You know what ladies? Its time for us to watch some fucked up shit together.
Snake Plissken, Ray Cameron, Oh Dae-su, Jerry Dandrige every man has an iconic cinematic character that they look up to, if only because the leather-studded legend knows how to shoot his way out of a room. But men aren’t the only ones that can acquire a list of films to screen when it’s time to gather the gang for a night of action and debauchery. For every grimy, gun-toting, wife-beater-wearing muscle man in genre movies, there’s a warrior woman caked in blood, pickaxe in hand, ready to take on the next challenger. For every sharp-dressed man calmly discussing lethal plans inside of a hotel lobby, there’s a stiletto-wearing vixen sporting a smile that will buy her any drink in the house, and any man who buys it.
So when it comes time for girls’ night in, there’s a long list of kickass female characters that make their presence known through revenge, deception, and sexually driven diversion tactics. Just like a guy aspires to one day be as cool as Ashley J. Williams, these women give us a goal to achieve; a state of mind we wish to acquire, and an ego that we can respect and idolize. We look up to these women, because they’ve grown tired of the system, sick of the status quo, fed up with the glass ceiling, and done with double standards. Many of them have hit rock bottom, and like a phoenix, they rise from the ashes and fly freely like gods in the sky, born again with an innate strength and power that we try to emulate in our daily lives. Even if their actions are questionable and sometimes downright horrifying, the mantra behind their work is fascinating, and their films make great material for a girls’ night in with your favorite gore-loving gal pals.
Read on to see which titles should make your picks for youre a marathon; then call up your girlfriends, pop some popcorn, and let the bloodbath begin.
Girls' Night In
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Girls' Night In #1
Double Indemnity (1944, Dir. Billy Wilder)
It may seem like men have always dominated the film world, but back in the ‘40s, Barbara Stanwyck was turning heads and breaking hearts with performance like Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity. Phyllis is gorgeous and she knows it, but if the world wants to treat her like a piece of meat, then she'll play the fool and return the favor. That's why when insurance agent Walter Neff walked into her home and stared at Phyllis like she was a pair of stems with a mouth attached, she pounced on the opportunity, and took advantage of his affections. Wooing him and playing coy, Phyllis throws out her hook and reels in Walter with ease. She's done this dance a million times, and by the time she's done with this one, she'll have Walter murdering her husband and helping her collect the insurance policy. Like a wounded animal, Walter can see Phyllis closing in for the kill, and there's nothing he can do but wait to be devoured. A cold, heartless criminal who keeps her priorities straight and her emotions in check, Phyllis is the coolest chick to ever exchange information in a grocery aisle. A night at home watching movies with the girls wouldn't have the same ambience without her character's sly presence.
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Girls' Night In #2
Fatal Attraction (1987, Dir. Adrian Lyne)
Alex Forrest is not a woman that you use and discard like yesterday's newspaper. She is wild and impulsive, and everything Dan is missing from his marriage. Dan takes Alex up on her offer to go on a secretive date while his wife is out of town, and at first, it seems like a great decision. Her golden blonde hair bounces playfully as she dances to samba, and for a moment, it's like Dan chose a different, less complicated life. He revels in his newfound freedom, and laps up every moment gleefully, until the second his wife gets back in town. Now, it's back to stoic lawyer family man Dan, who doesn't return Alex's calls, and acts as if she never existed. But Alex isn't one to give up on love so easily. Her overwhelming, self-destructive crazed behavior has her convinced that the pain she feels must be love’s unrequited sting, and she won't be healed until she has Dan all to herself. If he won't come willingly, then Alex is just going to have to take drastic measures to persuade him. Fatal Attraction might have come out in 1987, but its fierce, intoxicating portrait of a woman who doesn't buy the 'I love you but I have to leave' line feels just as invigorating and satisfying now as it did then. Glenn Close gives a wickedly unhinged performance as the other woman gone mad with jealousy. Her influence has rippled through the decades, as revenge thrillers through the years pay homage to the glory that is Alex Forrest. After all, what better movie to mimic than one that never gets old? And what better movie to add to your girls’ night in marathon?
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Girls' Night In #3
Basic Instinct (1992, Dir. Paul Verhoeven)
An independently wealthy successful author, Catherine Trammell doesn't cower to men, or anyone else who tries to outshine her. A man in her town was recently stabbed to death immediately following a sexual escapade, but Catherine won't let the desperate busybodies at the police station pin a murder on her that she didn't commit, just because of her provocative reputation. She sleeps with men and kicks them out the door, just like a man would do, but for some reason when the player prefers heels to loafers, it's cause for suspicion. Catherine won't become a pawn in their games. They can question her, judge her, and jump to conclusions, but Catherine's confident gaze never falters. She stares down the officers that question her and laugh like they're all old buddies out for a drink, pursing her pouty lips sharply around her cigarette and making the boys sweat with her short dress. She has them in the palm of her hand, and they're helpless to her charm. She'll eat them alive.
