13 Feminine Horror Movies

Christine Spines wrote an article for Entertainment Weekly on men watching horror movies in their teens and women continuing to watch them into their 30s. After that, I read posts and comments to effect of “heaven forbid, not more Twilight!”

I disagree with categorizing Twilight as a horror film: it fits better in the family of the Gothic romance. Gothic romance defined as, “Weird place! Is my boyfriend going to kill me?” Examples might be Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Beauty and the Beast and so on.

After mulling this over, I decided to make a list of horror movies that I considered “feminine.”   They feature women protagonists dealing with issues such as childbirth, menstruation, sisters, and romantic relationships. I didn’t put the women from Alien/Resident Evil/Silence of the Lambs on the list because I was selecting characters who fit the type of the “angel in the house”or “fairy tale princess.”

Disclaimer: This is not suggest that any person of any gender should feel included or excluded from identifying with the issues raised or the characters depicted in these movies.

My list doesn’t include movies I haven’t seen. Or, Dark Water.

Here is the list:

• Cat People (1942)
• It’s Alive (1973)
• Carrie (1976)
• Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Heathers (1989)
• Perfect Blue (1992)
• Boxing Helena (1993)
• The Craft (1996)
• Practical Magic (1998)
• Ginger Snaps (2000)
• The Others (2001)
• The Ring (2002) and Ringu (1998)
• The Orphanage (2007)

The Orphanage. My review is in an earlier post. Feminine Themes: motherhood, losing a child, inquisitive women (women are actively discouraged from trying to learn things.)

The Ring. Feminine Themes: motherhood, inquisitive women. Ringu. (1998) Feminine Themes: motherhood, magical female power.

The Others. Feminine Themes: motherhood, single parenting, running a household.

Ginger Snaps. Feminine Themes: sisterhood, puberty, menses, female sexuality.

Practical Magic. Feminine Themes: widowhood, sisterhood, abusive relationships, being stalked and threatened, magical female power, healthy female bonding.

The Craft. Feminine Themes: magical female power, toxic female bonding, puberty.

Boxing Helena. Feminine Themes: abusive relationships.

Perfect Blue. Feminine Themes: self image, career choices, being stalked and threatened.

Heathers. Feminine Themes: self image, toxic female bonding, abusive relationships.

Nightmare on Elm Street: Feminine Themes: being stalked and threatened, female craftiness, mother/daughter relationships.

Carrie: Feminine Themes: puberty, menses, magical female power, mother/daughter relationships, toxic female bonding .

It’s Alive. Feminine Themes: pregnancy, giving birth, motherhood.

Cat People. My description here. Feminine Themes: female sexuality, being stalked and threatened.

Terror on the Hill

I went to the haunted house attraction at Waverly Hills that I posted on before.

Beginning to arrival

The people who went were Mark – the husband of my best friend; Stephen and Alice – recently married; and me. Another person had agreed to come but she didn’t realize that there would be actors.

I made everyone take flashlights, which took some time to accomplish since people needed batteries and so forth. I refused an offer of gloves or a hat. I did visit the restroom before we left. (This is all pertinent information.)

Mark’s GPS had a skeletal hand pointing the way and a Vincent Price voice giving directions. We liked it and then forgot about it. Stephen, Alice and I were startled when the voice said, “pay no attention to the noises in the trunk.” Alice and I shared ghost stories.

Parking to Ticket

The parking lot was unlit ($2 parking) and we were glad we had flashlights. When we reached the gate, a woman told us to go to the front of the line to buy tickets and then return to the end of the line.

On our way up the line, we saw a couple of concessions stands and a tent with golf carts and a sound system. The music was blaring “Thriller.” One of the workers came over to us and tried to convey something. We could tell he was angry but we couldn’t hear him. It turned out that we were in the way of dancers whom we hadn’t seen. That was dispiriting so we trudged up the hill to buy our tickets.

The woman I bought my ticket from had strange white contacts on – creepy and effective.

Later, in line, we saw that the dancers were wearing dark clothing and they were in the corner without any lighting.

I read some wrong information on the website: You can buy tickets at 7:30PM and the gates open at 8PM. It did cost $20 for a ticket so that part was right. It also turned out that we couldn’t use our flashlights. I carried a mag light in my pocket through the tour for nothing.

Beginning of the line to entrance

At one point, Mark and I had to use the rental potties. Mark figured that even if he managed to sneak into the woods, he might pee on the dancers. So we went to the row of rental potties that was at the head of the line. When I entered it, I discovered it had been placed on a slight rise that tilted the front of it toward the asphalt. When seated, I realized that I had closed but not latched the door. I reached to pull the latch. Because it was leaning downward, it started to open. I almost exposed myself in front of the ticket holders, the concessions workers, the camouflaged dancers, and two cops. That was a couple of seconds of terror. But I grabbed the door in time.

Mark reported that the tilted potties made the urinal a challenge.

We were bored waiting.  Some of us claim it took 45 minutes and others an hour and 10 minutes to reach the head of the line. The weather was clear but chilly, and we were shivering. I regretted not accepting the hat. Mark played some songs on his cell phone and then Stephen played some on his. Finally, the others started telling dead baby jokes, which helped pass the time. Then, we reached the head of the line, and it was too noisy to talk. Stephen started dancing to “Crazy Train.”

Alice and I tried to look at the building itself which was impressively large, although we could see very little of it. It looked abandoned still. I tried to imagine what it might have felt like to arrive as a TB patient, look up at the building, and know that I might not leave.

Because we spent so much time in the line, it was hard not to notice people around us. One man had apparently gotten his lip pierced recently. He said nothing but spat the whole time. There was a woman who talked loudly and bitterly to one of her parents who was divorcing the other. Then she hung up and glared around for a few minutes. Then she called some one else and quarreled with them.

