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Double double, toil and trouble: it’s time to get spooky, y’all. It’s almost Halloween –are you in the mood for frights and delights? What follows is a list of horror or horror-adjacent films directed by women or non-binary people. Some of them are legitimately scary, while others just have spooky vibes. I will note the scare factor using two metrics: gore (out of ten 🩸) and frights (out of 10 👻).

Some of these movies have feminist themes, some include queer and/or trans characters, while others just happened to be directed by women. I’ve not included the Fear Street trilogy on this list because I’ve already written about it at length. For more on the history of lesbians in horror, click here, and click here for a deep dive into a feminist lesbian vampire film. Happy spooking!

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) / We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021)

Jane Schoenbrun’s two films, I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, are remarkably unique and compelling projects. Their debut film, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, follows a teenage girl named Casey (Anna Cobb) who begins participating in a viral online challenge. Like other participants, Casey begins experiencing mental and physical transformations that she documents and posts online. Schoenbrun has said that they wanted the film to explore gender dysphoria as it relates to the internet, particularly how one can exist online in a disembodied state. 

Their second film, I Saw the TV Glow, part of what Schoenbrun calls their Screen Trilogy, takes television as its central focus. Set in the ‘90s, the film follows two teens, Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who are obsessed with a TV show called The Pink Opaque. Owen and Maddy bond over their love of the show, but when the show ends and Maddy disappears, Owen struggles to find any joy in his life. 

The Pink Opaque is clearly modeled after Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so fans of that series will no doubt feel a sense of kinship there. But like We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, the larger allegory here is about trans embodiment (or disembodiment, as it were), and the cost of keeping your true feelings locked up. Both films seem intent not on terrifying the viewer, but instead depicting psychological strife and the search for identity through the lens of pop culture and fantasy. 

I Saw the TV Glow 

Gore: 🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻
Is it gay? Yep! Major trans allegories here.

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Gore: 🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻👻👻
Is it gay? Yep! Though less obviously than I Saw the TV Glow.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

The best way to describe Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies is that it’s sort of like the Clue of the 2020s. The film follows a group of friends (a great cast that includes Rachel Sennot, Amandla Stenberg, Lee Pace, and Pete Davidson), attending a house party. Their entertainment for the evening includes playing a party game called Bodies Bodies Bodies, similar to Murderer or Mafia. When people start dying for real, the game becomes much darker than intended. 

More of a horror-comedy than a straight horror movie, the film is much more interested in entertaining the viewer than scaring them. It’s uproariously funny – Rachel Sennott’s character hosts a podcast called “Hanging out with your smartest, funniest friend” – and the whodunit aspect of the film is great fun. If you’re a fan of murder mysteries or tongue-in-cheek slashers like Scream, this’ll be right up your alley. 

Gore: 🩸🩸🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻
Is it gay? Yes! Two of the main characters (played by Amandla Stenberg and Maria Bakalova) are in a lesbian relationship.

Titane (2021)

Move over, Crash (1996), there’s a new sexually grotesque car movie in town. Julia Ducournau’s Titane, her second film following her astonishing (and bloody) debut Raw, is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before (perhaps apart from Cronenberg’s masterpiece). The film is so wild that I’m hesitant to fully describe the plot to you, but here’s a little taste. Agathe Rousselle (in her feature film debut) plays Alexia, a woman with a titanium plate in her head due to a childhood car crash. As an adult, Alexia works as a showgirl at a car show, where she is much more interested in the vehicles themselves than the people she’s entertaining. Alexia’s life turns violent, and a series of bizarre events lead her into the home of an aging firefighter (the brilliant Vincent Lindon).

Titane is not for the faint of heart, particularly if you are easily disturbed or nauseated. It’s not quite as gory as this year’s The Substance, but there are several wince-worthy sequences throughout. It’s a fascinating film in terms of its allegorical and thematic elements as well. It’s very much about bodies and gender and embodiment, though what you take away from the narrative is entirely up to you. However you read the film’s metaphorical messaging, you may never look at cars the same way again. 

Gore: 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻👻👻
Is it gay? Implicitly, for sure, though it can be read in many different ways. 

Slumber Party Massacre (2021)

First things first: if you haven’t seen the original The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) and its excellent sequel, Slumber Party Massacre II (1987), go watch those films before you watch the 2021 movie. The original film was directed by Amy Jones and written by Rubyfruit Jungle author Rita Mae Brown, while the second was directed by Deborah Brock and includes a killer who slays (literally) with his electric guitar. They’re absolute classics. 

