News

Best Female-Focused Modern Horror Films Available for Streaming Right Now

Published

6 years ago

July 26, 2018

Roles for women in horror have changed from fainting victim to final girl to complex character. They’re villains (as in Jennifer’s Body), capable survivors (like Erin in You’re Next), imperfect mothers (see Hereditary), flawed heroes (It Stains the Sands Red and Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead), and so much more.

In celebration of badass women in horror, let’s take a look at some films that demonstrate a fantastic focus on their female leads. They’re telling stories that could only be told from a female perspective – they carry that weight of social and self-imposed expectations – and they’re doing so with a deft hand.

As a bonus, these films are all available for streaming so you can enjoy them at any time.

I know there are going to be a ton of films I’ve missed on this list, so please, share your additions in the comments!

13. Mohawk

via IMDb

Release date: March 2, 2018
Cast: Kaniehtiio Horn, Ezra Buzzington, Eamon Farren, Justin Rain, Jon Huber, Noah Segan, Ian Colletti, Robert Longstreet
Director: Ted Geoghegan (We Are Still Here)
Why You Should Watch: Mohawk is a vicious, bloody blend of action, horror, and historical drama, all in one intense revenge film. Set in New York at the end of the War of 1812, the film follows Okwaho (Mohawk actress Kaniehiito Horn) as she witnesses the torture and murder of her loved ones at the hands of a megalomaniac American officer (played to perfection by Ezra Buzzington). Filled with a burning rage, she will stop at nothing to get her revenge.
Where to watch it: Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play

12. Verónica

via IMDb

Release date: August 25, 2017
Cast: Sandra Escacena, Bruna González, Claudia Placer, Iván Chavero, Consuelo Trujillo
Director: Paco Plaza (REC)
Why You Should Watch: Verónica is a beautiful coming-of-age film disguised as a thrilling supernatural horror. Director Paco Plaza (best known for the brilliant found-footage [REC]) really hit the mark with this film, showing a strong, scared teenager who is dramatically out of her depth while trying to keep her young, dependent siblings safe. It’s a creepy, dread-fueled, well-balanced film (you can read my full review here).
Where to watch it: Netflix

11. Berlin Syndrome

via IMDb

Release date: May 26, 2017
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Max Reimelt, Matthias Habich
Director: Cate Shortland (Lore)
Why You Should Watch: In a story best told by a gifted female director, Berlin Syndrome follows the worst-case scenario of a tourist fling. Australian photojournalist Clare (Teresa Palmer) is traveling in Berlin when she meets a local English teacher, Andi (Max Reimelt). They hit it off and – after a few romantic encounters – Clare wakes up in his apartment to a sobering discovery; the door is securely locked and her phone’s SIM card is missing, leaving her trapped with no way to contact the outside world. Let the nightmare begin.
Where to watch it: Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play

10. The Eyes of My Mother

via The Playlist

Release date: December 2, 2016
Cast: Kika Magalhães, Will Brill, Joey Curtis-Green
Director: Nicolas Pesce
Why You Should Watch: As a child, Francisca (Kika Magalhães) is learning surgical techniques from her mother when a stranger interrupts their practice. He asks to use their washroom, but after Francisca’s mother reluctantly allows him in the house, his true intentions are soon made clear. He brutally murders her and is caught in the act by Francisca’s father. Rather than turn him into the police, Francisca and her father keep the stranger locked up in their barn – with some surgical alterations. Now blind and mute, the stranger is Francisca’s only friend. Even as an adult, Francisca struggles with loneliness throughout the film, but she eventually uses stronger and more proactive methods of finding a companion.
Where to watch it: Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, PSN, Google Play

9. Cold Hell

via IMDb

Release date: January 19, 2017
Cast: Violetta Schurawlow, Tobias Moretti, Robert Palfrader, Sammy Sheik, Friedrich von Thun
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters)
Why You Should Watch: This German action-thriller grabs you by the throat and barrages you with a flurry of well-timed attacks until the bitter end. It’s great.
Cold Hell follows a tough young woman who witnesses a murder and – when the police are of no help – realizes her life is in her own hands as she is relentlessly pursued by the killer. Luckily, this badass Thai Boxer is well prepared for a fight.
Where to watch it: Shudder

8. Prevenge

via IMDb

Release date: March 24, 2017
Cast: Alice Lowe, Jo Hartley, Tom Davis, Dan Renton Skinner
Director: Alice Lowe
Why You Should Watch: Alice Lowe is a brilliant actress and writer with pitch-perfect comedic timing. While Prevenge is her feature-film directorial debut, you may recognize her (sans ghoulish makeup) from horror-comedy Sightseers – which she also wrote.
Prevenge follows Ruth (Alice Lowe) during the late stages of her pregnancy as she receives persistent homicidal guidance from her unborn child. It’s a funny, twisted take on the bizarre changes women may go through while growing another human being.
It’s worth noting that Lowe was 8 months pregnant during filming.
Where to watch it: Shudder, iTunes, Amazon

