Reworking of horror and crime/ganster genres in films made by women

By Moira Sullivan

Over the course of film history, the content of traditional genres begun in the silent era has consistently changed in terms of plot, characters, setting, form, and iconography. This is especially true in films directed and written by women. Some films challenge traditional views of motherhood to such an extent that they are frightening. In The Babadook (2014, Australia), directed by Jennifer Kent, a children’s storybook becomes the origin of an unsettling transformation of what would otherwise be perceived as an ordinary, loving mother. Amelia (Essie Davis) is a widow raising her young son Sam alone (Noah Wiseman), who has learning disabilities and needs constant care. Soon she is unable to cope and later on becomes a demonic mother. The son is clever enough to know that this is not his mother and becomes a caretaker for her. The character in The Babadook children’s book has come alive, a sinister character in black that invades the home and the psyche of the mother. This is all the more disturbing because a little child is involved who is at the mercy of his mother’s mood swings. The film is regarded as a horror film because of the plot, setting, and form, with sensations that are raised by the frightening imagery, including the soundtrack. In one scene, Sam pushes his cousin out of a treehouse, breaking her nose in two places.

Another reworking of horror and challenges to traditional motherhood is Lynn Ramsey’s We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011, UK). In this film Kevin (Esrah Miller) is in prison for killing students with a bow and arrow. We then learn of how this could have happened with a flashback of his upbringing. His mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton) was increasingly indifferent to him because of his sadism, which included blinding his sister in one eye. Both children in these films are considered bad seeds because of their behavior, but the films focus on the love-hate relationships the mothers have with their children. Why the films fall within the horror genre is because they upset the idea of the home as a safe place, creating environments that become increasingly unstable and caustic. In film history are films that show us that the home is unsafe and is basically female. In The Haunting (1963), directed by Robert Wise and based on a novel by Shirley Jackson, the haunted house is filled with a presence that only two clairvoyant women can experience: Theo (Claire Bloom) and Eleanor (Julie Harris), who sacrificed her youth to take care of her mother until her death. Their fear is also fed by growing homophobia as Eleanor begins to regard the openly lesbian Theo as the real horror of Hill House. The Haunting is considered one of the scariest films of all time because of the unusual set design and soundtrack.

Here are three soundtracks to unconventional horror films: Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990), starring horror master Vincent Price, who makes a young man with protruding knives as hands; The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973), starring Ellen Burstyn as the mother of a possessed young girl (Linda Blair); and Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978).

As for the crime fiction/gangster genre, here are two examples of films directed by women. The crime gangster genre is populated by women as law enforcement officers or lead detectives while at the same time investigating crimes against women.

The first is Blue Steel (US 1989) directed and written by Kathryn Bigelow and the second is Top of the Lake (2013 Australia/New Zealand UK), a TV series directed and written by Jane Campion. In both films what is different about the gender roles is that both detectives are abducted by serial murderers and/or predators whose targets are women or children. They are set in urban environments and both cops are considered problematic. Both have experienced sexual abuse in some form or witnessed family abuse. Jamie Lee Curtis (Meghan Turner) has a good friend who supports her, but her family includes an abusive father and battered mother. Despite not being proven, she is downgraded to a street cop for using too much force during an attempted robbery in which she shoots the thief to death. The thief is enamored by Turner’s display of force with a gun and covets the murder weapon, going on a spree that involves Turner's parents, colleague, and best friend.

The soundtrack is by the American composer Brad Fiedel, who has done many excellent film scores, such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and The Accused with Jodie Foster (1998). This selection is from Terminator 2: “Desert Suite,” “Sarah on the Run,” and “Sarah’s Dream,” played by Linda Hamilton. In Top of the Lake, part 1, detective Robin Griffin is taken out of duty for assaulting a man who participated in a gang rape when she was 16. She investigates the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl who is pregnant. In part 2 she is the top detective who investigates the illegal sale of babies by surrogate mothers. In her past she has given away her daughter that she conceived in the gang rape from the first season. The story of the episodic Top of the Lake rests on a village with a history of child abduction and murder by a local bully with two sons and a town, including law enforcement, that supports his drug trafficking. On the outskirts of town is a plot of land illegally sold to a feminist collective of several women who come from failed relationships and sexual assault, led by transgender spiritual leader GJ (Holly Hunter).

In these two genres there is a transcendence of traditional gender roles. In the horror genre, the characters are women who defy the traditional role of motherhood while raising problematic children they have a hard time supporting. The crime gangster genre is populated by women as law enforcement officers or lead detectives who at the same time investigate crimes against women.

© 2025 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 10/04/25
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