2021’s Slumber Party Massacre bills itself as both a “modern reimagining” and a standalone sequel to the first film. Directed by Danishka Esterhazy and written by Suzanne Keilly, the film centers on Dana Devereaux (Hannah Gonera), the daughter of Trish Devereaux, the protagonist of the first film. Dana and her friends head out for a girls trip at the lake, and surprise surprise, a killer is waiting for them. 

Though the reboot can’t capture the farcical magic of the original, it's a solid 21st-century slasher that pokes fun at contemporary social norms and the tropes of the genre. One of the most amusing parts of the film is when the girls encounter a group of boys having their own sleepover and we get a goofy (if entirely unsubtle) reversal of gender norms. If you like witty, referential slashers, this might be a good pick for you, as long as you start with the originals first. 

Gore: 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻👻
Is it gay? Yeah, a little bit! There is definitely something gay going on between two of the characters.

Hellbender (2021)

The story behind Hellbender is just as interesting (if not more so) than the film itself, but it’s also a compelling watch regardless of context. The film is a family affair, directed, written by, and starring John Adams, Toby Poser, and their two daughters, Zelda and Lulu Adams. They shot the film at their home in the Catskill Mountains during the COVID lockdown, taking turns as directors and cinematographers. 

Hellbender follows Izzy (Zelda Adams) a teenage girl who lives with her mother (Toby Poser) in a remote area. Izzy is homeschooled and not allowed to interact with other people, but she starts to get curious when she meets a neighbor, Amber (Lulu Adams). She learns the truth about her family’s connection to witchcraft, though her mother worries she’s not ready to come into her power. 

You can tell the film was shot on a small budget with limited resources, but this makes the story feel even more intimate, and its experimental feel only adds to the magical story. It helps that the natural backdrop is stunning and the acting has a naturalistic, unadorned quality to it. The story – about matrilineal power and inheritance –  is intriguing, as is the artistic and intellectual curiosity on display here.

Gore: 🩸🩸🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻
Is it gay? Not particularly. 

Shirley (2020)

Josephine Decker’s Shirley is one of many films that came out in 2020 and didn’t get the recognition it deserves. Based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s mostly fictional novel of the same name, the film follows celebrated horror writer Shirley Jackson as she starts work on her 1951 book Hangsaman. Shirley (Elisabeth Moss) lives with her husband, Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg) in a house in Bennington, Vermont, where Stanley works as a professor. Shirley and Stanley take on a young couple, Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred (Logan Lerman), as houseguests. Rose is obsessed with Shirley, and Shirley plays into her obsession. Things grow more complicated between the foursome as Shirley becomes enraptured in her new project. 

Though Jackson wrote in the horror genre, the film doesn’t frighten as much as it stokes our curiosity. Nonetheless, there is an element of psychological horror here, as we get a look into the sometimes disturbed psyches of our protagonists. The non-normative, implicitly queer dynamic between the two women also becomes apparent, an avenue that makes sense considering some of the queer elements of Jackson’s work (particularly The Haunting of Hill House).  

Gore: 🩸
Frights: 👻
Is it gay? A bit! There is some sapphic flirtation/obsession. 

Saint Maud (2019)

Before she directed the lesbian gore-fest that is Love Lies Bleeding, Rose Glass helmed Saint Maud, a deranged religious tale that dropped during the pandemic. Morfydd Clark plays Maud, a palliative care nurse and recently devout Roman Catholic. Maud goes to work for Amanda (the criminally underrated Jennifer Ehle), a former dancer facing her terminal illness with hedonistic abandon. Maud is convinced it's her duty to save Amanda’s soul before she dies, while Amanda is busy hosting dinner parties and canoodling with her lesbian lover. 

Amanda mocks Maud’s devotion and resists being saved, while Maud grows increasingly deranged and intent on achieving her goal. As we stray further from any sense of objective reality, the meaning of it all becomes less clear, though no less startling. For fans of repressed desire and heightened religious imagery, this one’s for you. 

Gore: 🩸🩸🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻👻
Is it gay? Yep! One of the main characters is queer.

Sea Fever (2019)

Released just a month into the COVID pandemic, Sea Fever is a contagion-based horror movie that hits home without being derivative. Neasa Hardiman’s film follows Siobhán (Hermione Corfield), a PhD student in marine biology. Siobhán boards an Irish fishing trawler to research deep sea fauna. She doesn’t exactly get along with the crew, but they’re forced to band together when a mysterious life form boards the ship and begins infecting everyone, as Siobhán’s expertise may be the only thing that can save them. 

