Summary
- Teen girl horror films like Ginger Snaps challenge patriarchal norms with female-centered storytelling.
- Teeth takes on purity culture through a unique body horror lens, exploring themes of female empowerment.
- Raw offers a feminist perspective on coming-of-age through the lens of cannibalism and suppressed desires.
Teen girls are the unsung heroes of horror cinema. Long cast as slasher bait and revenge-seeking victims, their bodies are all too often reduced to bloody spectacles, with little attention paid to their inner lives, making it easier to dismiss their roles as purely exploitative and one-dimensional.
15 Terrifying Horror Movies With Female Villains
These spine-chillingly scary movies cover a wide range of themes and genres and feature some of the best female villains in the history of horror.
Films like Ginger Snaps and Raw break this tradition, reframing the horror around distinctly feminine fears and experiences in a world where patriarchy is the true villain. These movies provide a refreshing take on the genre and an insight into the terrors of coming-of-age through the lens of femininity. The following are the best women-led horror films that explore the messy reality of girlhood.
10 The Craft
A 90s Teen Horror About The Occult, Outcasts, And Girl Power
The Craft
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- May 3, 1996
- Runtime
- 101 minutes
- Director
- Andrew Fleming
- Cast
- Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, Skeet Ulrich, Christine Taylor, Breckin Meyer, Nathaniel Marston, Cliff DeYoung, Assumpta Serna, Helen Shaver, Jeanine Jackson, Brenda Strong, Elizabeth Guber, Jennifer Greenhut, Arthur Senzy, Endre Hules, Mark Conlon, Christine Louise Mills, William Newman, Erin Tavin, Rod Britt, Brogan Roche, Rebecca McLaughlin, Tony Genaro
An essential entry into the '90s teen movie canon, The Craft kick-started a trend of movies and TV series centered around teen witchcraft. Set in a Catholic school, it follows the arrival of a troubled new student who joins a coven of magical misfits and triggers their powerful awakening.
We are the weirdos, mister.
In this witchy cult classic, teenage insecurities and sisterly connections converge into a supernatural, gothic portrait of teenage girl rage and rebellion. While its dated elements, especially in the third act, undermine its feminist potential, the moments leading up to the finale perfectly encapsulate the otherness of growing up as a girl.
9 It Follows
A Haunting Allegory Of Teenage Anxiety And Coming-Of-Age
It Follows
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- March 27, 2015
- Runtime
- 101 minutes
- Director
- David Robert Mitchell
- Cast
- Keir Gilchrist, Maika Monroe, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe, Bailey Spry, Carollette Phillips, Loren Bass, Charles Gertner, Debbie Williams, Ruby Harris, Leisa Pulido, D.J. Oliver, Linda Boston, Ingrid Mortimer, Kourtney Bell, Alexyss Spradlin, Mike Lanier, Claire Sloma, Scott Norman, Erin Stone, Joanna Bronson, Don Hails, Ele Bardha
David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows is an arthouse horror film with a remarkably unique premise: an inescapable curse passed on through sex. After a seemingly ordinary sexual encounter, college student Jay finds herself stalked by a shape-shifting entity that only she can see.
Beneath the pastel-colored, slow-burn horror is a story rooted in teenage fears regarding sex, loss of innocence, and the end of youth. With its synth-heavy score and sleepy suburban visuals, It Follows creates a disorienting, hard-to-place world that blends '70s, '80s, and modern aesthetics, suggesting the horrors of growing up are as inescapable as they are timeless.
8 Lisa Frankenstein
The Classic Monster Story Reborn As 80s Bubble Gum Horror
Lisa Frankenstein
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- February 9, 2024
- Runtime
- 101 Minutes
- Director
- Zelda Williams
- Cast
- Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, Carla Gugino
An absurdist, adolescent spin on the classic horror novel, Lisa Frankenstein has cult classic written all over it. Dubbed a 'coming of rage,' it depicts the self-discovery of a teen girl who spends too much time in a cemetery and, one night, resurrects a corpse, gradually shaping him into the perfect boyfriend.
8 Scariest Frankenstein Movies
The story of Frankenstein has haunted audiences for two centuries, and these screen adaptations prove the timeless nature of its horror.
