Brian De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's hit novel Carrie was a massive critical and box office success. The film started the Stephen King adaptation craze that lasts to this very day and spawned many imitators and rip-offs. However, some films took the spirit of Carrie and infused it into their own films, making them something special that still evoked the sensibilities of King's creation.
Due to the potency of De Palma's film and the subtexts within, female-driven horror films became more common and blended feminist slants with their horror. A most welcome combination.
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Karyn Kusama's adaptation of Diablo Cody's Jennifer's Body screenplay wasn't a success upon its initial release but deserves to be better remembered in the pantheon of modern horror films. Megan Fox showed real acting skills that her previous films never allowed her to display. Fox plays a girl who is sacrificed to Satan and becomes a she-demon who seeks revenge on the high schoolers who pushed her to her demonic fate.
Kusama and Cody find a deft balance between the slasher film and a movie about female empowerment. This is a film full of dark humor and bloody horror about the terrors of being a teenager.
Look Away (2018)
Look Away is one of the unsung horror films of the 2010s. Writer/director Assaf Bernstein's film examines a bullied and alienated young high schooler who switches places with her mirror image, which turns out to be dark and more sinister than she imagined.
Jason Issac and Mira Sorvino play the parents while India Eisley (the daughter of actress Olivia Hussey) gives as impressive performance as the young girl who faces this horror head-on. Is it imagined or is her mirror self a reality? The film lets the audience find its own way in this effective teenage horror chiller.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Ginger Snaps is a fresh, spooky, and absolutely intelligent female-driven werewolf film from Canada. Emily and her older sister are outcasts in high school. After revisiting a suicide pact the two made as children, Ginger is bitten by a werewolf. The onset of her wolf-like rages and qualities are blamed on her period cycle but genre fans know the truth.
The screenplay is clever, the horror is shocking, and the performances by Emily Perkins and Katherine Isabelle are fantastic. This is powerful and fully realized feminist horror at its best.
The Craft (1996)
One of the most popular female-driven horror films ever made, Andrew Fleming's The Craft became an instant genre classic. High school life is the backdrop for an outcast group of girls taking up witchcraft and getting wicked revenge on the ones who disrespect them. Robin Tunney plays a teen with telekinetic powers transfers to a new high school and falls in with a small coven of witches looking to use her powers.
Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk, and Rachel True do great work as the witches. This is a well-executed horror film that examines the weight of high school emotions and displays strong female characters. The film influenced the TNT series Charmed and the current Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
American Mary (2012)
The Soska Sisters a.k.a. The Twisted Twins unleashed one of the finest female-led horror films of its decade with 2012's American Mary, the tale of a medical student (Katherine Isabelle) who becomes obsessed with underground surgeries.
The Soskas gave us a unique film, as American Mary is a psychological film mixed with effective body horror that certainly has a David Cronenberg influence. It is a tale of vengeance and a good woman gone bad but for the right reasons.
All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is Jonathan Levine's excitingly original horror film that makes bold moves and strikes effective chords. Amber Heard stars as the orphaned and dreamily beautiful Mandy Lane who is hit on by a boy who later gets murdered. After accepting an invite to a party at a friend's farmhouse, people begin to die. The film has a Brian De Palma feel to its presentation and the ending gives horror fans a true shock and brings weight to the female-driven horror film.
Shot in 2006, the film was not released until 2013 due to the Weinstein Company selling the film to a production company that almost immediately went out of business. Then the Weinsteins bought the film back and gave it a small 2013 Halloween season release.
Excision (2012)
In the female-led horror treasure Excision, Annalynne McCord of the 90210 reboot is a highly disturbed high school outcast who has an unhealthy obsession with medical procedures, taking it to extremes to reach out to her somewhat distant, somewhat controlling mother played by Traci Lords. Writer/Director Richard Bates Jr.'s film is a disturbing and bizarre horror-tinged satire of suburban lifestyles.
This is a film with a mostly female cast that examines the mother/daughter dynamic and the perils of letting the pressures of high school take you over the edge.
Rabid (1977)
David Cronenberg's 1977 body horror classic Rabid stars Marilyn Chambers as a woman who, after an experimental surgery, develops a need for human blood. As she moves from victim to victim, the danger of mass infection endangers her sleepy Canadian city, as her victims become zombie-like creatures with their own taste for blood.
Cronenberg explores sexually transmitted horror that is full of interesting ideas. Chambers adds resonance to the film due to her status as a sexual icon of the 1970s and used this film to break into the legitimate acting world and turns in an extremely good performance.
Rabid (2019)
The Soska Sisters pulled off an amazing feat, they did a successful remake of a David Cronenberg classic that equals the original. The Twisted Twins' 2019 version of Rabid took Cronenberg's themes to wilder levels and brought home a body horror film with a feminist slant. A fantastic idea that runs through this film is its look at toxic masculinity and how men perceive themselves as the saviors of women as a whole. It is this dangerous and outdated way of thinking that leads the film through its edge-of-your-seat and bloody progression from main character Rose’s infection to a full-blown frightening epidemic.
The Soskas have reimagined the piece for our current social climate. In doing so, they crafted a bizarrely relevant and unique horror parable and a respectful tribute to Cronenberg himself that is considerably more than a Horror film. If one is paying attention, it’s a powerful voice amongst the rallying cry fighting today’s societal issues.
Carrie (2013)
Kimberly Pierce's update of 1976's Carrie is a vicious teenage horror examination of the cruel social hierarchy of high school. Pierce takes another route with her film and brings a bit of joy to Carrie's gradual discovery of her unique gift.
Chloe Grace Moretz is Carrie and Julianne Moore is her mother. Both turn in excellent performances. Though the film goes for character drama over horror, the finale brings about the bloody revenge terror that King and De Palma did so brilliantly in the original film.