The 10 Best Female-Directed Horror Movies According To Letterboxd

In 2021, Celia was introduced to a brand new audience when Ann Turner's criminally underseen Australian horror was curated as part of the All the Haunts Be Ours folk horror boxset. The coming-of-age, politically charged terror follows eight-year-old Celia (Rebecca Smart), a little girl growing up in Red Scare-era Melbourne, whose overactive imagination leads her to some strange and dark places.

With a 3.6 average rating on Letterboxd, Celia sits proudly among Australia's best in female-directed horror, alongside Jennifer Kent's The Babadook and Natalie Erika James' Relic.

Your Monster may not have seen a wide release yet, but it's already ranking as one of the greatest female-directed horror movies of all time, with a 3.7 average on Letterboxd. Starring Scream queen Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey (Casual, Wyrm), this Beauty and the Beast-esque tale tells the story of a soft-spoken actor who, after being dumped by a longtime boyfriend, meets a monster in her closet who encourages her to come out of her shell and follow her heart.

Based on Lindy's 2019 short of the same name, Your Monster has been a festival hit since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year. The horror-comedy-romance (what a combo!) is set for a wide release on October 25, just in time for Halloween.

Whilst not a traditional horror movie by any means, Jane Arden's The Other Side of the Underneath qualifies for a list like this due to how disturbing it is – both in front of and behind the camera. This experimental piece looks at the inside of women's (the lead played by Sheila Allen) mental health problems with unflinching and graphic honesty, a tragic reflection of Arden's real life issues that would eventually lead her to take her own life.

Offscreen, the “painfully intense” filming process saw the cast and crew indulge in frequent drug and alcohol use, making The Other Side of the Underneath a tough watch, but a worthy one for anyone interested in experimental cinema – as its 3.7 Letterboxd average surely proves.

With just two features under her belt, Raw and the similarly critically-acclaimed and Palme d'Or winning Titane, Julia Ducorneau is proving herself one of the most exciting filmmakers not just working in genre media, but overall. Her debut feature Raw, ranking on Letterboxd with a 3.7 average, follows college student and vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) as she comes to terms with a particularly unusual mental and sexual awakening.

Ducorneau's third feature, the mysterious, genre-bending Alpha, is currently in production and has been picked up by NEON for its North American release.

Ana Lily Armipour's A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is a hugely fresh take on the vampire tale, being described as “the first Iranian vampire Western”, a descriptor nobody could argue with. Sensual and hugely stylish, the monochromatic A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night follows the titular Girl (Sheila Vand) as she navigates her way through various human interactions in a lonely ghost town, including with a young man named Arash (Arash Marandi).

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night currently has a 3.8 average on Letterboxd.

If you're a British person of a certain age reading this, chances are that paranormal mockumentary Ghostwatch would've scared the living daylights out of you when it was aired live on BBC 1 on Halloween night, 1992. Written by Stephen Volk and directed by Lesley Manning, this faux documentary caused absolute chaos when it went out live from viewers who believed the supernatural going-ons were real. Sarah Greene, Craig Charles and British institution Michael “Parky” Parkinson all starred as themselves in this supposed investigation into a real-life haunting in London.

With a 3.8 average on Letterboxd, Ghostwatch has found a new lease of life with an entirely new generation of horror fans.

In this supremely underrated horror movie from Japanese director and photography Mika Ninagawa, self-obsessed supermodel Liliko (Erika Sawajiri) finds her career starting to slide when a younger, prettier star named Kozue (Kiko Mizuhara) hits the scene. Themes of ageism, body dysmorphia and the relentless pressures of stardom are all prevalent through this breathtakingly beautiful and disturbing movie – as a pioneer in Japan's ‘girly photo' movement, Ninagawa's eye for aesthetics and style is unmatched.

Helter Skelter is currently sitting pretty with a 3.8 average on Letterboxd (but should, in this humble writer's opinion, be much higher, so go check it out!)

Funnily (and perhaps unsurprisingly) enough, it took a woman to bring American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis' graphic and grisly tale of toxic masculinity under hyper-consumerism, to life in cinematic form. In one of his most iconic roles, Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman, a psychotic yuppie who works in murders and executio-err, sorry. Mergers and acquisitions.

Meme-ified to the brink of death yet still a wild ride on every rewatch, Mary Harron puts a feminist twist on the outrageously graphic novel, and fully depicts a world of late stage capitalism that feels real and fresh even today. American Psycho‘s 3.8 average ranking on Letterboxd proves its longevity.

While we've surely all dreamed of the power and seduction that comes from being a vampire, one does have to ask the question: just how would you ethically source your blood in today's socially conscious world? Ariane Louis-Seize's adorable horror-comedy Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person answers this question in full with the tale of teenage bloodsucker Sasha (Sara Montpetit), who, as much as her vamp family pressure her to, cannot bring herself to feed off an innocent human being. That is until she meets the suicidal Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard).

Humanist Vampire has racked up a number of awards during its festival run, including the Giornate degli Autori Director's Award at Venice Film Festival, and currently holds a 3.9 average star rating on Letterboxd.

Following her flipped-script rape revenge saga Revenge, Coralie Fargeat turned her directorial eye to more of the most damaging and destructive issues facing womankind as a whole – namely, ageism and unrealistic beauty standards. In The Substance, Demi Moore's Elisabeth, a faded and ‘ageing' Hollywood star, tries to regain her former glory by injecting herself with the titular green slime and unleashing a younger, hotter and more successful version of herself named Sue (Margaret Qualley). More than a liberal helping of Yuzna-nian madness in its bloody finale makes The Substance one of the most outrageous body horror movies of the modern age, and since winning Best Screenplay at Cannes, The Substance has had audiences rolling in the aisles with its blend of horror and humor.

If you're an avid Letterboxd user you've probably seen The Substance popping up all over your feed, no doubt with the 4/5 star ratings Fargeat's triumphant sophomore feature is racking up among film fans. With a hugely impressive 4.0 average rating, The Substance is officially Letterboxd's highest rated female-directed horror movie of all time. Congratulations, Elisasue!