For as long as there have been horror movies, there have been incredible women working in the horror sphere. What would Creature from the Black Lagoon be without creature designer Milicent Patrick? How would Halloween have fared without producer and co-writer Debra Hill? Scream Queens of the silver screen are iconic, but there are women working behind the scenes that are just as iconic. And they deserve to be celebrated.
The 21st century has seen a particularly versatile influx of female directors making exquisite horror movies. Women are stepping behind the camera more than ever before, shaping horror movies that are complex, diverse, and deeply disturbing. Some of these directors are auteurs in their own right, just as worthy of the study and praise their male counterparts have been receiving since the dawn of cinema. As their careers blossom, we hope to write much more about these women, but for now, here are the iconic female directors making an impact in today’s horror landscape.
10
Nikyatu Jusu
Nikyatu Jusu wrote and directed her first short film, African Booty Scratcher, as a graduate student at NYU Tisch in 2007. It was later acquired by HBO. Jusu made three more shorts before writing and directing Suicide by Sunlight in 2019, a short film about a Black vampire. Suicide by Sunlight debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.
Someone to Watch
In 2022, Jusu made her feature film debut writing and directing Nanny. This horror movie, eventually distributed by Amazon Studios, stars Anna Diop (24: Legacy) as Aisha, an undocumented Senegalese woman working as a nanny in New York City. Her son is still in Senegal living with a cousin, but Aisha is saving up to bring him to the United States. Nanny won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and Jusu won the Someone to Watch Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and Director to Watch at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film is certified fresh with a 91% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Deadline announced last year that Jusu is currently developing a new project based on David Cronenberg’s The Fly.
9
Natalie Erika James
Natalie Erika James made her feature film debut with the horror movie Relic, which she also penned the screenplay for with Christian White (Clickbait). Robyn Nevin, Emily Mortimer, and Bella Heathcote star as three generations of women who find their family home haunted as the matriarch’s dementia gets worse. James, Mortimer, and Nevin all earned Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations for the film.
Building on Classic Lore
James’s next feature was a bold prequel to Rosemary’s Baby called Apartment 7A, about a New York City dancer who moves into the apartment at the Bramfordthat would go on to be occupied by Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse. In addition to directing the movie, James also wrote the screenplay with Christian White and Skylar James. Julia Garner (Inventing Anna) stars as the dancer, Terry Gionoffrio, while Dianne Wiest (Life in Pieces) plays her snooping neighbor, Minnie Castevet. The film was nominated for Best Television Presentation at the Saturn Awards and Excellence in Production Design by the Art Directors Guild. Next, James is writing and directing Saccharine — an Australian horror movie about a medical student tormented by a hungry ghost after consuming human ashes as part of a weight-loss scheme.
8
Veronika Franz
Veronika Franz is one half of the Austrian filmmaking team that consists of Franz and her nephew, Severin Fiala. They are best known for writing and directing the 2014 horror movie Goodnight Mommy, which is about two brothers who move into a new house with their mother after she undergoes a cosmetic surgery that has left her face covered in bandages. Susanne Wuest (Sound of Falling) stars as the mother, with Elias Schwarz and Lukas Schwarz playing her sons. Goodnight Mommy won Best Inernational Film at the Saturn Awards and Best Foreign-Lamguage Film at the Chainsaw Awards.
Folk Horror and the Female Experience
Next, Franz and Fiala directed a segment called “The Sinful Women of Hollfall” in the horror anthology The Field Guide to Evil. In 2019, they directed The Lodge, a folk horror film about a family holiday gone wrong. Their most recent collaboration was The Devil’s Bath, set in an 18th century village where a young woman is struggling to feel at home in her husband’s world. This movie was nominated for 11 Austrian Film Awards and won eight of them, including Best Feature Film. It is certified fresh with a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
7
Jennifer Kent
Jennifer Kent is an Australian filmmaker who got her start in acting before choosing to pursue a career as a director. In 2005, she directed a short film called Monster. This would serve as the basis for her feature film debut, The Babadook. The feature was nominated for nine Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, winning in three categories including Best Screenplay. It received four Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations, winning all of them, including Best Screenplay and Best Limited Release Film. The Babadook remains one of the most well-known horror movies of the 21st century, topping multiple “best of” lists. It is certified fresh with a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Vengence in the Wilderness
In 2018, Kent wrote and directed The Nightingale. Set in 1825, the film follows a young woman named Clare (Aisling Franciosi) in her quest for vengeance across the Tasmanian wilderness. Kent won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival for this movie. It earned 10 Film Critics Circle of Australia Award nominations with wins for Best Actress for Aisling Franciosi and Best Film. Rumor has it that Kent is currently developing The Thief Of Always, based on the 1992 dark fantasy novel written by Clive Barker, for the screen.
