5 Classic Style Horror Movies #DirectedByWomen

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It is Beggars Night in Des Moines. If you don't know what that is, I'm not surprised. It's the strange way they do trick or treating in Des Moines...and I just now realized when I linked to the Beggars Night Wikipedia page that there are actually a few other cities that do it. It's usually the night before Halloween, although it could be different. The city sets it, and in Des Moines, the kids have to tell jokes to get candy instead of saying "trick or treat." In my few years of experience, though, a lot of kids don't tell jokes, which is a little disappointing, but I love it anyway. It's the best part of Halloween for me.

Another part of Halloween that is less cute and fun is the scary movie portion of Halloween, and that is why I'm here: to give you a list of movies you can watch while waiting for kids in costumes to knock on your door and ask for candy. 

A Little History of These Lists

I started doing this categorized List of 5 movies thing where I showcase movies that were directed by women and that I have actually seen. It all started during the Directed By Women Worldwide Viewing Party in September 2015, and it was pretty fun, so I've continued doing it from time to time.

It's a bit off-topic from my normal fare, ya know, being that it's not specifically about lady-gasms or anything like that, but I think it fits the blog because
1. this blog is also about indie movie-making, and
2. this blog is partially about getting the female perspective of sexuality into our media. So, to me, supporting female voices in our media  means we're creating more room for female voices to speak on all types of things, which sometimes will be sex, orgasms, and sexuality.

You can find all my 5-movie lists HERE.

So, here friends, are 5 great lady-directed movies with that classic horror feel.

The Movies

1 The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)- This was directed by Amy Holden Jones. I just saw this a few days ago. I looked up a list of women directed horror movies, and I had to check this one out, amiright? Glad I did. It was an interesting watch because it was like it was trying to do some 1982 style feminist shit, but it also had to be a horror movie of the time, which is super misogynist. Like there's a whole shower scene that's just about T&A for no good reason, so many of the shots are ass level, and there's a whole drill-as-metaphor-for-dick killing a woman...which ya know thinking about it could be a feminsit statement too depending on how you look at it...maybe... Anyway, it's all classic in that way, but also, the slumber party gals are all on a basketball team wiht a cool woman coach - granted they don't seem to wear bras when they practice, but ya know they tried. Also, the telephone repairwomen and the carpenter are women, and the slumber party gals know how to check the fuses when the power goes out. I mean it's not everything, but I feel like it's an attempt at representation, and I appreciated it. Also, I looked it up, and it was written to be a spoof on the horror genre, but ended up getting shot as a  straight up B horror movie - I'm assuming because that's what could get funded. Either way, I liked the little peak of progress in it, and it was silly in only the way a 1982 horror movie can be. As of Halloween 2022 - this was on Amazon Prime, so no reason not to watch.

2 Slumber Party Massacre (2021) - This was directed by Danishka Esterhazy. There's some sequels to the original directed by men that I did not seek out, but this 2021 lady-directed remake of the original, I definitely did. It's a solidly fun, yet classically ridiculous horror-style  re-imagining of the original complete with Easter eggs. It also had some gratuitously unnecessary (but oh so necessary) hot-bodied dude scenes. Top notch.

3 Near Dark - This was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. It's the whole 80's western vampire teen movie vibe. Never heard of it until I found and watched it, but well worth the watch. Check it out.

4 The Velvet Vampire - This was directed by Stephanie Rothman. I mean, if you wanna check out an oh-so-70's B-movie swingin' vampire in the desert situation that makes sense sometimes, maybe...and you really do want to check it out, I'm pretty sure, then do watch this movie. I saw it on Tubi - free with commercials. 

5 Buffy the Vampire Slayer - This was directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui. I saw this movie back when it came out with my BFF. We loved it - particularly that Pee-Wee Herman made his post-jacking-off-in-an-x-rated-theater-and-getting-kicked-out-of the-biz debut as a vampire in it. I hated the tv show when it came out and never watched it. I'm definitely team movie Buffy. Anyway, it's a pretty dumb, fun teen vampire comedy. Worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.