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Girls' Night In #4
Audition (1999, Dir. Takashi Miike)
Audition is the perfect date night movie to watch with your girlfriends, because for a good chunk the film is just that: a romance. A man is holding auditions for his next wife under the pretense of a film role. After he meets sweet little Asami, he's done playing games, and is ready to settle down. Asami seems smitten with her new man as well, and for a time, it seems that this creep is actually going to get away with luring in desirable women with lies and empty promises of stardom and fame. However, just when it seems that these two lovebirds are completely compatible and destined to fill the voids in one another's life, Asami opens up and exposes the patient psychopath lurking beneath her perfect smile. If more movies held themselves to Takashi Miike's standard of greatness, all rom-coms would end this way.
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Girls' Night In #5
Ginger Snaps (2000, Dir. John Fawcett)
Ginger's going through changes, and the kids at Bailey Downs High are starting to notice. As she begins to bleed, she sets out a pheromone that attracts more than just the teenage dogs at her school. Ginger's bitten by a werewolf, and from that point on, her transition into womanhood is paralleled with her transformation into a feral killer, crushing boys physically and emotionally. She may be growing more feminine, but she will not bow down and become the fantasy that all of her suitors are expecting. She didn't act in accordance to labels before, and she's not about to submit to some guy who thinks that he knows more about reproductive organs than she does just because he's had experience with the opposite sex. She is woman, and she will roar, and scratch, and tear apart any man who tries to be forceful with her -- or just any man, period.
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Girls' Night In #6
The Descent (2005, Dir. Neil Marshall)
If Sarah had it her way, she would just immerse herself in grief over her dead husband and hide out, away from the sunshine, and the happiness of the world that refuses to stop turning. However, her concerned friends have other plans. They have arranged a spelunking expedition into a deep cave, where they hope to restore Sarah back to health with a trying journey through the cave that will ultimately lead to feelings of accomplishment and hopefully, progress when the women all exit the cavern together. Just when it seems that this team bonding is exactly the activity that Sarah needed, the group gets lost in the vast black, and hellish figures start to take advantage of the panic and attack the girls in the cover of darkness. It soon becomes clear that the only way out is through, and the deeper Sarah physically dives into the marrow of the earth, the deeper she plunges into primordial madness. It's not very often that you see an entire cast of female characters, especially in genre movies, and it's such a joy to watch this ferocious film spread its bloody wings and push its way through the muck of stereotypical horror tropes, and into fresh, promising territory.
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Girls' Night In #7
Hard Candy (2005, Dir. David Slade)
When Hayley Stark sniffs out child predator Jeff Kholver, she's not just torturing him for preying on her, she's acting on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of women that have been wronged throughout the ages. Men have treated women like property since the dawn of time, and some men, like Jeff, think that that kind of mantra is still acceptable in today's world, especially if the victim is young and gullible and too inexperienced to understand the traumatic experience that's about to change her entire life. For all of the women that were attacked by scoundrels, and all of the children shoved into adulthood by evil men, Hayley is here to enforce retroactive punishment for the misdeeds of all misogynistic madmen. It's been a long time coming, and she has a lot to make up for. Hard Candy is a fascinating psychological thriller that inventively explores the depths of morality and the price of playing god. Ellen Page is terrific as Hayley, earning her place in the hearts of female horror fans with ease and surgical precision.
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Girls' Night In #8
Death Proof (2007, Dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Women run around their whole lives feeling afraid, planning their schedules and carefully tracking their way to their cars at night with caution and care, just so they don't happen to anger the wrong guy and start a fight that they never even wanted. If they dare enter a bar looking pretty, they better be ready to respond to the onslaught of male attention with patient acceptance and polite submission. Women are always treated as if they owe men for just existing in such an attractive shell, and some of these women, like the tough, trash-talking, foxy ladies in Tarantino's Death Proof have had enough. If men want to hunt and harass them, then they will return the favor three-fold, and chase and torment their hunter until he chokes on his last breath. Tarantino declares death to all stereotypical female roles with this thrilling homage to films of the 1970s, set in 2007, with some of cinema's most ferocious stunt women, like Zoe Bell and Monica Staggs. The almost entirely female car chase is reason enough to add Death Proof to your queue for a girls' night in, but the smooth, sassy, cocky characters are worth the ride in and of themselves.
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Girls' Night In #9
Teeth (2007, Dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein)
Cursed with the burden of being born in a small town, the most Dawn has ever really known about sex is abstinence only. It's not until a love interest forces himself on her that Dawn even becomes aware of the power that is hiding between her legs. It's called "vagina dentata" and it means that the nuclear power plant that resides near Dawn's home has already started to have a startling effect on its townspeople. As a growing young girl, Dawn has started to attract male suitors, many of whom pose a threat to her innocent existence. As her body changes and matures, Dawn finds strength in her womanhood, and enlists the aid of her new weapon to help her sift through the scum, and maybe, one day, find a hero in a sea of two-headed boys.