Mary Shelley penned Frankenstein as a teenager, so it's fitting that Lisa Frankenstein returns the iconic reanimation story to the control of a young woman. In this version, Lisa isn’t a scientist; she’s a lovesick seamstress, stitching together her undead dream boy with the tools tied to girlhood, from a sewing needle to a faulty tanning bed. Written by Diablo Cody, of Jennifer's Body fame, the film channels teen angst, rage, and grief into an unapologetically girly and grotesque horror rom-com.
7 Gretel & Hansel
A Bewitching Feminist Folk Horror Film
Gretel & Hansel
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- January 30, 2020
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Sophia Lillis, Alice Krige, Jessica De Gouw, Charles Babalola, Samuel Leakey, Ian Kenny
- Runtime
- 87 minutes
- Director
- Oz Perkins
Directed by Osgood Perkins, Gretel & Hansel reimagines the familiar Brothers Grimm fairy tale with Gretel's coming-of-age story at the forefront. The film's inverted title signals this shift, flipping the narrative on its head to one that centers on girlhood, autonomy, and awakening power.
He'll soon come to fear you, as all men should if they're smart. And fear so easily turns to hatred.
The film follows sixteen-year-old Gretel, who is thrust into the role of caretaker after she and her younger brother flee their parents in search of food and safety. Their descent into the woods marks Gretel's first steps into womanhood and into her growing power, as they encounter a reclusive witch with whom Gretel forms a strange bond. Framed by dreamlike cinematography and laced with feminist dialogue, Gretel & Hansel is a slow-burning, horrifying tale about feminine agency and the patriarchal culture that fears and suppresses it.
6 Teeth
A Comedic Body Horror That Takes A Bite Out Of Purity Culture
Teeth
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- January 18, 2008
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, Lenny von Dohlen, Vivienne Benesch, Ashley Springer, Laila Liliana Garro
- Runtime
- 94 Minutes
- Director
- Mitchell Lichtenstein
Deserving of the second life that Jennifer's Body eventually received, Teeth is a criminally overlooked coming-of-age horror story. Plagued by its taboo premise, it was quickly dismissed as shock cinema rather than recognized for the sharp satire of purity culture it is . The film follows Dawn, a teenage abstinence advocate who, after a non-consensual sexual encounter, learns that she has vagina dentata, aka a 'toothed vagina.'
Dawn must then learn to navigate life with her unique anatomy as she is repeatedly taken advantage of. Unfolding like an offbeat, darkly comedic revenge movie peppered with gorey castration scenes, Teeth unpacks sexual trauma, male entitlement, and the repression of female sexuality.
5 Raw
A Feminist Cannibal Coming-Of-Age
Raw
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- March 15, 2017
- Runtime
- 99 Minutes
- Director
- Julia Ducournau
- Cast
- Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas, Joana Preiss
Prioritizing emotional rather than objective realism, Julia Duocurnau's Raw depicts a teenage girl's coming-of-age through the language of body horror. The French film tells the story of Justine, a lifelong vegetarian newly enrolled in a veterinary school attended by her older sister, who shares her newfound desire for human flesh.
The film draws clear parallels between Justine's appetite and her sexual awakening, both of which emerge as an expression of her suppressed desires. The film is bursting with hard-to-watch, nauseating gore and packed with feminist subversion, as cannibalism comes to be a horrific stand-in for the nightmare of growing up in a world hostile to feminine autonomy.
4 The Witch
A Horrific Folktale Of Feminine Sexuality And Witchcraft
The Witch
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- February 19, 2016
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Julian Richings, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens, Daniel Malik, Axtun Henry Dube, Athan Conrad Dube, Vivien Moore, Karen Kaeja, Brandy Leary, R. Hope Terry, Carrie Eklund, Madlen Sopadzhiyan, Paul Kenworthy, Mark Millmna, Andy Volpe, Phillip Wynne, Annawon Weeden, michael o'hare, Chris Messier
- Runtime
- 92 minutes
- Director
- Robert Eggers
The Witch follows Thomasin, a teenage girl in seventeenth-century New England who is blamed for her family's misfortunes after they are banished to the wilderness and are soon overcome by paranoia and dark forces, namely that of the titular witch.
