Horror-Movies. recently sparked a controversy surrounding their "
10 New Masters of Horror" list written by Herner Klenthur. Sharpening a lens on horror film directors that have the potential to become the next Carpenter or Craven, Klenthur's top ten list featured Ti West, Xavier Gens, Adam Green, Steven C Miller, Alexandre Aja, Eli Roth, Neil Marshall, James Wan, Pascal Laugier, and Rob Zombie. In case you didn't notice, all of the people featured on this list are men. It pains me to start a statement with this, but "as a woman in horror..." I have no problem with this list not including any women. I pride myself in being a feminist horror fan, but it's important to realize that despite the ill-named term "feminism," the feminist movement is about encouraging equality of the sexes. The entire point of feminism is to give women the opportunity play ball on the same playing field as men, or give them the choice not to. Feminism is about choice, and equality between the sexes. This post is not going to be some social justice vocabulary lesson, but it's important to realize that feminism is NOT anti-man. If you think it is, you're wrong, and you should educate yourself.
MOVING ON.
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| Steven C Miller. Know him? You should. |
It's also important to realize that lists are a matter of opinion and are in no way factual statements that we should live our lives around. That being said, this is a damn good list and I don't have a problem with any of the directors presented on this list. I'm about to turn a lot of people against me with this, but there are currently no female horror directors that were worthy of being presented on this list. I'm sorry, but that's the honest to Lovecraft truth. This list is to focus on the "10 New Masters of Horror" and there has not been a woman in recent memory that deserves a place on this list. Are there women directing outstanding horror films? Absolutely. Are there women who have made an impact as large or as influential as the men on this list? No. Going back to the rules of feminism, it's about equality of the genders. Equality also means being held to the same standard. Hannah Neurotica, the founder of Women in Horror Month called out the author for not including any women, to which he replied
"I did not intentionally ignore the women directors. Give me 3 that you think should be on this list and would be considered a master of horror based off their contributions to the genre over the last while."
Hannah then went on to list off a multitude of female directors including Katt Shea, Mary Lambert, Rachel Talalay, Amy Holden Jones, Kathryn Bigelow, Jackie Kong, Roberta Findlay, Mary Harron, and of course, The Soska Sisters. Another wonderful woman, Jennifer Cooper, suggested many of Hannah's suggestions, but added Brenda & Liz Fies, Jennifer Lynch, Barbara Stepansky, and Axelle Carolyn.
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| Mary Harron: She made American Psycho |
Considering the fact Kathryn Bigelow, Roberta Findlay, Marry Harron, Mary Lambert, Rachel Talalay, Amy Holden Jones, Katt Shea, and Jackie Kong have been making films for more than 20 years (and with the exception of Shea are not predominately horror directors) even considering them to be "NEW" masters of horror is pointless. Horror-Movies.ca even mentioned in the opening of their article that they were looking for NEW directors and because of that wasn't going to feature the John Carpenters or Wes Cravens of the world. Going back to Hannah Neurotica's list of suggestions, the only ones that fall within the timeline of this list are the Soska Sisters. Admittedly, Jennifer Cooper's suggestions fall moreso within the realm of what the list was intending to concentrate, but none of the women on her list of suggestions have nearly the same caliber or quality of influence in their films the way that the men featured on that list do. I LOVE Liz Fies' film
The Commune but to say it has the same sort of influence that Ti West's
House of the Devil does, simply because "Holy shit! women in horror!" is insulting. Don't get me wrong,
The Commune is a fantastic film but did it re-ignite the genre's love for slow burn horror? No.
The only director(s) nominated by both Hannah and Jennifer that are even possibly close to making this list are The Twisted Twins, Jen and Sylvia Soska. The Soska Sisters are undoubtedly one of the biggest noises in independent horror with their films
Dead Hooker in a Trunk and the Katherine Isabelle (of
Ginger Snaps fame) starring
American Mary. These two generate a ton of buzz for all of their film, but I'm not going to lie and say the fact they're attractive women has nothing to do with it. The Soska Sisters make pretty enjoyable horror films, nothing monumental or ingenious, but enjoyable nonetheless. However, if The Soska's are good at one thing, it's marketing. The Soska Sisters have figured out how to market themselves and horror fans have been eating it up. Female directors in horror don't get nearly as much attention as they should, and The Soskas have found the magical "oh wait, men like boobs" loophole and used it to their advantage.
John Squires, the righteous dude behind Freddy in Space made a comment on his Facebook page about this ordeal saying "And the funny thing is that the two most well known female horror filmmakers, the Soska sisters, have gotten a lot more respect and love than they even deserve, based on the fact that they are attractive women. Nobody would've given two shits about that Dead Hooker turd if the filmmakers were two obese brothers. And that's the truth. I've got no problem with them parading around their sexuality to get fans and make a name for themselves, but I guarantee no females would be supporting them the way they do, if they were men. So who's really making this all about sex here?"
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| Ti West: Master Pacer. |
I've heard this criticism many, many times and on a personal note, I have a blogging troll (sorry for feeding him) that has told me numerous times that until I "look like a Soska, I have no right to talk about horror" and it's that mentality that supports the claim Johnny Squires is trying to make. The fact that women cling so hard to The Soska Sisters shows us that we're settling with making our idols above average independent filmmakers instead of pushing for better. I've seen my fair share of independent horror films and a hell of a lot of them are directed by women. If I'm being honest, half of the time I don't look up who the director is until after it because gender doesn't equate talent. If I like a movie, I like a movie, and it doesn't matter what's between the legs of whoever made it. I refuse to make excuses and whine about inequality when I haven't seen a female directed horror film that has made as big of an impact of the men on this list. Does that make me a bad feminist? No, it makes me an honest feminist and an unbiased film critic. I don't want female horror directors to be held to a different standard, I want them to be held to the exact same scrutiny as male directors. If a female director makes a film that moves me like House of the Devil, or terrifies me like Haute Tension, or has the impeccable dialogue of Frozen, I'll bite my tongue. Complaining about this list is bad for feminism. If we really want equality, we need to be producing equal quality work. I want women to make movies just as strong as men (which we are totally capable of) but at this point in time, there aren't any women that deserve to be on that list more than any of the men. I will not take the deserving glory away from a man who has worked hard and created an incredible piece of art to make way for a woman who hasn't created something of the same caliber, simply because she's a woman. Well, maybe Eli Roth, but that's for another day. Chick vision...give me a break.
