Image via Magnet Releasing
Can we kill the assumption that horror is a dude’s genre already? Years of evidence and even cold hard statistics have proven that women often make up a bigger percentage of the horror audience, and yet there’s a glaring imbalance when it comes to the people who make them. Thank freakin’ god for XX, a new horror anthology (a la the V/H/S series) entirely written and directed by women and starring a woman in its lead role. Even if this particular collection of films isn’t a game-changer for horror, what XX is doing is a pioneering step towards getting necessary and fresh perspectives in a genre that can often feel so stale.
The names involved in XX alone are exciting enough—and what they prove here will hopefully open up more opportunities for them in the future, whether it be a standalone feature film or a continuation of the series. Filmmaker Jovanka Vuckovic kicks off the anthology with a Jack Ketchum short story adaptation that brews with cold domestic anxiety until it becomes an indigestible gore feast. Musician Annie Clark (you know her as St. Vincent) makes her directorial debut here with a Melanie Lynskey-starring comic relief in the middle that doubles down on the stress and disappointment of your worst birthday party.
Following Clark’s number is a visceral, heart-pounding short from horror anthology queen Roxanne Benjamin (she produced all V/H/S movies and directed the five-part Southbound). She takes the well-known premise of a camping trip gone wrong and makes us sweat through it. Rounding out the collection is a monstrous tale from one of the most exciting names in horror today, Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, Jennifer’s Body), who makes a devilish allegory to white male toxicity. Each story comes with such a distinctly different atmosphere and perspective, only vaguely tied by Sofia Carrillo’s animation in between each vignette. We spoke with each of the directors to hear why female voices are so specifically important to horror, their first memory of falling in love with (i.e. being terrorized by) the genre, and who they would love to see a vignette from if there is an XX 2 in the future.
Jovanka Vuckovic: "The Box"
Why are women’s voices important to the horror genre?
They're important in every aspect of entertainment. We need more representation—gender, race, lifestyle. We need new perspectives because we live in a whitewashed world, and most things are about men. I can't solve all of those complex problems but at least XX is our small contribution to progress. It was something actionable we could do to literally create jobs for women. I don't think the way we tell stories is any different, but the perspective shifts a little bit and when that happens, you have something totally new. And who doesn't want something new, especially in the horror genre? We want to portray women as actual human beings and that's what the horror genre has been failing at.
What are you most proud of accomplishing with your vignette?
Mine is an adaptation of a short story by Jack Ketchum. My job was in service to the story and making sure to stay true to the spirit. We had to change the gender of the character to suit the mandate that the lead be a woman. In doing that small perspective shift, it opened up a whole new realm of storytelling possibilities for me. It suddenly then became about ambivalent motherhood. I'm just happy that I got to tell a story from a different perspective—from a working woman's.
What is your favorite horror movie technique or trope that you got to use in your short?
There's a difference between terror and horror. Terror is going into a house and knowing there's a dead body in there, and horror is tripping over it. The stuff that falls into horror are jump scares, creature features, that kind of visceral stuff, and then there's more Hitchcock stuff. I lean towards the terror side.
What’s your first memory of loving horror?
I suffered with childhood insomnia so I would often stay up late watching uncut horror movies on Canadian television. Some of my earliest memories were of the Poe cycle of Corman films—Vincent Price in The Masque of the Red Death. Plus on movie nights, when it was my turn to rent a video my mom let me rent horror movies, and I always chose the R-rated ones. So at a very early age I was exposed to a lot of things I probably should not have seen, like The Exorcist. That film put a permanent wrinkle in my psyche. I've always said that as a kid I never believed in God, but The Exorcist made me believe in the Devil.
Who is your favorite final girl?
Ellen Ripley, obviously. She started off as a man but Ridley Scott changed her to a woman but didn't change anything else about the character. If we did that with more films, we'd have so much more representation. She's the original badass.
If there is another XX movie, who would you want to see a horror short from?
We really wanted to invite the Wachowski sisters.
Annie Clark: "The Birthday Party"
Why are women’s voices important to the horror genre?
I am not completely acquainted with the horror genre but I'm told that most of the horror fan audiences are actually women so it would seem to make sense that there ought to be more female directors in that genre. Perhaps they can speak even more specifically to different kinds of fears.
What are you most proud of accomplishing with your vignette?
I got Melanie Lynskey, who is so good and so beautiful and so sensitive and so authentic. There is a moment in the film after Mary finds her husband dead and dresses her daughter in the shower curtain as a costume. She breaks down in the bathroom. Melanie plays it so beautifully and sincerely that it makes me cackle with laughter. I was at Sundance and the crowd laughed at the same moment. I was so proud of that because it meant that 1) I wasn't alone in my perversions and 2) that we successfully made a moment.
What is your favorite horror movie technique or trope that you got to use in your short?
