30 Woman-Friendly Horror Movies for the Thrill-Seeking Feminist
By Emily Scott
We Are What We Are
We Are What We Are, Screencap via Belladonna Productions/Entertainment One/etc.
Sub-Genre: It would be a spoiler to tell you the sub-genre on this one, so I’m going to leave it to you to watch or Google!
What it’s about: After Rose and Iris’s mother dies unexpectedly, their father Frank is consumed by grief. But he insists that the girls and their brother continue the planned religious ritual. Initially Iris is intent on continuing their disturbing family tradition, but Frank’s grief makes him increasingly fanatic. Ultimately, the sisters must decide whether or not to take the risk to escape, and how much danger they and their little brother will be in if they don’t.
What makes it feminist: Rose and Iris in this movie serve as an apt allegory to the broader rejection of an established patriarchy. They were raised in a fundamentalist family with very specific religious traditions, dictated by their father. But as they grow up, they become conscious of how morally questionable some of their practices are.
The female protagonists are shown going through a process of questioning what they’ve always done, what their possessive father has always told them they must do. Eventually, as their father’s expectations of them become more extreme and dangerous, they decide they must escape the situation. Two teenage girls making the decision to fight to get away from everything they’ve ever known takes a huge amount of courage.
The plot reflects a larger conflict between what women, especially young women, are expected to do and what they actually feel. Still, the end makes the message complicated and ambiguous. Are the girls rejecting the rituals, or just their father? Do they reject the actual practices, or just the system that is telling them what to do? Either way, it’s a powerful metaphor.