7. Last Shift

via IMDb

Release date: October 6, 2015
Cast: Juliana Harkavy, Joshua Mikel, Hank Stone
Director: Anthony DiBlasi (Dread)
Why You Should Watch: Last Shift follows a rookie police officer, Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy), as she’s stationed to cover the last shift at a soon-to-be-closed police station. She should have a quiet night ahead of her, but the phone keeps ringing, and the young woman on the other end is in terrible danger.
Part horrifying ghost story, part psychological thriller, Last Shift builds tension and terror in a fantastic way. Jessica is determined to carry out her duties as an officer and shows incredible courage in the face of fear.
Where to watch it: Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, PSN, Google Play

6. Pyewacket

via IMDb

Release date: March 23, 2018
Cast: Nicole Muñoz, Laurie Holden, Chloe Rose, Eric Osborne
Director: Adam MacDonald (Backcountry)
Why You Should Watch: Pyewacket follows the challenges of a mother-daughter relationship in a way that Lady Bird never could. Leah (Nicole Muñoz) is struggling with her mother’s decision to move – as you would expect from an angst-ridden teenager – but her fascination with the occult causes her to lash out in a thoroughly ill-advised way. She is overcome by her frustrations and naively performs a ritual to evoke a witch to kill her mother.
Not a wise move, but, it certainly makes for a fantastic and terrifying film.
Where to watch it: VOD, iTunes, and Google Play (Canada), PSN (USA)

5. Ginger Snaps

via IMDb

Release date: May 11, 2001
Cast: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers
Director: John Fawcett
Why You Should Watch: Ginger Snaps is a Canadian horror classic and one of the best werewolf movies of all time (fight me). It’s a perfect coming-of-age tale focused on the bond between two sisters, but it’s got enough shock and gore to please the dude-bros who can’t relate to a film about female puberty (though, seriously, get over it).
Where to watch it: Amazon, Google Play

4. Annihilation

via Paramount Pictures

Release date: February 23, 2018
Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac
Director: Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Why You Should Watch: Annihilation is visually stunning. Let’s start there. It’s positively beautiful and absolutely horrific. The creature design is some of the best in recent history (and actually scary as hell). But visuals aside, it’s also a brilliant and compelling film with a cast of seriously talented women. It tells a wild, otherworldly story with a deep focus on our own internal struggles with self-destruction. The female characters of Annihilation are complex and flawed, and it’s wonderful.
You can read our full review here.
Where to watch it: iTunes, Google Play, PSN, Vudu

3. Martyrs

via Wild Bunch

Release date: September 3, 2008
Cast: Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï, Catherine Bégin, Juliette Gosselin
Director: Pascal Laugier (The Tall Man)
Why it’s great: Martyrs is one of the definitive films of the New French Extremity movement and it is absolutely brutal. The film follows a young woman’s quest for revenge as it leads her and a friend on a terrifying journey into a living hell. They are subject to experiments designed to inflict systematic acts of torture upon young women in the belief that their suffering will result in a transcendental insight into the world beyond this one. Martyrs is gruesome as anything you’ll ever see, but the young women demonstrate an incredible strength that is unparalleled.
Where to watch it: iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play

2. The Descent

via IMDb

Release date: August 4, 2006
Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone
Director: Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers)
Why it’s great: Fueled by an all-female cast and driven by paranoia, claustrophobia, and a genuine reason to fear the unknown, The Descent is a contemporary horror classic. It’s particularly notable for its treatment of its female characters – they’re independent, skilled, and their relationships have a complex dynamic with a casual, comfortable shorthand that communicates their history. Each of the women have distinct personalities and flaws that flesh them out as realistic characters, and they each contribute something to the team (a sensible structure that we saw more recently with Annihilation as well). Moreover, The Descent is just a damn good movie.
Where to watch it: Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play

1. Revenge

via Movieweb

Release date: May 11, 2018
Cast: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchède
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Why You Should Watch: We might as well stop making rape-revenge movies entirely, because Revenge just assassinated the genre. Coralie Fargeat’s directorial debut is a full-throttle, bloody, intense battle for survival that is so damn good at what it does. It’s a horrific scenario made even more terrifying by the fact that every woman alive has had to awkwardly navigate unwanted advances at least once in her life. Revenge takes that terribly uncomfortable tango and shows how it can all go so horribly wrong. The awful events are backlit by this sun-scorched, neon color palette that leaves the darkness with no place to hide. This movie slays in all the right ways.
Where to watch it: iTunes, Google Play, PSN, Vudu, Streaming on Shudder starting September 13

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Lists

Radio Silence Movies Ranked

Published

43 mins ago

April 23, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.

