Skip to Main Content

History of Horror: Women in Horror

A cultural history.

Women in Horror

Though some of the best writers in horror have been women--Mary Shelley, Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice--movies and television turned the genre into a male-centered medium. Again and again women in Horror have only been portrayed as victims and damsels-in-distress. But that has been changing since the 1970s. Women are reclaiming their rightful place as creators of Horror. Such television series as Julie Plec's The Originals and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich's The Witcher, novels like Anne Rice's Interview With a Vampire and Susan Hilll's The Woman in Black, and films with directors like Jennifer Kent and her The Babadook are affirming women's rightful place as a valuable asset to the genre. Their contributions are keeping the genre from becoming stale and unoriginal and making the growth of the audience possible. 

Women Writers of Horror

Some of these authors write in a variety of genres. But they have all written wonderful horror fiction.

  • V. C. Andrews
  • Octavia Butler
  • Angela Carter
  • Daphne du Maurier
  • Tananarive Due
  • Susan Hill
  • Shirley Jackson
  • Tanith Lee
  • Kelly Link
  • Joyce Carol Oates
  • Helen Oyeyemi
  • Anne Rice
  • Mary Shelley
  • Lisa Tuttle

Horror Fiction by Women

  • 1818. Novel: Frankenstein Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.
  • 1882. Story: "The New Mother" by Lucy Clifford.
  • 1938. Novel: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
  • 1962. Novel: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
  • 1976. Novel: Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice.
  • 1979. Novel: Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews.
  • 1979. Stories: he Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter.
  • 1983. Novel: The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill.
  • 1994. Stories: Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque by Joyce Caro Oates.
  • 2005. Novel: Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler.

Female-oriented Horror Films

  • Rebecca (1940): Supernatural horror.
  • The Bad Seed (1956): Psychological horror.
  • Wait Until Dark (1967) Sociopathic terror.
  • Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962): Psychological horror.
  • Lair of the White Worm (1988): Vampire horror.
  • The Craft (1996): witchcraft.
  • Audition (1999): Japanese horror.
  • Monster (2003): Serial killer film.
  • Black Swan (2010) Psychological horror.
  • The Babadook (2014)..Suburban horror.
  • Room (2015) Sociapathic terror

20 Powerful Women on the Dark Side

Morgan le Fay

Morgan le Fay, Arthurian sorceress.
Sandys, Frederick - Morgan le Fay Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Used under Creative Commons public domain CC0 image.

  • Kali, Hindu goddess.
  • Lillith, ancient Jewish demon.
  • Jezebel, ancient Phoenician princess and sorceress (II Kings 9:22).
  • Medusa, ancient Greek creature.
  • Medea, ancient Greeks sorceress.
  • Circe, ancient Greek sorceress.
  • The Queen of Hearts in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
  • Wicked Witch of the West, Wizard of Oz witch.
  • Poison Ivy, DC villain.
  • Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's Baby (1968) coven member.
  • Helena Markos in Suspiria (1977), ancient witch.
  • Annie Wilkes in Misery (1987).
  • Miss Eva (Eva Ernst) in The Witches (1990), The Grand High Witch of All the World.
  • Harley Quinn: DC villain.
  • Sil, an extraterrestrial in the film Species (1995).
  • Sarah Bailey in The Craft (1996).
  • Akasha (Queen of the Damned), the first vampire.
  • Bellatrix Lestrange (2003), Death Eater in the Harry Potter series.
  • Eleven in Stranger Things TV series (2016-?).