Part contagion movie, part creature feature, part isolation horror, the resulting mashup is both fresh and satisfying. Despite the horror genre’s reputation for bombast and overindulgence, Sea Fever leaves much unsaid, leaning into its salty, anxiety-ridden atmosphere rather than overexplaining or highlighting an obvious message. Though somewhat extra-ordinary, the film successfully plays on our very real fears about infection and unwanted physical transformation, and, of course, the ever-spooky deep sea. 

Gore: 🩸🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻👻👻
Is it gay? Not particularly.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

If you were taking college film classes in the mid-2010s like me, there’s a high likelihood you already know about this movie, but if not, it might not be on your radar. Ana Lily Amanpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the first of its kind: an Iranian vampire spaghetti western film. Sheila Vand plays the girl, a lonely vampire who wanders the streets in a chador. She befriends Arash (Arash Marandi), a young man struggling to make ends meet. 

The film is shot in black and white in a minimalist style, an homage to the very first vampire film, Nosferatu (1922). A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night reimagines the spaghetti western’s lone antihero figure with a woman protagonist, reversing cinema’s male gaze with a distinctly feminine, vampiric gaze. There’s much to enjoy here for film nerds and casual moviegoers alike. 

Gore: 🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻
Is it gay? Nope.

Ghostwatch (1992) 

On Halloween night in 1992, the British Broadcasting Corporation popped right off and aired a mockumentary horror TV film on BBC One. Directed by Lesley Manning, Ghostwatch follows a live television program centered on the paranormal. The film stars actual British television presenters, including Sarah Greene, who plays a presenter reporting from the scene of a haunted house, and Michael Parkinson, who plays the in-studio host of the program. What starts as a lighthearted program turns sinister as alarming things begin occurring in the house Sarah is visiting, and the producers realize they might have a real supernatural problem on their hands. 

The film is a brilliant send-up of TV documentaries and the dangers of exploitation – in part a critique of the BBC itself – while also being an entertaining and occasionally terrifying ghost movie. The fact that the film was shot by and starred people who work in TV adds to the sense of realism, though it never feels overly cheeky or like it's winking at the audience too much. Not everyone watching the program realized it wasn’t actually live, however, and the BBC hotline – whose real number was advertised in the film – received more than 20,000 calls that night. According to a BBC retrospective of the film, three women went into labor while watching it. Trick or not, Ghostwatch is a mighty clever piece of filmmaking.

Gore: 🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻👻👻
Is it gay? Nope.

Near Dark (1987)

On the horror movie scale of vibes vs a good plot, Near Dark weighs heavily on the side of vibes. Kathryn Bigelow’s second feature film (her first as a solo director) is a Western-themed vampire movie about a gang of undead outlaws. Adrian Pasdar (Natalie Maines’ ex, if you care to know), plays Caleb, a young man who meets a pretty girl in a bar one night. Unbeknownst to him, she’s turned Caleb into a vampire, and he reluctantly joins her crew, which includes an unhinged vamp named Severen (the magnetic Bill Paxton). 

The plot itself isn’t all that interesting, but the moody, neon-tinged atmosphere is well-constructed. The most impressive aspect of the film is the score, composed by Tangerine Dream, a German electronic band that scored dozens of films and TV shows, including Sorcerer and Thief. Paxton’s demented turn is far and away the movie’s best performance, though the script doesn’t give him a ton to work with. A commercial flop when it was first released, the film has since developed a cult following, and is the kind of ‘80s relic that embodies the cinematic charms of the era. 

Gore: 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Frights: 👻👻👻
Is it gay? Nope. But considering the protagonist is the man who took his mistress on his wife’s boat, you might be entertained by cheering for his demise. 

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Ida Lupino was a pioneering filmmaker in the Hollywood studio system of the 1950s, directing eight films and appearing in 59. Her 1953 film The Hitch-Hiker is regarded as the first noir directed by a woman. Based on Billy Cook’s 1950 killing spree, the film follows two men taken hostage by a gun-toting hitchhiker while on a trip to Mexico. The Hitch-Hiker is thrilling rather than horrifying, and makes use of limited resources and a vast, wide-open landscape to render a sense of growing unease. 

More of a fascinating Hollywood artifact than an extraordinary film, The Hitch-Hiker nonetheless reveals Lupino to be a highly competent director, and her story deserves recognition. Her 1950 film Outrage is an astounding piece about a woman who is raped and then flees town to avoid the judgment of her community. Also in 1953, she directed and starred in The Bigamist, which was written by her ex-husband and co-starred Joan Fontaine, his new wife. Remember the name Ida Lupino. 

Gore:🩸
Frights: 👻
Is it gay? Nope. Also, there is not a single woman in the film.