My favorite thing—again, something that made me laugh—was whenever Sheila Vand would slowly, mysteriously come into the shot, we would put in the sound design of a jump scare. It played up the comedy of the whole thing.
What’s your first memory of loving horror?
The truth is, I'm afraid of horror films. I can't watch them! I'm too scared. But I do remember seeing Poltergeist when I was five and that scarred me for life. I also remember seeing Tales from the Crypt around the same time and that scared me.
Who is your favorite final girl?
Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween.
If there is another XX movie, who would you want to see a horror short from?
Claire Denis. She's amazing.
Roxanne Benjamin: "Don't Fall"
Why are women’s voices important to the horror genre?
They’re important to any genre. Any sort of new perspective brings a new light into different anxieties and fears, and I don’t think there necessarily needs to be a “female experience” to tell a certain kind of horror movie. It’s not like only women should direct female-related horror movies, or if it’s a male protagonist then it shouldn’t have a female director. I don’t think there’s any exclusivity to storytelling in that way, but it does seem odd that we’re over half of the population and less than 10-percent of the feature directors. That’s definitely an injustice when it comes to a different perspective.
What are you most proud of accomplishing with your vignette?
I really wanted to play with the old school rollercoaster of jump scares and things that go bump in that night. And sitting in the audience and hearing everyone yell at specific points is extremely gratifying.
What is your favorite horror movie technique or trope that you got to use in your short?
I feel like my whole section is a trope. I like having very naturalistic dialogue and a very easy back-and-forth between actors like a normal conversation you would have. I like letting a scene play and seeing how it goes is a big thing for me. That’s what I want to do—take a very down the middle, pulpy story that we know for the most part, and then just play within those confines and play within those tropes.
What’s your first memory of loving horror?
Probably Stephen Gammell’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. That just fucked up an entire generation. From that moment onward, it was like, oh yeah, everything is terrifying, there’s always something under the bed, there’s always something around the corner, nothing can be trusted. I also grew up in the middle of the woods, so these urban legends have always kind of been ingrained.
Who is your favorite final girl?
Does Ellen Ripley in Alien count? You know that role was written as a male character and they didn’t change anything about it, they just changed the character to female. But it’s still well-written, because they weren’t trying to make it a female character.
If there is another XX movie, who would you want to see a horror short from?
Julia Ducournau. Oh my god her movie Raw is so good. And it’s definitely one of those movies that makes you go, “So this is what a horror movie can be.”
Karyn Kusama: "Her Only Living Son"
Why are women’s voices important to the horror genre?
It's interesting because we're at a moment where I think our daily reality is suffused with dread and anxiety and very realistic terror of what the future holds. The only way to get that empathy is to have more perspective and get more understanding in different sides of the coin and different experiences of the problem. You need more voices in horror because horror is so frequently the mirror back to society about what is so scary about reality. It's our way of coping with the very real cultural, political, psychological, social horrors of our current moment.
What are you most proud of accomplishing with your vignette?
I'm still astounded by the negative consequence of unchecked white male privilege and to me, if that becomes the norm, or if we allow ourselves to believe it is the norm without pushing back or prodding at it or questioning it and resisting it, we are going down in flames. It is an unsustainable model. I wanted to tell this tiny little story about a mother who considers herself invisible to society and a mother attempting to have a positive influence over her son who she's losing control of and who is losing control of himself. It's given an extreme veneer because there is the suggestion of evil, but in the end, the evil and devil notion is a metaphor for where we're at right now. I think what's grim about it is some of us will have to die for those ideals. That is the trajectory of history.
What is your favorite horror movie technique or trope that you got to use in your short?
There's a moment where my main character is crawling across the floor toward her son, and to have the camera basically grazing the floor with her and be so close to her as if we are with her as opposed to looking at her. That's a really effective technique generally but I think horror can use it particularly well if you are asking the audience to be in another person's shoes.
What’s your first memory of loving horror?
I watched a Halloween midnight screening of Texas Chainsaw Massacre in college. I had never seen it on the big screen. It was such a watershed moment for me. I found it so viscerally terrifying. To this day I don't think there are many films that are much scarier than Texas Chainsaw. Beyond that, I was so astounded by the artistry of the film. It really made me see how much opportunity there is to make us identify with all of the spectrum of these stories. On the one hand, you identify with those kids and have complicated relationships with them, but you also horribly, strangely, identify with Leatherface. I just think that opportunity is so important right now. We really need to be pushing for multiple points of view and multiple opportunities for empathy.
Who is your favorite final girl?
I would have to go with Ellen Ripley. She's just the one who keeps coming back so I appreciate that.
If there is another XX movie, who would you want to see a horror short from?
Yayoi Kusama. She made this sculptural installation of a field of white penises and my impression is she really understands horror. Also I'd have to go with Kathryn Bigelow because Near Dark was so important to me.