1000 Women in Horror (Documentary)
Director: Donna Davies
Producer: Donna Davies,Nicola Goelzhaeuser,Giles Edwards
Screenwriter: Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Featured Subjects: Alexandra Heller-Nicholas,Roxanne Benjamin,Akela Cooper,Mattie Do,Brea Grant,Gigi Saul Guerrero,Mary Harron,Cerise Howard,Kier-La Janisse,Nikyatu Jusu,Natasha Kermani,Roseanne Liang,Annalise Lockhart,Toby Poser,Sara Risher,Lin Shaye,Kate Siegel,Chelsea Stardust,Jenn Wexler,April Wolfe
From the silent era until today, the nightmares that have haunted our screen have been sculpted and embodied by women, but many of those artists have gone unrecognised – a historical oversight this documentary duly takes a chainsaw to.
Is horror a man’s world? You might assume so – but you won’t be thinking that way for long once you investigate the vast contribution women have made to horror movies for well over a century. In 2020, award-winning Australian critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas released the definitive book on the subject: 1000 Women in Horror, 1895–2018, an encyclopaedic work celebrating the many women – filmmakers, actors, producers and technicians – who have shaped the genre since the moment cinema’s light first flickered.
In her complementary documentary, Canadian director Donna Davies interviews a stack of powerhouse women in the horror scene, and assembles a bevy of clips from classic and little-known films that women have left their mark on. From filmmaker and programmer Kier-la Janisse (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, MIFF 2021) and veteran performer Lin Shaye (A Nightmare on Elm Street; the Insidious franchise) to legendary Melbourne film scholars Cerise Howard and Heller-Nicholas herself, interviewees share their personal relationship with horror, addressing each theme the documentary explores sequentially: pregnancy, dolls, ageing, final girls and menstruation, to name just a few. Offering insights into the gender politics often explored through the genre, it’s a discussion that will continue even after you leave the cinema – while the smorgasbord of films referenced will have you scrambling for a pen and paper to take notes.
”Sit down, little boys; the grown-ups are talking.” – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
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Director Donna Davies is a guest of the festival and will be in attendance at both sessions of the film.
Director Donna Davies and featured subjects Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Cerise Howard are participating in the MIFF Talk event Hidden in Plain Sight: Women in Horror. This is a 'Pay What You Wish' event.