Let’s get one thing clear. I am not a fan of horror. Jump scares? I’d rather not. Creepy clowns? Hell no. A haunted house? It’s just stupid to go in there. No matter how “good” a scary movie or show is, you will simply not catch me watching it. And yet this spooky season, thanks to a new wave of female-led series and movies, I’ve somehow become a horror fan.
Now, I know female-led horror is not *exactly* new, but the releases of the last month, including Sweetpea, Grotesquerie and The Substance, feel like a slightly more elevated take on the horror genre. Think: less possessed dolls and terrifying aliens, and more questioning the horror within humanity, in particular the issues women face.
Take Sky’s Sweetpea, the six-part adaptation of C.J. Skuse’s novel of the same name, which sees timid and overlooked Rhiannon go on a rage-fuelled killing rampage, destroying the men she sees as “bullies”. She takes things one step further and kidnaps her childhood bully, Julia, who ends up having far bigger problems of her own. Rather than just being a show with stabbing scenes and spurts of fake blood (although there is plenty of that, too), it spurs conversations around abuse, identity, loneliness, and confidence.
As a viewer, while you don't support Rhiannon's actions, you do come to understand them. Ella Purnell, who plays the aforementioned serial killer, told The Standard she could relate to Rhiannon's emotions, because "a lot of the stuff that [Rhiannon] goes through are things that most women, if not all women, have dealt with.
"We have to be so delicate and diplomatic about the way we say things... so that we don't get labelled hysterical or dramatic or emotional or any of those things that we would never use for men," she continued. "So that kind of biting your tongue and just smiling through it, while people take the piss? That's very relatable."
Then there’s Ryan Murphy’s latest show (the man literally never sleeps) Grotesquerie, which stars Niecy Nash-Betts as Detective Lois Tryon, who's investigating a string of increasingly violent murders in her town, all with the help of Sister Megan, a nun and journalist, played by Micaela Diamond. While horror and gore fans will be satisfied with the gruesome scenes of the murders - the end of episode two was literally stomach churning - the most interesting part of the series is the developing relationship between the two women. Both their own issues and complex histories feed into the case as the series goes along, making it about so much more than just gore.
By episode seven, there's such a shocking plot-twist that you don't know left from right; but what you do know is all the scenes are just background for the true story which is about Lois and her fight for love.
Of course, we also have to give a special mention to The Substance, starring Demi Moore as a fading celebrity who begins taking a mysterious drug after getting fired from her job as an aerobics instructor, which produces a younger version of herself, The two cannot co-exist and must switch consciousness every seven days, with the clones developing a resentment of each other that results in deadly consequences.
The body horror satire film is designed to reflect the reality of how we feel about ourselves, explained director Coralie Fargeat. “It’s really a movie about our bodies and about the reality of how we feel in our bodies. I needed to speak to the reality of the way our flesh can reflect our mental deformation, and I knew this had to exist for real,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
While horror usually makes me want to look away, I found myself leaning into these darkly comic and deeply unsettling portrayals of female experiences, brought to us using classic horror tropes (that often feel overly gratuitous to me) such as doppelgangers and murderous kidnappers.
I’m not the only one who is finding themselves wanting to branch more into the genre thanks to these releases. As one viewer on X wrote, “I don’t watch a lot of horror but I still feel like The Substance is the best one.”
Another said: “I don’t normally watch body horror movies, but a friend wanted to see The Substance and I like Demi Moore. I think it will be a cult classic. It had an insane ending that I watched through my fingers, homages to other horror movies and was super stylish.”
A third added of Grotesquerie, “Honestly I HATE scary stuff but Grotesquerie was actually pretty good. No jump scares. There’s a lot of gore, but only one scene of someone actively getting hurt and he’s doing it to himself (but it did make me turn away). Some of the bodies you see at the crime scenes look fake to me so that kinda helps it be less gruesome? Other than that, a lil creepy but very interesting.. I’m sat for next week.”
While I know these new releases are “light” with the visual horror element, when it comes to the subject matter, they couldn't be heavier - and yet somehow it works. These horrors have successfully balanced fiction with the real-life terror, and as a result, are the perfect space for women to explore their feelings of rage, pain, insecurities and more. Maybe spooky season is for me after-all.
