Women have certainly been significant contributors to the cinematic corpus of genre films (and to any kind of film of course). Great films by women feature in the action, horror, thriller, and science fiction genres and have gathered many accolades. Nevertheless, they seem to not be getting as much love and attention as those of their male counterparts.
Obviously, no one is stating that women should claim all the spotlight, just that they should have equal space under it. With that in mind, let us delve into this list of strong and subversive genre films by female directors, some less and some more well-known.
Raw (French: Grave) by Julia Ducournau
Julia Ducournau’s French feminist horror film Raw, unfortunately, was not one of the few Oscar-nominated exceptions of the horror genre, even though it deserved to be. The plot revolves around a vegetarian veterinary student’s newfound craving for flesh (including human) after some challenging initiation rituals at her school.
The film uses cannibalism as a metaphor brilliantly: after all, how can a woman fight back in a canis canem edit world? It has even been called the best film of 2017 and it garnered an impressive array of accolades. Ducournau’s first feature film and a chilling and gory masterpiece, this one is not to be missed.
The Babadook by Jennifer Kent
Another horror film as a female director’s debut, but we cannot stress enough how little mainstream recognition is given to this type of film. The plot follows a widowed mother and her difficult child who becomes increasingly paranoid and afraid when a creepy children's book called "Mister Babadook" appears in their home. This well-crafted piece of art does not rely on jump scares, but on the slow build-up to bring forth its non-apologetically horrifying monster.
Intensely unsettling and atmospheric, The Babadook is about many things: about grief and loss, about the challenges of single parenthood. But also, about a “freaky” child and monsters that come out of books. With a quite notable array of accolades and an enthusiastically positive critical consensus, you should unquestionably add The Babadook to your list.
Tank Girl by Rachel Talalay
This film's madcap, ragtag, colorful, and rebellious aesthetic alienated conventional filmgoers and reviewers alike in the 90s, only to take over the world with its cult status as the years went by, even though it never managed to win the hearts of the film critics (one can admit though that their opinion is not always the most important). This dystopian action film (with elements of comedy) was based on the comic books by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin.
In a world ravaged by lack of water, the eponymous antihero Tank Girl (Lori Petty), Jet Girl (Naomi Watts), and a team of supersoldiers named the Rippers ride in a tank and rise against "Water & Power", a tyrannical company controlled by Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell).
Near Dark by Kathryn Bigelow
Perhaps one would expect The Hurt Locker (the only female-directed film to win Best Picture) or Zero Dark Thirty (or even Point Break) to feature as Bigelow’s entry, but for this list, a more unconventional and less obvious option was preferred. If one has ever heard of a story so profoundly absurd that it must have been inspired by a fever dream, then this film is that times five which makes it work so inexplicably well.
Bigelow’s neo-western vampire horror film (yes, exactly) follows Caleb, an Oklahoma small-town farmer who, after being bitten by a beautiful drifter vampire (Jenny Wright), must show himself capable of joining her wandering hillbilly clan of vampires.
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lynne Ramsay
Not many social horror films reach the levels of, or are as, intrinsically unsettling as Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin. It dives head-first into the mind-in-disarray of a mother (Tilda Swinton, who was nominated for the Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA) whose life crumbles in the aftermath of a horrendous act of violence committed by her son (Ezra Miller).
Ramsay invokes all the disturbances of horror with scarcely a jumpscare: the cinematography, the editing, and the music score all conspire to drop us into Eva’s (Swinton) shattering spirit as she examines her own likely role in her son’s psychopathic leanings and tendencies.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night by Ana Lily Amirpour
With this Iranian vampire neo-noir Western (yes, that is right, sometimes it is difficult to classify a film simply) Ana Lily Amirpour provides us with a superb and unique debut. Sheila Vand has her leading-lady introduction as a character only known as The Girl.
In a deserted ghost-town inspired by the settings of American westerns (or maybe Spaghetti Westerns?), The Girl, covered by a chador, sneakily roams the roads and alleys hunting for male prey; a thoroughly withdrawn, vampiric disposition and virtually unspeaking, she seems to lack genuine relationships… up until she encounters the gentle Arash, adorned in tinted lenses, black jeans, and a white T-shirt like a living tribute to Grease.
The Hitch-hiker by Ida Lupino
This prominent film noir was grounded on the actual life of spree killer Billy Cook, who after murdering a family of five and a traveling salesman forced a sheriff at gunpoint to give him a ride into the Californian desert. The director Ida Lupino (the single woman belonging to the Director’s Guild of America back then) was one of the rare cases to confront such a gruesome topic on screen.
She went as far as talking to the actual killer and a few of his hostages to bring legitimacy to her screen portrayal of their account. Lupino counterbalances their low budget with stunning site shooting and a lyrical sensation of the bare freeways with their concealed menaces.
Turbo Kid by Anouk Whissell (with Yoann-Karl Whissell and François Simard)
In an alternate dystopian past (not future this time) a spunky and spirited young hero is in the making. People live in a land (a tad unoriginally) named "The Wasteland" that is cluttered with garbage and reigned by brutal and despotic dictator Zeus, who has created a machine that turns people into water.
The Kid, a young comic-book aficionado, happens upon Apple, an enigmatic, care-free girl. He begins a reluctant friendship with her and the two start their adventures together. It is an affectionate homage to 80s fantasy/dystopian action films, and throughout the film one keeps thinking (apart from what a thrill and laugh it is) “I really want to re-watch the old Mad Max”. There are also gallons of blood (prop, just to be clear).
Cloud Atlas by Lilly and Lana Wachowski
In the great many successes of these two sisters-directors, we find films such as V for Vendetta (credited as writers) and, of course, The Matrix trilogy (although some like to pretend the sequels were a bad case of a shared hallucination). An epic science fiction film (based on the 2004 homonymous David Mitchell novel), it follows numerous narratives that take place throughout six distinct time periods.
The film's summary defines it as “an epic story of humankind in which the actions and consequences of our lives impact one another throughout the past, present and future as […] a single act of kindness ripples out for centuries to inspire a revolution.”
Destroyer by Karyn Kusama
Kusama has become a household name for horror enthusiasts through her films Jennifer’s Body and The Invitation, but her most recent 2018 feature film Destroyer is not to be missed – especially if one loves strong crime dramas.
Nicole Kidman achieves an excellent performance as LAPD detective Erin Bell, who upon arrival to the scene of an unidentified man’s murder notifies the responding police officers that she recognizes the identity of the killer through a chain of events that stretch sixteen years back to a bank heist perpetrated by a California gang… Kidman was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama at the 76th Golden Globes for her role.