It’s 9:30 on a Tuesday morning, and I think I’m about to watch Tamae Garateguy die. Her geographic location—Argentina, or, “the end of the world,” as she calls it—precludes my usual phone interview method, so she’s been kind enough to chat with me on Skype about her career and her latest film, Mujer Lobo. It’s midway through our conversation when her doorbell rings.
Read MoreAminah Iman (2017) #WiHM
Few things have the power of the written word. I don’t know about you, but I can endure the most terrible visions when they’re projected on a screen, but when I read them, they get buried so deep in my imagination, my brain starts growing fear-tentacled-Chtululike-dendrites and I become a proverbial nervous wreck. I’ve watched all kinds of “extreme” horror, but I had to put down both Lauren Beukes’ Broken Monsters and Henry James’ Turn of the Screw because they were so unsettling.
Read MoreHeidi Moore (2017) #WiHM
To paraphrase the noted sociologist Jeff Foxworthy, “There are rednecks everywhere.” By this, he meant that while stereotype would tell us that rednecks usually live in the south, the phenomenon of the defiantly trashy knows no geographical bounds. Growing up in a southern small town famed for its prison, its prison riots, and its prison rodeo, Foxworthy’s observation was cold comfort to me.
Read MoreAshlee Blackwell (2017) #WiHM
Ashlee Blackwell is on a quest. Like many horror fans, she has been disturbed by the lack of positive images of women in horror films, especially women of color. It’s an old sin we know horror to be guilty of: the Black Guy always dies first, women of color are often far more sexualized than their caucasian counterparts, and if by some miracle a Black character makes it to the last quarter of running time, he or she is usually either comic relief or a sacrifice conveniently placed to save the all important, lily-white Final Girl.
Read MorePatricia Chica (2017) #WiHM
We all know the story: The producer, director, writer, ingenue who heads to Hollywood with dreams of making it big. With a little bit of grit and determination, they manage to get a few auditions, or perhaps a job as second unit director, or are asked to help clean up a third-rate script into a second-rater. Whatever the projects may be, they all have one thing in common: It’s a horror film.
Read MoreMattie Do (2017) #WiHM
If you haven’t heard of Mattie Do, you’re depriving yourself. Stop that. It’s just not healthy.
Read MoreJovanka Vuckovic (2017) #WiHM
It’s hard to talk women in horror without talking Jovanka Vuckovic. Many readers may not be familiar with the name, but they’re almost assuredly familiar with her work: As the editor-in-chief of Rue Morgue Magazine for seven years, she was one of the driving forces behind establishing the brand’s identity, overseeing the transition from a black-and-white bi-monthly publication to the full-colored vanguard it is today. Though she left the publication in 2008, Vuckovic left an indelible mark-- If Fangoria was the making-of-feature of the horror world, then on Vuckovic’s watch Rue Morgue became the director’s commentary, a thoughtful, observant perspective on culture as much New Yorker as Entertainment Weekly.
Read MoreRoxanne Benjamin (2017) #WiHM
Going into XX, it’s easy to look at each of the respective shorts as representing a different horror sub genre. The Box, as we’ve covered elsewhere, is psychological horror at its’ finest. Annie Clark’s birthday party is a nice slice of horror comedy, served up with a hilarious stinger to tie everything together in the short’s closing seconds.
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