Written by Evie McCrae, Edited by Yifu Gong

In the search for the best female directed horror films, our Reel Talk editorial team decided to reach out to the people with the best film taste — our readers! 

We picked this particular area of film in order to highlight the brilliance of female film directors in a genre that’s not often considered a female-led field. The results of this search have proved the opposite is true — women have a crucial contribution to horror. 

The results will be ordered randomly with some of your great suggestions until our final two that reveal what you picked as your favourite female directed horror film overall. We want to thank everyone who contributed to helping make this list, and we hope it can inspire some new picks for your ever-growing watchlist!

Jennifer’s Body (dir. Karyn Kusama, 2009)

Firstly, let’s start off with a feminist cult classic: Jennifer’s Body (2009). Directed by Karyn Kusama (whose work often includes feminist themes) and written by Diablo Cody (who often writes complex female characters), Jennifer’s Body is a comedy horror that explores the dark side of femininity: how it is exploited, and how it is reclaimed – so reclaimed in this film that Jennifer eats the men around her. With a hint of queerness between Jennifer and her best friend Needy, the film dabbles in topics such as female friendship and empowerment and combines a horror aspect of a demonically possessed high schooler with the societal critique of the sexualisation of women and revenge against men.

Saint Maud (dir. Rose Glass, 2019)

Standing out as a brilliant feature directorial debut for Rose Glass, Saint Maud (2019) is a psychological thriller following a nurse named Katie who goes by the name of Maud. Maud fails to save a patient and turns to Roman Catholicism before she works as a palliative care nurse in a small town and is assigned to care for an atheist former dancer named Amanda. Overwhelmed by her religious inclination and the darkness she feels at failing to save a life, Maud believes she must save Amanda’s soul by purging the impurities from her life, such as her being a lesbian. As things start to go wrong around Maud and she fights with her sinful past, death looms over the final act of the film and takes over Maud herself. Critics have compared the film to Carrie (dir. Brian De Palma, 1976) and The Exorcist (dir. William Friedkin, 1973) as one that leaves audiences disturbed and clutching their rosaries.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (dir. Halina Reijn, 2022)

Deeply set in satire and Gen-Z culture, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a twisty black comedy horror film directed by Halina Reijn as her first English-language film after her previous Dutch-language films. The plot is immediately chaotic through the cast’s performances as ridiculously privileged characters, with critics naming Rachel Sennott as a stand-out role. The murder-mystery game style storyline allows the film to delve into an abundance of issues that relate heavily to Gen-Z and first world problems as well as exploring queer relationships and problems alongside the whodunnit plot. The main characters camp in a luxurious mansion during a hurricane and decide to play a game of ‘murder in the dark’ while drinking and doing drugs. Everything starts to go very wrong after they find the body of their friend, David, with his throat slit on the patio outside, stuck in a hurricane zone with no power and no cars. 

The First Omen (dir. Arkasha Stevenson, 2024)

Part of The Omen franchise, this prequel The First Omen (2024) is director Arkasha Stevenson’s feature debut and a supernatural horror film that follows a nun named Margaret from America who is sent to work in an orphanage in Rome. Margaret immediately bonds with a girl named Carlita, earning the nun a warning about the orphan from the Priest Father Brennan, who explains that the girl sees and says evil things, and causes awful things to happen — hangings, car crashes, and a trail of death. It’s believed she is the Antichrist. Margaret becomes swept up in the anti-secularist plot and bears the consequences while sticking by Carlita’s side. The film dabbling in body horror, particularly female body horror, conveys the issues of women/AFAB people’s struggle and fights for rights over their bodily autonomy.

The Babadook (dir. Jennifer Kent, 2014)

Another shining directorial debut comes from director Jennifer Kent, who wrote and directed The Babadook (2014) based on her short film Monster (2005). The film follows a mother named Amelia who was widowed by her husband during a car accident as he drove her to hospital during her labour with their son, Sam. Sam asks his mother one night to read him a pop-up book named Mister Babadook, a seemingly innocent children’s story. Amelia is incredibly disturbed by the contents, detailing a tall, top-hat adorned monster who stalks and torments his victims, while Sam is engrossed. The book itself begins to haunt them as well as creeping into Sam’s behaviour, causing him to do hurtful things to his mother. Despite being destroyed, the book continues to come back and contains new horrific images based solely on the family. Battling the torturous visions and actions the Babadook is causing them to experience, the pair must rid themselves of him, but Sam says “You can’t get rid of the Babadook.” The film has since become a cult film and has even become a feature of queer culture, with the Babadook being labelled as gay, and Kent not denying it (in fact, she loves it). 

