There’s no shortage of women in horror — on screen or in theater seats, that is. “We know that women make up about half of the audience for horror films, and yet the female creative voice has been nearly silent in the horror genre,” says Greg Newman, an executive at the horror distributor Dark Sky.
Newman might be conveniently forgetting Kathryn Bigelow’s vampires-in-the-Southwest masterpiece Near Dark and Antonia Bird’s black-humored cannibalism tale Ravenous, but Dark Sky’s announcement that it is compiling a horror anthology called XX with only female directors and protagonists is certainly welcome.
The directors on board include Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena, Chained), Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol), Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Jennifer’s Body), sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska (Dead Hooker in a Trunk) and Jovanka Vuckovic (The Captured Bird).
The filmmakers will develop their own stories. The various segments will be linked by work by stop-motion animator Sofia Carrillo, who will also create the film’s title sequence.