They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.

We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.

Abigail

An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.

Abigail

Ready or Not

This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.

Ready or Not

Scream (2022)

While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.

Scream (2022)

Southbound (The Way Out)

Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.

Southbound

V/H/S (10/31/98)

The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.

V/H/S

Scream VI

Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.

Scream VI

Devil’s Due

Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.

Devil’s Due

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News

Perhaps the Scariest, Most Disturbing Series of The Year

Published

49 mins ago

April 23, 2024

Timothy Rawles

You may have never heard of Richard Gadd, but that will probably change after this month. His mini-series Baby Reindeer just hit Netflix and it’s a terrifying deep dive into abuse, addiction, and mental illness. What is even scarier is that it’s based on Gadd’s real-life hardships.

The crux of the story is about a man named Donny Dunn played by Gadd who wants to be a stand-up comedian, but it’s not working out so well thanks to stage fright stemming from his insecurity.

One day at his day job he meets a woman named Martha, played to unhinged perfection by Jessica Gunning, who is instantly charmed by Donny’s kindness and good looks. It doesn’t take long before she nicknames him “Baby Reindeer” and begins to relentlessly stalk him. But that is just the apex of Donny’s problems, he has his own incredibly disturbing issues.

This mini-series should come with a lot of triggers, so just be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The horrors here don’t come from blood and gore, but from physical and mental abuse that go beyond any physiological thriller you may have ever seen.

“It’s very emotionally true, obviously: I was severely stalked and severely abused,” Gadd said to People, explaining why he changed some aspects of the story. “But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people it’s based on.”

The series has gained momentum thanks to positive word-of-mouth, and Gadd is getting used to the notoriety.

“It’s clearly struck a chord,” he told The Guardian. “I really did believe in it, but it’s taken off so quickly that I do feel a bit windswept.”

You can stream Baby Reindeer on Netflix right now.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Movies

The Original ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel Had an Interesting Location

Published

6 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s sequels to hit movies weren’t as linear as they are today. It was more like “let’s re-do the situation but in a different location.” Remember Speed 2, or National Lampoon’s European Vacation? Even Aliens, as good as it is, follows a lot of the plot points of the original; people stuck on a ship, an android, a little girl in peril instead of a cat. So it makes sense that one of the most popular supernatural comedies of all time, Beetlejuice would follow the same pattern.

In 1991 Tim Burton was interested in doing a sequel to his 1988 original, it was called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian:

“The Deetz family moves to Hawaii to develop a resort. Construction begins, and it’s quickly discovered that the hotel will be sitting on top of an ancient burial ground. Beetlejuice comes in to save the day.”

Burton liked the script but wanted some re-writes so he asked then-hot screenwriter Daniel Waters who had just got done contributing to Heathers. He passed on the opportunity so producer David Geffen offered it to Troop Beverly Hills scribe Pamela Norris to no avail.

Eventually, Warner Bros. asked Kevin Smith to punch up Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, he scoffed at the idea, saying, “Didn’t we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?”

Nine years later the sequel was killed. The studio said Winona Ryder was now too old for the part and an entire re-cast needed to happen. But Burton never gave up, there were a lot of directions he wanted to take his characters, including a Disney crossover.

“We talked about lots of different things,” the director said in Entertainment Weekly. “That was early on when we were going, Beetlejuice and the Haunted Mansion, Beetlejuice Goes West, whatever. Lots of things came up.”

Fast-forward to 2011 when another script was pitched for a sequel. This time the writer of Burton’s Dark Shadows, Seth Grahame-Smith was hired and he wanted to make sure the story wasn’t a cash-grabbing remake or reboot. Four years later, in 2015, a script was approved with both Ryder and Keaton saying they would return to their respective roles. In 2017 that script was revamped and then eventually shelved in 2019.

During the time the sequel script was being tossed around in Hollywood, in 2016 an artist named Alex Murillo posted what looked like one-sheets for a Beetlejuice sequel. Although they were fabricated and had no affiliation with Warner Bros. people thought they were real.

Perhaps the virality of the artwork sparked interest in a Beetlejuice sequel once again, and finally, it was confirmed in 2022 Beetlejuice 2 had a green light from a script written by Wednesday writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The star of that series Jenna Ortega signed on to the new movie with filming starting in 2023. It was also confirmed that Danny Elfman would return to do the score.

Burton and Keaton agreed that the new film titled Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice wouldn’t rely on CGI or other other forms of technology. They wanted the film to feel “handmade.” The film wrapped in November 2023.

It’s been over three decades to come up with a sequel to Beetlejuice. Hopefully, since they said aloha to Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian there has been enough time and creativity to ensure Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will not only honor the characters, but fans of the original.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will open theatrically on September 6.