is how uncomfortable the movie is. Kids are familiar with the joy and colors of the first movie, and in this one they've been replaced by bleak gray and monotone. It's definitely unsettling.

I have to admit, for my non-struck studio picks I wanted to be as meme-y as possible. The idea of putting an Asylum film in the same category as a Palme D'Or winner from Neon was hilarious to me.

Unfortunately for me, the meme wasn't really worth it. Asylum's take on Sherlock Holmes from Rachel Lee Goldenberg is simply dreadful (so much so that I turned it off after 30 minutes - OOPS!). Which really makes me scratch my head, because while Goldenberg has directed the Asylum films Sherlock Holmes and Sunday School Musical, she's also directed the very charming HBO Max film Unpregnant. Hopefully that means she's broken out of the Asylum, so to speak, because it was a really great film! (Incidentally, she also directed one of my all time favorite Lifetime Christmas Movies, Love at the Christmas Table - also a very good movie!)

Titane is a whole different beast. I wasn't sure what to expect; everything I had seen and everyone I had talked to warned me that Titane was not for the weak of heart - or stomach. But, I heard similar things about Raw, which I didn't find unpalatable at all.

If I may go on a bit of a tangent, I feel like with horror, oftentimes there's kind of an all-or-nothing stance on what we can watch. If you've seen one you've seen them all. Well in any film, but I think in particular horror, there are things that some people just don't want to see, for one reason or another. Maybe this isn't "normal" behavior, but I'm not really that concerned about spoilers a lot of the time, so I tend to seek out the content of a movie before watching. Too many times I've been triggered by something I just didn't want to see. So maybe it's okay to normalize that idea a little bit. Horror is visceral and scary, but it's also fun, you know?

That being said, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on what to expect from Titane. The plot, however, threw me for a bit of a loop. Everything I had seen about it really only focused on the first 20 minutes, when the real story unfolds after that. Titane isn't the best film I've ever watched, but how exhilarating is it to find a movie that goes in a direction you never thought possible?

I also find it interesting that because Titane is regarded as being so transgressive, none of the plot really ended up getting spoiled for me, because I never really saw anybody talking about it. Titane is distributed by Neon, and along with A24, those were the indie studios I sought out to complete this category. And you would think that indie studios would have a few more titles to choose from directed by women. Of course, this is just a sampling of two studios, but I did feel a bit wanting by the selection, particularly with A24. I can't help but feel a little discouraged that even the indie studios are becoming "mainstream" in their demographics.

There are plenty of indie horror films directed by women, but quality and availability tend to make these films suffer. I'm not so sure there's an easy fix besides: let women make more movies. Hopefully the success of Barbie, and the potential success of Wish and The Marvels will move the needle a bit.

Other Disney female-directed horror films: • Clock, directed by Alexis Jacknow • Ravenous, directed by Antonia Bird • Hocus Pocus 2, directed by Anne Fletcher

Other Warner Brothers female-directed horror/horror-adjacent films: • Red Riding Hood, directed by Catherine Hardwicke • Embrace of the Vampire, directed by Anne Goursaud • The Banana Splits Movie, directed by Danishka Esterhazy • Daphne & Velma, directed by Suzi Yoonessi

[femtober]

FEMTOBER BLOG: Fridays & Franchises

Happy Friday the 13th!

While no woman has directed an installment of the Jason Voorhees saga, there have been a few franchise films that women have helmed, including one featuring Jason's rival Freddy Kruger, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, directed by Rachel Talalay.

Perhaps somewhat predictably, Freddy's Dead received poor reception but was a modest box office success, outgrossing its previous installment. The movie was relatively tame in its violence; Talalay instead wanted to focus on more surreal meta humor that the series had begun to stray from. True to its name, Freddy's Dead is the last film in the original Nightmare canon. The next three installments (New Nightmare, Freddy vs. Jason, and its 2010 reboot) all existed in a separate canon from the original franchise. While Freddy's Dead is not necessarily looked on fondly, I personally find it to be a very passable installment in a franchise I otherwise don't really enjoy. The 90s introduced the more acerbic side of humor in horror, so the slapstick goofiness of Freddy's Dead feels like a fitting goodbye to the previous decade.

The most powerful man in horror currently, Jason Blum, infamously stated in 2018 that "There are not a lot of female directors period, and even less who are inclined to do horror." He's since rightfully walked back on this statement, and while Blumhouse - under its various labels - has produced a fair number of horror films directed by women on streaming and television, theatrical releases of these films are few and far between. Enter Black Christmas (2019) directed by Sophia Takal.

