I was hoping to find ten films directed by women opening in March to celebrate Women’s History Month, but sadly that bar was too high. I discovered that a new study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only nine women were among the 110 directors behind the top 100-grossing films in 2025, that’s a mere 8.1 percent and a drop from the 13.4 percentage in 2024. But on the good news front, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reported a record 76 women were nominated for the 98th Academy Awards (the previous record of 71 was set in 2023) with Autumn Durald Arkapaw making history as the first woman — as well as the first Black person and first Filipina — to win Best Cinematography.
So slow progress is being made, and milestones are being set. Hollywood is turning to women with proven track records to direct films that are more products with brand appeal than exciting creative ventures. So, Greta Gerwig is doing a new Narnia adaptation and Susanne Bier is helming a Practical Magic sequel. But women are being embraced by the horror genre where I found a solid number of not just female-helmed and female-centric projects but also a lot of original screenplays. So here are 10 femme-centric horror films to look forward to this year.
1000 Women in Horror (currently streaming on Shudder)
Let’s start with a film that is already available streaming on Shudder but which sets the tone for this list, 1000 Women in Horror. This documentary directed by Donna Davies interviews women horror creators about their work and why they love the horror genre. The best person in the film, not surprisingly, is Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of the book that inspired the documentary. Her book celebrated the contributions of women to the horror genre from the late 19th century to 2018. But the interviews in the doc seem skewed toward filmmakers featured on Shudder rather than on getting the most exciting female horror creators. I would have loved to hear from Kathryn Bigelow, Nia DaCosta, Julia Ducournau, Coralie Fargeat, Jennifer Kent, and Rose Glass in addition to or instead of Gigi Saul Guerrero, Jenn Wexler, and April Wolfe.
This doc is not as good as the Horror Noire one but it’s a great starting point for a discussion of women in horror. I highly recommend reading the book.
Alpha (Now in theaters)
The most exciting femme-centric project on the 2026 docket is hands down Alpha from French filmmaker Julia Ducournau. She burst on the horror scene in 2016 with Raw, which put cannibalism on the menu in a fresh new way, and followed that up with an even bolder, more impossible-to-define film, Titane. I am 100 percent down for anything she does.
I thought Alpha had already come and gone because it was screened at Cannes last year and garnered a nomination for the Palm D’Or. But it is only now getting a U.S. theatrical release. Alpha is a troubled 13-year-old living with her single mom, but everything changes when she returns from school with a tattoo. The film is an allegory about AIDS, otherness, generational trauma, and family, and yes, body horror does come into play, but in a very different way than her previous films. This one is less in-your-face provocative and more existential and contemplative.
The Blood Countess (Opening October 30)
This film demands attention for two key reasons: Countess Báthory is a 16th-century serial killer of mythic proportions (the female counterpart to Vlad the Impaler) who purportedly tortured and murdered hundreds of young women, and Isabelle Huppert is an actress that is always worth watching.
The film is listed as a horror comedy vaguely inspired by the mythology surrounding the Hungarian countess. In the film, Báthory (Huppert) resurfaces in Vienna with her maid (Birgit Minichmayr) seeking to recover a red elixir of life while trying to evade her nephew, his therapist, vampirologists, and police. There is also a dangerous book that, if found and read, could threaten the vampire realm.
The film is directed by visual artist-turned-filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger, who previously made mostly documentaries. But reportedly, she has been pursuing this project for years with, at one point, Tilda Swinton in talks to play Báthory, which would have also been great.
Nightborn (Opening later this year)
Hanna Bergholm’s Hatching explored themes of motherhood with an audaciously fresh eye. So, to discover she is tackling parenthood again made me excited about the potential. As with Hatching, the notion of perfection rears its head. Saga dreams of starting a perfect family with her British husband Jon. They decide to move to the house where she spent much of her childhood, but it is deep in the Finnish forest. When her son is born, Saga immediately suspects there is something terribly wrong with the infant. Her marriage starts to crumble, but Saga worries that something even worse lurks on the horizon.