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Girls' Night In #10
Jennifer’s Body (2009, Dir. Karyn Kusama)
Jennifer’s Body plays as if Ginger Snaps is Diablo Cody's favorite movie. Ginger may not be a succubus, but the whole 'using your newfound supernatural powers to help you wipe out the male population' idea rings clear in both films, which is why they would be perfect as a double feature. Whereas Ginger is propelled into womanhood by her new powers, Jennifer has been in touch with her feminine side for as long as any of the boys at her high school can remember. Head of the cheerleading team and acing the local popularity contest, Jennifer is a force to be reckoned with before she ever tastes a single drop of blood. Watching her grow stronger when she's brought back from the dead as a succubus is downright just a fun, bloody ride. Jennifer's best friend Needy is the only thing keeping her somewhat grounded, but it's not long before Jennifer has you rooting for her as she punishes every boy in school for thinking they had a chance with such a vicious, beautiful, evil queen.
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Girls' Night In #11
The Loved Ones (2009, Dir. Sean Byrne)
An impish, geeky girl at school likes a boy who's too cool to realize that they're meant to be together, so she'll just have to prove with her quirky ways and gentle persistence that she's worth his admiration. We've all seen this story before, and we all know how it ends, with the boy falling madly in love with the mousy girl, hand picking her out of a sea of willing participants. But this is no John Hughes movie. Lola is not Molly Ringwald, and when Brent dismisses her invitation to the prom, he furthers her obsession. Her fixation turns to addiction, and now, she won't be satisfied until Brent is tied to a chair in her house with his party hat on. Robin McLeavy is a thunderous force of nature as Lola, the daddy's girl who was never told "no", gone mad with power. She is the nightmare, the hyperbole of a spoiled child who's all grown up and gone from torturing dolls with her tiny fists to tormenting boys with hammers. She is the sinful, self-fulfilling fantasy for every girl who was ever turned down to a dance. She is the wrath of every broken heart, wrapped up neatly in a pretty pink dress. The Loved Ones is the perfect addition to a night in with your fellow female gorehounds.
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Girls' Night In #12
American Mary (2012, Dir. Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska)
Mary Mason is one of the most promising young surgeons in her class, but a sudden unexpected tragedy steers her down a darker path into the black market. Inserting fake horns into a human scalp, removing limbs and re-attaching them, molding a person's body to resemble a Barbie doll: these are just a few examples of body mortification, and Mary can make more money on these illegal operations than she ever could have as a law-abiding doctor. Mary loves to play god, but the closer she gets to divinity, the farther she falls into self-destructive insanity. Each operation takes her a little farther away from the crowd, while her tainted soul delights in the blood and bare bones of her craft. Absurdly confident, heels to the sky, and a mask of sanity that slips a little farther off of her perfectly painted face with every social interaction, Mary Mason is the female embodiment of Patrick Bateman that girls have been longing for. Like a swan gliding gracefully over the top, while their hidden feet kick feverishly below the surface, American Mary exhibits how women wear makeup as war paint, cleverly ridding any trace of emotion from our faces in order to stay ahead and appear strong and emotionless in a male-driven world. In her own twisted way, Mary is as inspirational as the twin team behind the movie itself.
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Girls' Night In #13
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014, Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour)
An Iranian, spaghetti western, vampire noir horror film, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is the genre-bending, fiercely confident answer to our prayers that we never even knew we needed. Sheila Vand is "the girl," a nameless drifter who only emerges from the shadows long enough to dole out punishment for the sinister men of Bad City. With her superhero cape and her new slick deck, the girl flies down empty streets in search of wrongdoers and miscreants; a dark avenger on a lonely path of revenge and wrath. She is the strength that all women possess, but not all women discover. She is the monster who has been tainted and is forever doomed to walk the earth an outsider, hell-bent on using her damnation for good. She takes out the men that the law can't touch. She is our wicked John Wayne, and no horror movie marathon would be complete without her charming, daunting performance.
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Girls' Night In #14
Gone Girl (2014, Dir. David Fincher)
Ben Dunne never met the real Amy until the day he became a suspect in her murder case. Ever since he put sugar on those lips and kissed her sweetly in a back alley during an early New York sunrise, Amy has been pretending. Amy laughs at Ben's jokes, she's always in the mood to make love, she relishes the cheap beer he buys, and she forgives him when he forgets their dinner dates. She's the "cool girl,” and is therefore the personification of the male fantasy—easy going, gluttonous but frail, beautiful but humble. It seems that her plastic, Stepford wife routine goes swimmingly, until she witnesses the man for whom she had abandoned her dignity spreading sugar on someone else's lips, and kissing her in the cold of night. Someone younger, with softer skin, and less worries. Nick took Amy's money, he took her away from her hometown, and he took her trust and confidence and sacrificed them in the name of his mid-life crisis. If he were to go to prison for her murder, perhaps, in Amy's eyes, it would be justifiable, even if it were not he who committed the crime. After stealing so much of her soul, Ben murdered Amy long before her body ever went missing. He chipped away at her heart until it was only a black stone, and for that, he should pay. Gone Girl is one of the most horrifying, but strangely empowering films to come along in some time. Anyone can appreciate this slick, sadistic look at the downfall of a once happy marriage, but it really feels like David Fincher made this movie for women. No late night movie watching party with your horror-loving girlfriends should be without it.
