Women have always been at the heart of horror: their bodies, their madness, and their power. And when they play the victimizer, there’s no holds barred. Read on for a list of arthouse horror movies that feature monstrous women in all their vengeful, gory glory.
Possession (1981)
One way to gloss this psychological horror drama might be that it’s like the messiest divorce story of all time. The premise seems normal: a man returns home to find his wife is having an affair. Only the man is a spy, his wife is insane, and her paramour is a monster. From then on, it’s one horror trope after another, from demonic possession and doppelgängers to tentacle erotica and possibly alien invasion. The monster never appears until almost the final frame, but when it does, there’s no looking away from this abyss. Watch for a blood-curdling performance by Isabelle Adjani, and a taut atmosphere of paranoia and unprocessed trauma.
Trouble Every Day (2001)
By day, she’s a languishing wife suffering from an unknown disease. By night, she’s a one-woman slaughterhouse. From French auteur Claire Denis comes this voluptuous nightmare of a movie, starring Béatrice Dalle as a vampire temptress more animal than woman. Meanwhile, Vincent Gallo plays a neurotic every-man who spends his honeymoon tracking down his former colleague, a wayward scientist who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As their paths lap over in strange ways, madness of the most carnal order awaits. Add a sultry soundtrack by cult indie-rock band Tindersticks, and you’ll see the blood in your dreams for weeks.
Under the Skin (2014)
In this fever dream of a film, Scarlett Johansson plays an alien who possesses a woman’s body and traverses Glasgow picking up men and trapping them in a weird alternate-dimension of tarry darkness. With its minimalist storyline and at times glacial pace, it can be a demanding watch, but it more than lives up to its name. Mica Levi’s soundtrack is exquisitely nerve-wracking, and Johansson is totally, dangerously hypnotic.