In Hatching, Bergholm gave us a dangerous creature that reflected a young girl’s desperate desire to please her perfectionist mother. Bergholm’s film had a visual beauty that slowly starts to decay. She told me in an interview, “I wanted to use all the things that are considered to be lovely, and everything is so well in place and so organized that it kind of starts to look a bit dead. And that’s where I was aiming at to get this kind of pretty but uncomfortable feeling for the audience.”
Looking forward to some more beauty and discomfort from this promising director.
Is God Is (Opening May 15)
Aleshea Harris is a young talent without any feature films under her belt, so it is surprising and delightful that she has managed to bring her own play to the screen. Harris makes her feature writing/directing debut with Is God Is. It serves up a thriller about twin sisters who are ordered by their mother to kill their abusive father.
The cast includes Vivica A. Fox as the demanding mother who is known as “SHE” or “God,” and Sterling K. Brown as the abusive father who set fire to his family years ago. Literally set fire, leaving them physically scarred. The trailer looks promising, mixing humor with family trauma and bold visuals.
Saccharine (Opening May 22)
Japanese Australian writer, director, and producer Natalie Erika James won acclaim for debut feature Relic at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Now she hops on the body horror bandwagon with her story about Hana, a med student who becomes terrorized by a hungry ghost after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze that involves eating human ashes.
Saccharine screened at Sundance earlier this year, and the program description called it, “revoltingly punchy, modern, and timely take on body horror. Through sickeningly syrupy scenes of literal and spiritual consumption, Midori Francis embodies Hana, a body-dysmorphic young woman bent on chasing her weight goal at all costs. The archetypal myth of the hungry ghost manifests literally, creating a uniquely tense atmosphere fit for a physically and metaphorically dangerous haunt. The viscosity of James’ exploration of haunting and body horror in the era of accessible weight-loss medications is especially poignant.”
Sounds promising.
Slanted (Opened earlier this month in select theaters)
Also diving into body horror is filmmaker Amy Wang. The film premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film and TV Festival but only hit theaters earlier, and quietly, this month. The body horror-comedy, written and directed by Wang, focuses on a Chinese American teenager (Shirley Chen) who opts for experimental ethnic modification surgery so that she will look less Asian and fit in with the popular kids. And if that sounds like a terrible idea… it is. Things, as you’d expect, start to go terribly wrong.
Forbidden Fruits (Now in theaters)
This has Diablo Cody as a producer, Lily Houghton adapting her stage play of the woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die, and Meredith Alloway as co-writer and director. Not sure how much of the play’s assessment of modern feminism, commercialized by the media and exploited by the masses, will make it into the film but it provides an interesting background for what is being marketed as more of a witchy horror comedy.
A young woman named Apple (get the Biblical Eve reference there?) leads a secret witch cult with coworkers but a new hire at the mall questions their sisterhood, which leads to potential violence.
Didn’t Die (Opened earlier this month)
Zombies are always a good option. Filmmaker Meera Menon co-wrote Didn’t Die with her cinematographer-husband Paul Gleason. They opted to shoot in black and white for this zombie apocalypse film that also has comic overtones. So how does a podcaster keep hold of an audience when the zombie apocalypse hits, wiping out much of humanity and turning many into braindead creatures who crave flesh rather than something to listen to.
Always looking for a fresh take on the zombie genre.
Pretty Lethal (Now in theaters)
Director Vicky Jewson and writer Kate Freund deliver Pretty Lethal, about a group of ballerinas trying to escape from a remote inn (are there any other kinds?) after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition. After Ballerina from the John Wick universe, we can probably expect these women to execute a Pas de Basque as expertly as a lethal blow.
Jewson previously directed the action film Close with Noomi Rapace in 2019. Maybe Timothée Chalamet should meet up with these ballet dancers.
Bonus: Last Chance Motel
This is still in production, but a horror film helmed by two notable scream queens from the Halloween franchise – Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton – deserves mention. The plot involves a newlywed couple who foolishly pick a secluded, desolate motel deep in the Nevada desert only to discover it is run by a bloodthirsty family with dark secrets. Of course!
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