Friday the 13th:  5 Horror Flicks That Flip the Script

It’s Friday the 13th, and this ominous day only happens once, twice, or three times per year. If you plan to commemorate it by sitting down for some good ‘ole fashioned horror movies, but are tired of the inherently misogynistic pattern...A masked man, wielding a weapon, takes down the innocent, unsuspecting victims one-by-one, usually “bad” women or unruly teenagers who are punished for partying or being promiscuous...here are 5 horror flicks that flip that script.

5. Ginger Snaps

This 2001 Canadian film subverts the traditionally masculine werewolf genre and uses it as a metaphor for female sexuality and puberty. It demonstrates the powerful changes that occur during puberty by linking menstruation with lycanthropy, perfectly encapsulated with the film’s tagline: “They don’t call it the curse for nothing”.

4. Black Christmas

If you’re in the mood to watch some sorority girls kick the crap out of a bunch of sexist frat boys who take pleasure in date-rape, then this one’s for you.

3. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Despite what the title may suggest, this film is not about a helpless female victim who is murdered on her way home. It’s about a female vampire who specializes in eating terrible men.

2. Jennifer’s Body

Megan Fox plays a high-school cheerleader possessed by a demonic spirit that satiates her appetite with the flesh of her male classmates. When this film was initially released in 2009, it was slated by critics. Now we know it was just ahead of it’s time, and today it’s been resurrected as a feminist cult classic for tackling society’s issue of sexualizing and then demonizing women.

1. Halloween

Let the eternal words of Jamie Curtis, aka Laurie Strode, convince you to watch it: as she tweeted on open weekend in 2018. "Biggest horror movie opening with a female lead.“