30 Woman-Friendly Horror Movies for the Thrill-Seeking Feminist

Jennifer’s Body

Jennifer’s Body, Screencap via 20th Century Fox

Sub-Genre: Satanism

What it’s about: Needy (real name: Anita) and Jennifer have been friends since childhood, but they are very different. Needy is a shy and academic high school student, while Jennifer has become a popular cheerleader. One night, the friends attend a concert at a bar, where a fire mysteriously breaks out. Jennifer and Needy get separated when Jennifer leaves with the band, Low Shoulder. But when Jennifer reappears at Needy’s place, strange things start to happen to her. As Needy sees Jennifer change in frightening and violent ways, she has to figure out what happened to her and how to stop it, before more people get hurt.

What makes it feminist: Jennifer’s Body initially sets itself up to exemplify the two major archetypes of female characters, especially in horror. Needy, the less popular, bookish friend, is clearly based in the pure and noble “virgin” stereotype (though Needy herself is not a virgin). Jennifer, as an admired, sexually available cheerleader, could be easily shunted into the whore side of the dichotomy. But the standard practice for these stereotypes is subverted in several ways.

First, instead or the “corruption of the innocent” trope, Jennifer ends up the one who is sucked into the hellish happenings first-hand. Secondly, what could have been a strictly hetero-normative relationship between two friends is complicated with heavy, potentially homo-erotic subtext. Finally, as Needy is portrayed as the “good girl,” in the end she is empowered to access her own darkness in order to defend her friend. The quality and validity of this movie’s feminism is certainly debatable on a lot of different fronts. But reading it through a lens of stereotype subversion can add a lot to it’s male-gaze-y moments.

Trigger Warning:  The lead character uses seduction and manipulation to enable her evil deeds, but there’s no sexual violence shown.