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (dir. Ariana Louis-Seize, 2023)

From the Canadian director Ariane Louis-Seize, this supernatural comedy horror film explores the life and friendship of a “vegan” vampire named Sasha. Sasha was traumatised by her family devouring her childhood birthday clown in front of her eyes, which causes her fangs to not sprout until she witnesses a teen named Paul contemplating suicide when she is much older. The two later become friends and Sasha decides to help Paul get payback against those who have wronged him and assist his suicide, until things start to take a turn when Sasha realises that maybe blood is too hard to resist. This film is a twisted teen love story that frightens you into wanting to live, and the title says it all.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (dir. Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)

Self-described as “the first Iranian vampire Western,” Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a Persian-language film set in a ghost-town named Bad City although it was filmed in California. Shot in black-and-white, this film follows a solo vampire who prowls the night for her next victim. One night the vampire lures a man back to her apartment in whom she senses a hint of vulnerability and honesty, and she decides to not kill him, showing mercy without him knowing. The two find a strange connection and begin a journey through the Bad City, filled with drugs, darkness and death.

Titane (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2021)

Next on the list is another body horror film that dabbles in the psychological thriller, Julia Ducournau’s Titane (2021). Following a woman named Alexia who was a passenger in a car crash as a child and consequently was fitted with a titanium plate in her skull, the film explores the consequences of this incident on Alexia as an adult. Viewers are shocked with her bizarre erotic connections to cars and her job as a showgirl for motor shows, leading her to disturbing situations, from metal-fuelled murders to climaxes with cars. The plot twists and turns down unfamiliar lanes as we learn about Alexia’s killing sprees, before it accumulates to Alexia birthing the terrifying consequences of her lies and actions. 

The Slumber Party Massacre Series (dir. Amy Jones, 1982, Deborah Brock, 1987, Sally Mattison, 1990)

Last before our big top 2, here’s a killer franchise, The Slumber Party Massacre trilogy, with all films in the series being directed by women — Amy Jones, Deborah Brock, and Sally Mattison. The films follow groups of teenage girls who are stalked by a murderer with a power drill and picked off on the night of their slumber party. The series has earned itself a cult following and was originally supposed to be a parody of the slasher genre, but it was filmed as horror films, with a hint of that self-reflexive humour. 

Now, according to our polls, the top two female directed horror films at Warwick are Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2016) and The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat, 2024). We’re excited to reveal that The Substance won first place! But let’s hear about both anyway…

Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2016)

Another loved horror from Julia Ducournau is the brilliant Raw (2016). The film is another body horror with a hint of coming-of-age, following a woman named Justine who just started Veterinary School. Justine has been a vegetarian her entire life and has never tasted meat, until a hazing ritual begins at her school, and she’s forced to eat raw rabbit by her fellow students and older sister, breaking her body out into rashes and hives. From this incident onwards, Justine has an insatiable appetite for meat, and can’t deny the urges, feasting on various meats — cooked or raw. When her sister attempts to give her a bikini wax, Justine kicks her sister when she holds a pair of scissors, causing her finger to be chopped off. Justine, to the viewer’s horror, picks up the finger and eats it. The film spirals into a cannibalistic battle of morals and desire, and a whole lot of hunger.

The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat, 2024)

This satirical body horror is top of the list through your votes, and for good reason. Carolie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024) is this year’s stand-out horror film, full of freakish body morphing, mutilating gore and deformation. Centred around our fallen star Elisabeth Sparkle, the film documents the has-been celeb’s descent into madness as she watches her fame trickle away from her in favour of younger, newer girls. In a frenzy at the sight of her billboard being taken down after being fired from her aerobics TV instructor job due to being ‘too old’, Elisabeth crashes her car, and when she’s tended to at the hospital her nurse hands her a flash drive. The drive contains a video on the Substance, a life-altering serum that, in a few not-so-easy steps, allows you to access a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” version of yourself. Here comes Sue, your younger, newer aerobics instructor.