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Women In Horror Month: Literature Edition #WIHM
From Mary Shelley to Tananarive Due, the landscape of horror literature has been shaped by brilliant women writers. Since it’s Women in Horror Month, I decided to highlight some indie women you may not have heard about. Enjoy!
Gemma Amor
Gemma is a UK horror fiction author, podcaster, artist and voice actor. She writes for the NoSleep Podcast and her short story anthology ‘Cruel Works of Nature: 11 Illustrated Horror Novellas’ is availible on Amazon.
Description of Cruel Works of Nature: 11 Illustrated Horror Novellas
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but supernatural curiosities brought it back.
A Jack-in-the-Box made from skulls.
A monster egg in the mail.
A sketchbook bridging imagination with reality.
What other wondrous and terrible secrets will these survivors tell?
CRUEL WORKS OF NATURE is a collection of 11 horror novellas about strange and exciting supernatural encounters. Reality and the fantastic are blended seamlessly in these immersive tales, with plenty of mystery to lead the reader on a thrilling journey. Some stories are dark and macabre while others whimsical and lighthearted, together ensuring constant surprises and terrifying twists to keep you reading until the very last page.
Website: https://gemmaamorauthor.com/
Mariko Koike
Mariko is an award winning Japanese horror author who wrote her debut novel in 1985. Since then, she has published several dark works such as The Graveyard Apartment, The Silent One and Fig Forest. She is known for combining genres and terrifying readers.
Description of The Graveyard Apartment
One of the most popular writers working in Japan today, Mariko Koike is a recognized master of detective fiction and horror writing. Known in particular for her hybrid works that blend these styles with elements of romance, The Graveyard Apartment is arguably Koike’s masterpiece. Originally published in Japan in 1986, Koike’s novel is the suspenseful tale of a young family that believes it has found the perfect home to grow into, only to realize that the apartment’s idyllic setting harbors the specter of evil and that longer they stay, the more trapped they become.
This tale of a young married couple who harbor a dark secret is packed with dread and terror, as they and their daughter move into a brand new apartment building built next to a graveyard. As strange and terrifying occurrences begin to pile up, people in the building start to move out one by one, until the young family is left alone with someone... or something... lurking in the basement. The psychological horror builds moment after moment, scene after scene, culminating with a conclusion that will make you think twice before ever going into a basement again
Annie Neugebauer
Annie is a Texas based Bram Stoker Award-Nominated author who specializes in horror, gothic, literary fiction, poetry and speculative. Her work appears in Apex, Black Static, and Cemetery Dance, as well as anthologies such as Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 3 and #1 Amazon bestseller Killing It Softly. When she isn’t writing, she’s participating in Denton Writers’ Critique Group and the Horror Writers Association. You can check her out at her website: https://annieneugebauer.com/
Camilla Voiez
Taken from her website, award winning author Camilla says it best. She is “ a proudly bisexual and mildly autistic introvert who finds writing much easier than verbal communication. A life long Goth, living with two kids, two cats and a poet by the sea.” She is an indie and self published author whose work includes sorcery, gothic elements, ghosts, vampires…There’s someone for everyone.
Description of Starblood
Star craves freedom, but Satori refuses to let her go. He casts a spell to make her love him again, opening a gateway through which Lilith, mother of demons, enters his life.
Lilith serves no man. Instead she seduces Star, assuring her that there is no shame in love, only completion. Thus begins a strange and terrible love triangle that leads them to Scotland and the Cairngorm mountains.
An LGBT love story full of horror and dark fantasy - be careful what you wish for.
Winner of HFA's Horror Author of the Year, Fear Venture's Author of the Year (2014), Best Horror Release by The Three Bookateers (2014) and nominated for the Commonwealth Book Prize. Starblood is the first book in a series - Psychonaut, Black Sun, and Ribbons continue Star, Satori and Lilith's stories.
A graphic novel based on this award-winning novel is also available, illustrated by Anna Prashkovich.
The importance of Women in Horror Month #WiHM FILM EDITION
It’s the tenth year of celebrating Women in Horror Month! But why does this month matter?
Let’s start with some women in film. I’ll do another post later this month about women in horror literature.
Here are the facts. Of the top 250 movies in 2017, a 2017 report from San Diego State University says that 88% had no women directors. The Atlantic reported in a 2018 article that 83% of the top 250 films had no female writers and 96% had no female cinemantographers. A study conducted by the Center of Study of Women in Television and Film states only 24% of the top 100 movies in 2017 had a sole female protagonist with only 34% having a speaking role.
Why should you care about this and what does it have to do with horror?
An article from
says it best:
Each year, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media publishes research that shows how gender imbalances in film affects women and girls.
For example, they’ve found that positive and prominent roles for women in movies “motivate women to be more ambitious” professionally and personally. But when there is a dearth of women being depicted in positive ways, it has an opposite, negative effect.
A recent study by Google and the Geena Davis Institute studied this phenomenon across genres. They developed something called “the GD-IQ” (Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient), which is facilitated by machine-learning technology. The goal was to recognize patterns in gender, screen time and speaking time that the casual movie viewer might overlook. The results of this study told a familiar story: In film, men are seen and heard twice as often as women.
This means that an entire group of human beings is being marginalized within a booming industry, creating a ripple effect within our society.
But let’s talk horror specifically. So often, horror depicts women as dimwits who scream more than they talk and often die first. Even in the most iconic of films, such as Halloween (1978) or Friday the 13th (1980), we see the gross stereotype perpetuated to make money from the mega horror industry. They are usually virgins who end up having sex, only to be hunted and killed because of it. Think of Cabin Fever (2002) or Sorority Row (2009) where those who have sex die first. Or it’s the opposite. The virgin girl is the only one to survive due to her purity, such as in Halloween. Even in the cult classic Carrie (1976), sex plays a pivotal role as the movie starts when she begins menstruating and her purity is called into question.
It seems women can’t win within the horror genre. We’re a tired, stereotypical, disgusting troupe.
And that’s why we need more women.
More women protagonists. More women directors, produces, writers, and cinematographers.
We need a new perspective.
And I think it’s becoming clear to Hollywood that women are done being the screaming sex-driven eye candy in films. We’re not settling for the same old misogynistic approach in our horror films. Here’s a look at some incredible women in horror for you to check out this month:
Julia Ducournau
Ducournau is the French writer and director of Raw (2016), a haunting and beautiful horror movie about a a teenager with an appetite for human flesh. The film won the FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographiqu) prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
Sophia Takal
Takal is an actor and director whose film Always Shine (2016) highlights envy and destruction between two friends.
Mary Harron
Harron directed and co-wrote American Psycho (2000) with Guinevere Turner. Need I say more? Okay, I’ll say a little more. She also created a teenage Gothic horror, The Moth Diaries (2011) and created a horror film with Turner based on Charles Manson, which will hopefully be released later this year.
Ana Lily Amirpour
I’ve heard Amirpour’s first debut film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) notes as an Iranian Western vampire movie. She’s a UK director and also is credited with The Bad Batch (2016) , a cannible dystopian film.
Jennifer Kent
Kent is an actress and director who directed The Babadook (2014), which is a personal favorite of mine. A mother and son must battle a mysterious force intent to kill them.
