Horror Movies and Gender Justice

 

United Nations humanitarian aid workers unload supplies from their vehicle

 

14th of November 2022

STAND Student Festival Exhibition on University of Limerick Campus

Over the last eight weeks, the STAND Student Festival and Exhibition has been making its way across third-level campuses in Ireland. This year’s theme of #GenderJusticeNow focuses on the power of collective action to create change and invites students to sign a pledge to become a gender justice advocate. Students who sign the pledge receive an action pack with information about gender justice and suggestions for how to start making change.

Meghan Mickela, this year’s STAND Student Festival intern and graduate of Trinity College Dublin’s Film Studies Masters Programme, supported the inclusion of documentary film screenings on some campuses. She also curated a list of horror films that explore gender beyond the harmful stereotypes we often see in Halloween-related popular culture.

Halloween may be over, but horror is a movie genre that goes well beyond October 31st. These movies tackle many important themes and complex subjects in a way that only horror can. Check out our Instagram Reel where you can hear Meghan talk about each of these films, or read about them below. Enjoy!

 

Ginger Snaps movie poster

Ginger Snaps

For our first film we have Ginger Snaps from 2000. Sisters Ginger and Brigitte are tested when Ginger gets her period for the first time and begins to experience strange effects. As her body changes and she begins to and she begins to experience more and more strange occurrences, Ginger Snaps uses the horror elements of Ginger’s evolution into a werewolf as a metaphor for the evolution of the female body during puberty. Now a cult classic, Ginger Snaps presents two strong female leads who represent the duality of female adolescence; all at once the beauty and the beast. 

 

 

A Girl Walk Home Alone at Night movie poster

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Next up, the film “A Girl Late Walk Home Alone at Night” from 2014 by Director Ana Lily Amirpour. Late at night, the streets of ‘Bad City’ in Iran are haunted by a girl and her skateboard. Director Amirpour creates a rare horror piece that represents an all too real fear that women face; (walking home at night) and flips the role of the victim onto the citizens of Bad City. Our main character, The Girl, serves as an anti-hero to Bad City while representing the ongoing gender politics that continue to plague Iran after the Irainian revolution. Amirpour’s film is a reigning favourite that is still timely today as women in Iran fight for empowerment.  

 

 

Bad Hair movie poster

Bad Hair

This 2020 film presents the challenges that black women face in corporate America. In  the 1990s Anna works at a Tv station hoping to move up the ranks; she is told she can only be successful if she gets a weave. Things go horribly wrong when the hair proves to have a mind of its own. Bad Hair combines dark comedy with horror to further its presentation of classic racism women of colour face in order to look ‘professional’ according to euro-centric standards. With a killer cast of women of colour this film presents an often untold perspective in the horror genre.  

 

 

Fresh movie poster

Fresh

Director Mimi Cave delivers a delicious take on romance, with a twist; sharp in wit while retaining the horror element. Fresh takes on the idealisation of male psychopaths, while pointing out the irony. It’s a common trend to see male criminals being lauded as attractive or sexy after committing horrible crimes, the film presents a young woman’s perspective of a misogynistic dating culture where she is unable to succeed. Themes including horror, dark comedy, or feminine rage, this one is a perfect fit for those friends who are a little too into their true-crime movies. 

 

 

 

For those interested in other titles, check out:

Raw / Bodies, Bodies, Bodies / Thirst / Thelma / Possession / Saint Maude / It Follows / Prevenge

 

Film is one of the many artistic expressions that can help us to better understand why gender justice is so important. So I hope that when you’re picking out scary movies to watch this Halloween or any time of year, you’ll be thinking about gender justice!

For more information on STAND and the #GenderJusticeNow pledge, head over to 10000studends.ie Take the pledge to become a gender justice advocate while you’re there so that you can receive your action pack full of ways for you to take action for gender justice now!!

 

Many thanks to Meghan Mickela for her work in curating this list and describing the films in it.

 

Featured photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash

Ginger Snaps movie poster from Wikipedia

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night movie poster from IMDB

Bad Hair movie poster from IMDB

Fresh movie poster from IMDB

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