10 Scariest Witch Movies
The following films all involve witches and are great choices for spooky or downright terrifying Halloween viewing.
With its foreboding and discordant score, Robert Eggers' feature-length debut transforms the anxieties of a teenage girl amid religious repression into a dread-filled folk horror nightmare. Thomasin's family objectifies, mystifies, and demonizes her budding womanhood, equating it with an evil that she eventually embraces as a means of escape. The Witch explores the perceived sin of feminine independence in a patriarchal world, where the horror is simply being a teenage girl.
3 Carrie
A Tragic Tale Of Blood And Bullies
Carrie
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- November 3, 1976
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, William Katt, John Travolta, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, P.J. Soles, Priscilla Pointer, Sydney Lassick, Stefan Gierasch, Michael Talbott, Doug Cox, Harry Gold, Noelle North, Cindy Daly, Deirdre Berthrong, Anson Downes, Rory Stevens, Edie McClurg, Cameron De Palma, Sharon Benson, Terry Bolo, Jean Glaudé, Katie Irving
- Runtime
- 98 minutes
- Director
- Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma's Carrie is the film that first established girlhood as a horror movie. It follows the titular Carrie White, a lonely teenager who experiences the nightmarish arrival of her first period in a high school locker room.
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Often considered one of the masters of the horror genre, Stephen King's filmography spans decades.
The traumatic moment triggers a slow-burning storm of pent-up telekinetic rage, fueled by years of bullying and the oppressive control of her fanatically religious mother. The pressure eventually builds to a fiery and bloody climax of paranormal payback at prom. Sissy Spacek’s haunting performance as Carrie captures the fragile terror of girlhood and her now-iconic prom night bloodbath is burned into horror history.
2 Jennifer's Body
A Satirical Horror About Boy-Eating Teenage Girls
Jennifer's Body
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- September 18, 2009
- Runtime
- 107 minutes
- Director
- Karyn Kusama
- Cast
- Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, Sal Cortez, Ryan Levine, Juan Riedinger, Colin Askey, Chris Pratt, Juno Rinaldi, Kyle Gallner, Josh Emerson, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris, Cynthia Stevenson, Nicole Leduc, Aman Johal, Dan Joffre, Candus Churchill, Carrie Genzel, Emma Gallello, Megan Charpentier, Jeremy Schuetze, Valerie Tian, Emily Tennant
Cult-favorite Jennifer's Body follows the close yet mismatched friendship between popular cheerleader Jennifer and nerdy Needy, which is further complicated when Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon and develops a taste for her male classmates.
Hell is a teenage girl.
Dripping with mid-2000s emo energy, Jennifer's Body is a movie made by women for women. Bold in its exploration of competitive femininity, female friendship, lesbian desire, and the male gaze, it speaks directly to teenage girls. Though it was originally misunderstood and mismarketed, the film has since found its target audience, who now celebrate its endlessly quotable dialogue, subversive themes, and captivating performances. A decade later, Jennifer’s Body has claimed its place as a feminist horror classic.
1 Ginger Snaps
A Trangressive Reinvention Of The Werewolf Movie
Ginger Snaps
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- August 1, 2000
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
- Director
- John Fawcett
Few films capture the messiness and metamorphosis of girlhood quite like Ginger Snaps. This Canadian cult horror classic follows two socially outcast sisters, Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald, whose close relationship is tested when Ginger is bitten by a werewolf on the night she gets her first period.
Something's wrong. Like more than you being just... Female.
Ginger's lycanthropic transformation is playfully figured as the horror of coming into adolescence, a dark allegory for how women’s sexuality is often treated as abnormal, threatening, or even monstrous. Though satirical, Ginger Snaps provides an emotionally raw portrait of girlhood married with gore, exploring sexuality, puberty, and sisterhood with thoughtful feminist consideration and leaving room for possible queer and trans readings. As an early-2000s update to the 'menstrual horror' canon established by Carrie, Ginger Snaps created the blueprint for a lot of the films on this list.
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