90 Best Horror Movies Directed by Women

The latest: For Women’s History Month, we added Nia DaCosta’s Verified Hot 28 Years Later: Bone Temple, Emilie Blichfeldt’s Oscar-nominated The Ugly Stepsister, Tina Romero’s Certified Fresh Queens of the Dead, and more.

Welcome to our guide of the best-reviewed horror movies directed by women! The first directors to break ground were Stephanie Rothman in the 1970s with cult film The Velvet Vampire, and Kathryn Bigelow in the ’80s with another vampiric film, the neo-Western Near Dark. (Bigelow, of course, would go on to make further history as the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for Zero Dark Thirty.) Still, it would take many more years for the horror space to truly open up. The ’90s, generally regarded as a weak decade for horror, had no Fresh or Certified Fresh films directed by women. The 2000s saw some pick-up with American Psycho, Amer, and In My Skin.

The 2010s were a watershed decade for horror: The genre became an engine that elevated underserved voices and adroitly exposed societal ills and terrors. Over 30 horror movies directed by women were marked Fresh and Certified Fresh in the 2010s, establishing names like Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid), Julia Ducournau (Raw) and more.

The 2020s continue strong with new films from Emilie Blichfeldt (The Ugly Stepsister), Nia DaCosta (28 Years Later: Bone Temple), Tina Romero (Queens of the Dead), and Julia Max (The Surrender).

We’ll be adding to this list as horror continues to grow and evolve. Now, we invite you to explore our list of 90 critically-acclaimed horror movies.

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