Alice and I were most disturbed by the third man who was clearly on drugs. He only occasionally opened his eyes and he swayed until someone pushed him and he’d stumble a few steps ahead.

We were relieved when the worker let the four of us join the next group and separated us from ‘High Guy.’

Details of haunted house after cut.

Flickchart pulls me in

It’s pretty basic.  Do you like this movie or that movie better?

Somehow I get drawn into playing Flickchart.com a lot longer than I had planned.  The rankings come out a little wonky for me sometimes. Here are a few top 5 lists.

Combined rankings for Best 2008 horror – 1. Let the Right One In 2. The Orphanage 3. The Midnight Meat Train 4. Diary of the Dead 5.  Teeth

My rankings for Best haunted house movies: 1. Stir of Echoes 2. The Shining 3. Monster House 4. Poltergeist 5. Dark Water – I don’t recommend Dark Water except as sleep aid.  I should have added Monster House to my own list.

Combined rankings for Best 1990s romance:  1. Edward Scissorhands 2. Titanic 3. Jerry McGuire 4. Interview with a Vampire 5. As Good as It Gets

My rankings for Best 1990s romance:  1. Romeo + Juliet 2. Strictly Ballroom 3. Edward Scissorhands 4. Clueless 5. Jane Eyre.  – at least we agree on Scissorhands.

Combined rankings for Best 1940s mystery: 1. The Third Man 2. The Maltese Falcon 3. The Big Sleep 4. Rebecca 5. Spellbound

My rankings for Best 1940s mystery: 1. Rebecca 2. Spellbound 3. The Third Man 4. The Big Sleep 5. Laura – the last kind of surprises me since I really didn’t like Laura.  The rest I have no complaints about.

Anyway, try it out if you have some time to kill.

Horror Masters – link

I’ve recently discovered HorrorMasters.com.  I’m not sure if it used to be a site publishing new horror fiction for a fee or whether it’s all free now.  Either way, I’m taken by its classic horror fiction section.

It features a directory of links to classic horror fiction online.  I love literary canons even though they’re presently déclassé.  Plus, with the links, it’s an instant gratification canon.   Hard to beat that.

I really want to read the short stories by Poe and by Lovecraft that I’ve missed.  I should really print some out and read them for the party.

spooky art links

Here are some more links to spooky art for Halloween.

From Deviant Art —

peachysticks link.

super-sheep link.

ruben martinez link.

dholl link.

yagak link.

from Creature Features (via TheoFantastique) —

“October Shadows” artists or gallery.

from artists past—

Fantastic Art collection link.

Grunewald link

Gustave Dore’s Divine Comedy link

medical description of zombies

Image via Wikipedia

Really gross but highly informative medical description of zombies.

from the Zombie Guide.

10 good horror movie sites

1. Best-Horror-Movies.com link.  Good horror movie guides.
   specials: beginner’s shelf, best indie horror
2. Classic-Horror.com link. Classy site; thorough reviews.
   specials: shocktober classics 2009, the masters
3. Fearful Films.com link.  Capsule reviews.
   specials: Halloween favorites, Clive Barker adaptations.
4. FilmSite.org link.  History of horror films.
   specials: scariest movie moments, best film death scenes
5. Horror Charnel.org link.  Useful database.
   specials: cover gallery, horror subgenres
6. Horror Movie a Day link. Actually, it’s a blog but it functions as a site.   specials: Glossary; What is horror
7. Snowblood Apple link backgrounds are distracting but review is worth the trouble.  You can, of course, remove the page style.
8. Upcoming Horror Movies.com  link.  good resource for movies in production.
   specials: foreign films, remakes
9. Werewolf-movies.com link.  Movie review, then werewolf review.
10. Zombierama.com link. Movie review, then zombie review.

horror movie podcast

I really enjoy the Movies You Should See podcast as I’ve mentioned before.  In this episode, they discuss movies that scared them as children and as adults.  They define different types of scary movies and tell us their favorite scary movie of all time.  Enormous fun.  Posted October 2008.

Scary Movie Special link.

Haunted Houses – fictional

Cover of Hell House

As a follow up to my haunted house attraction post, here is a list of haunted house books and movies.  I was surprised that it was difficult to find a list of haunted house books to jog my memory.  My final list is short which makes me want to read a bunch more.  There is a nice list on Wikipedia for haunted house movies.

Haunted House books & short stories

• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)
• The Open Window by Saki (1911)
• Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
• Hell House by Richard Matheson (1971)
• The Shining by Stephen King (1977)
• The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons (1978)
• Homebody by Orson Scott Card (1998)

Of these, Haunting of Hill House and Hell House were the most satisfying to me.  I think they both owe quite a bit to James’ governess.  Both feature psychic investigators who visit an allegedly haunted house and confront their own psyches as much as any supernatural force in the house.  Matheson’s book removes any doubt as to the supernatural events but manages to be just as disturbing I think.

A minor story concerning The Shining. Many years ago I moved into an isolated old farmhouse.  Not long after, I was on the second floor, sitting up with a sick child.  It was a dark and stormy night.  Or, at least it was raining hard and the house was creaking in the wind.  Once the child had fallen to sleep, I decided to read to keep myself alert and naturally I chose The Shining.  It didn’t make me sleepy.  By the time I reached the bit about the bathtub, I had to put it down and find something else.  Very quickly. I had to finish the book in the daylight hours.

Horror Movie Short: Mockingbird

From FEWDIO – this one is my favorite of their short horror flicks.

No gore but not for the sensitive.