6
Leigh Janiak
Though best known today for the Fear Street trilogy, Leigh Janiak’s feature film debut was the deeply unnerving supernatural horror movie Honeymoon, starring Rose Leslie (The Good Fight) and Harry Treadaway (Penny Dreadful). Janiak wrote the screenplay with Phil Graziadei (Fear Street) about newlyweds who experience strange new horrors while honeymoning at a secluded lakehouse. This eerie, heartbreaking debut was nominated for the Midnighters Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival.
The Killer Trilogy
After Honeymoon, Janiak wrote and directed all three Fear Street movies for Netflix. Loosely based on the book series by R. L. Stine, the movies stretch across 1994, 1978, and 1666 to tell the story of a cursed town. The three films fit together seemlessly, with details woven across all three that make for an incredibly cohesive trilogy. Janiak won Best Director at the BloodGuts UK Horror Awards for Fear Street: Part One – 1994. Janiak and Graziadei recieved a Bram Stoker Award nomination for writing the 1994 screenplay.
5
Julia Ducournau
Julia Ducournau is a French filmmaker who ups the ante with each new project. She made her feature film debut in 2016, writing and directing Raw, a coming-of-age body horror movie that stars Garance Marillier (Marinette) as a vegetarian veterinary student who begins to have increasingly alarming cravings for human flesh. Raw won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, with nominations for Critics Week Grand Prize, the Golden Camera, and the Queer Palm. The film earned six César Award nominations and won the Sutherland Award for First Feature at the London Film Festival.
Body Horror That Goes Hard
If you think a movie about cannibalism is intense, Ducournau’s next project turned into one of the most unique body horror films of the century. Titane stars Agathe Rousselle (How to Make Gravy) as a woman whose erotic encounter with an automobile sets off a series of unbelievable events. Ducournau won the Palme d’Or and was nominated for the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for Titane. The film received four César Award nominations and won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival.
This year, Ducournau wrote and directed her third feature film. Alpha stars Mélissa Boros (Le silence de Sibel) in the title role as a teen whose single mother worries that she has developed a new bloodborne disease that turns the human body to marble. The movie hasn’t been out long, but it has already earned two Cannes Film Festival nominations and won the Audience Award at the Biografilm Festival.
4
Ana Lily Amirpour
Ana Lily Amirpour is best known for making her feature film debut by writing and directing “the first Iranian vampire western.” Based on Amirpour’s own 2011 short film of the same name, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a Fasrsi-language American horror western shot entirely in black and white. Sheila Vand (The Rental) stars as a lonely vampire who befriends a young Iranian man named Arash (Arash Marandi). A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is certified fresh with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Amipour won the 2014 Winner Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation at the Catalonian International Film Festival and the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award at the Gotham Awards.
Working With Kate Hudson and Natasha Lyonne
Amipour followed her incredible debut with the dystopian thriller The Bad Batch in 2016 and the fantasy thriller Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon in 2022. The latter, which stars Jun Jong-seo (Burning) and Kate Hudson (Glass Onion), won three awards at the Venice Film Festival. Earlier this year, Deadline announced that Amirpour would direct an adaptation of DC’s dark comedic comic Basketful of Heads, with Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face) attached to star in it.
3
Coralie Fargeat
Coralie Fargeat is a French filmmaker who made her feature film debut writing and directing Revenge in 2017. Matilda Lutz (Magpie) stars in this action thriller as Jen, a woman who goes to a remote luxury vacation home in the desert with her married boyfriend and his friends only to realize that she is not safe with these men. Revenge is certified fresh with a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It did well across the film festival circuit, winning two CinEuphoria Awards and Best Narrative Feature at the Calgary Underground Film Festival. Fargeat followed up Revenge with The Substance, which became a breakout hit in 2024.