Black Christmas is an interesting beast. On first glance it seems as though there's heavy studio interference. There's virtually no language or blood, and the story seems fractured. How much interference, it's hard to say. Sophia Takal stands by her vision for the film, wanting to make it as feminist as possible for a PG-13 audience. The end result, unfortunately, is underwhelming. Black Christmas ultimately feels like a shadow of its predecessors. While the 2006 remake is also maligned, there's a certain level of insanity that serves the film well in hindsight. The 2019 version often feels less focused on horror and more on identity, a criticism I hate to make about a female-directed film. Black Christmas's negative reception may have helped it fade into obscurity; in addition to being a critical failure it was also a box office bomb. I'm not the biggest fan of Takal's work, and certainly not of Black Christmas, but I think the most important takeaway we can have from this film is that women should be allowed to fail. We do not need an all or nothing approach to intersectional filmmaking. Sometimes things can be bad, and sometimes they can be worse than bad. We persist.

To date, Black Christmas is the only major theatrically released Blumhouse horror directed by a woman. Of course, this will change in just a few weeks with the release of Five Nights at Freddy's, directed by Emma Tammi. I can't say I'm particularly excited about the content of the film, but the prospect of a highly anticipated studio film directed by a woman is a major milestone. Between FNAF and Barbie, it's a good year for women to be making films, but of course there's always room for more.

My biggest pet peeve with major films directed by women is the passing of the torch to a male director when the first film succeeds financially (see Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, etc.). Blumhouse is obviously planning on making FNAF a franchise IP, so it would be great to keep the momentum going with Tammi or another woman continuing to lead the series. Fingers crossed!

If you're interested in any other female-directed franchise horror films, check out the following: •Candyman (2021), directed by Nia DaCosta •See No Evil 2, directed by the Soska Sisters •Critters 3, directed by Kristine Peterson •The Slumber Party Massacre series •The Pet Sematary Series, directed by Mary Lambert •Sorority House Massacre, directed by Carol Frank •The Fear Street Trilogy, directed by Leigh Janiak •V/H/S/94, 99, and 85 •Darlin', directed by Pollyanna MacIntosh •Mirror, Mirror, directed by Marina Sargenti and more!

[femtober]

Hi, I'm Sarah.

Femtober was born 6 years ago as a means to challenge myself to be more aware of female directors and their space in horror on Letterboxd. In the years that have passed, women have carved a niche space in the genre and in film overall, but as I compiled my list this year in accordance to my rules (which - really are pretty abritrary. But if other list challenges have rules then why can’t I?), I realized that though women keep making films, there’s only so many rules that can be made surrounding films that land on Amazon, Hulu, Shudder, and repeat. 

I feel like I’ve dipped far beyond the mainstream at this point, and my hope is that mainstream films (like Five Nights at Freddy's) will continue to follow, but the pace feels achingly slow. And while Letterboxd is a good resource for finding some of these films, there’s a distinct lack of interectionality that’s often hard to reconcile with. Perhaps I’m focused too much on identity in an already trangressive genre, but I don’t think I am. 

When Femtober began, I was interested in watching films made by people like me, but the more films I watched, the more I realized how much we need films from all marginalized people to succeed. While Femtober is a somewhat binary project, there are so many filmmakers in the genre who are gender nonconforming that also have important things to say. 

I guess all of this to say is, while Femtober is a project that is important to me (and really not to many others lol), I’m feeling a little discouraged by just how much of a male space the genre really is. So even if you’re doing some other list challenge this October, consider seeking out films from women and non-binary people. Consider broadening your horizons in a genre that’s meant to challenge you, even if your list doesn’t specify it. 

♀♀♀

Well! That was a lot! Here are the rules: 1 Most popular female-directed horror on Letterboxd you haven't seen (Films ->Genre ->Horror) 1 Holiday-centric Film 1 Remake, Reboot, Prequel, or Midquel 2 Films from Centennial Studios 2 Films from non-AMPTP Studios 3 2023 Films 3 Films from Acclaimed Television Directors 3 Films from LGBTQIA+ directors 4 Films not in the English Language 5 Short Films 6 Decades

And of course, EVERY film MUST be directed by a woman. It’s entirely possible to complete your own list using none of the films listed here. Have fun and happy Femtober!