The Changing Role of Witches

  • Circa 750-700 BCE. Circe appears in The Odyssey.
  • Circa 305. The ecclesiastical Council of Elvira condemned witchcraft.
  • 1485. Morgan le Fay appears in Le Morte d'Arthur
  • 1487. Kramer & Sprenger's The Hammer of the Witches, most notorious of the witch-hunting manuals.
  • 1607. Shakespeare's Macbeth, the three witches predict Macbeth will be King.
  • 1692-1693. The Salem witch trials begin.
  • 18th century. Witches appear in Children's Chapbooks.
  • 1735. The English Witchcraft Act dismisses witchcraft and decreed practitioners as frauds.
  • 1860. George Eliot's Mill on the Floss defends women accused of witchcraft as innocent victims.
  • 1920s-1940s. Revival of interest in Wicca (witchcraft), paganism and the Druids.
  • 1939. Film: The Wizard of Oz.
  • 1942. Film: I Married a Witch: A witch breaks a centuries-old curse on a mortal.
  • 1943. Novel: Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife: Witchcraft continues to flourish. 
  • 1958. Film: Bell, Book & Candle: A witch loses her powers when she falls in love with a mortal.
  • 1964-1972. TV situation comedy: Bewitched.
  • 1968. The pro-feminist W.I.T.C.H. alliance was formed.
  • 1970s. Wicca heavily influenced by second-wave feminism. 
  • 1984. Novel: John Updike's pro-feminist The Witches of Eastwick.
  • 1985. Novel: Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman: Witches fight a family curse.
  • 1990. Novel: The Witching Hour by Anne Rice: The coven as family.
  • 1993. Film: Hocus Pocus, comedy.
  • 1995. Novel: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz.
  • 1995-2000. Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials.
  • 1996. Film: The Craft: What happens when witches abuse their powers.
  • 1997. Hermione Granger appears for the first time in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
  • 2002. Stage musical: Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire's novel, opens on Broadway.
  • 2011. Novel: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness blurs the witch and the vampire genres.
  • 2013. Film: Beautiful Creatures. A witch is freed from the dark side.
  • 2021. Novel: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. Witches as suffragists. 

Scream Queens

 

Janet Leigh in Psycho promotional photo

Promotional still of Janet Leigh from the 1960 film Psycho.
No copyright. Used under Creative Commons public domain CC0 image.

A scream queen is an attractive damsel in distress who screamed and screamed from fear. Some survived, some didn't. But all made an impression. Here are ten that elevated the role to make it essential to the horror movies they were in. 

  • Fay Wray in King Kong (1933)
  • Barbara Steele in Black Sunday (1960)
  • Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
  • Linda Blair in The Exorcist  (1973)
  • Marilyn Burns in Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
  • Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween (1978)
  • Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
  • Neve Campbell in Scream (1996)
  • Jane Levy in Evil Dead (2013)

Other Roles for Women in Horror Movies

  • The Caretaker: Annie Wilkes in Misery (1987).
  • The Final Girl, The virgin surviving at the end: Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978).
  • The Girl with Telekinetic Powers: Carrie in Carrie (1976).
  • The Gorgon: an evil grandmother-type like Minnie Castevet in Rosemary's Baby (1968).
  • The Hysterical: Eleanor in The Haunting (1963).
  • The Innocent: Regan in The Exorcist.(1971).
  • Madwoman in the Attic: Bertha Rochester in the novel, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847).
  • The Mother: Norma Bates in the tv series, Bates Motel (2013-2017).
  • The Sexually Active Victim: Marion Crane in Psycho (1960).
  • Woman in a Man's World: Dana Scully in The X-Files (1993-2002).
  • Woman Who Takes Her Power Back: Ripley in Alien (1979)

Additional References

Cardin, M. (2017). Horror literature through history an encyclopedia of the stories that speak to our deepest fears (Kindle) Greenwood.
Jones, D. (2021). Horror a very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
King, S. (2010). Danse macabre. Gallery. 
Luckhurst, R. (2018). The Astounding Illustrated History of Fantasy & Horror. Flame Tree Publishing.
Landis, J. (2016). Monsters in the movies: 100 Years of Cinematic nightmares. DK. 
Skal, D. J. (2020). Fright favourites: 31 movies to haunt your Halloween and beyond. Running Press. 
Turitz, N. and Zimmerman, B. (2020). Horror: An illustrated history of vampires, zombies, monsters & more. Centennial Books, an imprint of Centennial Media, LLC.