Horror at the Oscars
The Substance is a body horror nightmare starring Demi Moore (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) as a celebrity who takes a black-market drug that creates a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), so she can remain young and relevant. The Substance was quickly met with critical acclaim, especially for Moore’s performance and the body horror elements. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, making it the seventh horror movie in history to ever be nominated for Best Picture and Fargeat the tenth woman to ever be nominated for Best Achievement in Directing. The Substance won in the Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling category. It also won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival and Best Performance by a Female Actor for Demi Moore at the Golden Globes. Fargeat has yet to announce her next project.
2
Nia DaCosta
Nia DaCosta made her feature film debut in 2018 writing and directing the crime drama Little Woods, which stars Tessa Thompson (Hedda) and Lily James (The Pursuit of Love) as estranged sisters who have one week to pay back the mortgage on their late mother’s home. Little Woods won Best Narrative Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Actress for Tessa Thompson at the Fargo Film Festival. It is certified fresh with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Next, DaCosta directed Candyman in 2021 with a screenplay she wrote with Jordan Peele (Get Out) and his frequent collaborator, Win Rosenfeld. Candyman firmly established DaCosta as an indelible horror auteur. As the fourth installment in the Candyman film series, Dacosta’s Candyman is an exceptional addition. DaCosta was named a Director to Watch at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for her work. Candyman scored three Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, with a win for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Us) in the Best Lead Performance category.
Sequels and Adaptations
Next, DaCosta directed the superhero movie The Marvels for Marvel Studios. This made her the first Black woman to ever direct a Marvel movie. She currently has two films in the works. The first is a drama based on Henrik Ibse’s 1891 play Hedda Gabler. DaCosta wrote and directed Hedda, which stars Tessa Thompson. It’s set to be released in October 2025. DaCosta is also directing 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the fourth installment in the post-apocalyptic 28 Days Later film series that comesout in 2026. The screenplay was penned by Alex Garland, who wrote the screenplay for the original 28 Days Later movie in 2002.
It is impressive and heartening to see such a talented female director helming big studio projects like Candyman and 28 Years Later. “I’ve been very lucky and I’ve worked really hard, and I’m really happy that I’ve had the experiences that I’ve had. Well … the good ones at least,” DaCosta told The Guardian about being a Black female filmmaker. “At the same time, as well as I’m doing, this should be happening for more people who are like me.”
1
Karyn Kusama
Karyn Kusama might just have more directing credits to her name than anyone else on this list. She made her feature film debut writing and directing Girlfight in 2000. The sports drama, which stars Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious), won the Foreign Film Award of the Youth at the Cannes Film Festival. It also won Kusama the Open Palm Award at the Gotham Awards. Rodriguez won a Gotham Award and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. Kusama followed up Girlfight with Æon Flux in 2005 before directing the cult classic Jennifer’s Body in 2009. Diablo Cody (Lisa Frankenstein) wrote the screenplay for Jennifer’s Body, with Megan Fox (Night Teeth) and Amanda Seyfried (Things Heard & Seen) starring.
‘Jennifer’s Body’ & Beyond
Jennifer’s Body didn’t get great reviews when it first came out, but has been revisited over the years by scholars and horror fans as a favorite. In 2015, Kusama directed another modern classic, The Invitation. This chilling and tense drama stars Logan Marshall-Green (Upgrade) as a man who attends his ex-wife’s dinner party only to revisit past trauma as new tension builds. The Invitation did well in the horror community from the very beginning. It won Best Motion Picture at the Catalonian International Film Festival and Best Screenplay for Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. Kusama won the International Critic’s Award at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival.
Kusama went on to direct episodes of celebrated television shows, including The Man in the High Castle, Billions, Halt and Catch Fire, In Treatment, Dead Ringers, and Yellowjackets. She teamed up with the writers of The Invitation again in 2018 to make the crime drama Destroyer, starring Nicole Kidman (Lioness).
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