LONDON — When Ruth Paxton was 14, her father sneaked her into a cinema in Scotland to see an anniversary reissue of “The Exorcist,” the classic 1973 film about a possessed girl.
“He was very excited when we watched it,” Paxton said recently, pointing out that the film was once banned from home video release in Britain. “But when we came out, I was like, ‘That was bullshit!'”
There probably wasn’t enough blood in it for her taste, she added with a laugh.
Now Paxton, 38, is trying to upset the public with her own story of possession. Her feature film debut, “A Banquet,” about a girl who refuses to eat, is coming to US theaters and on-demand services on Friday. Writing in DailyExpertNews, Lena Wilson praised the film’s “slow-burn magic” and made it a Critic’s Pick.
“A Banquet” is the latest in a series of critically acclaimed recent horror films from Britain and Ireland, made by female directors who started out for the first time. It follows Rose Glass’s 2021 film “Saint Maud” and Romola Garai’s “Amulet” from 2020, as well as Prano Bailey-Bond’s “Censor,” the story of a strict film classification officer who ends up in a bloodbath on set.
More are on the way, including Kate Dolan’s “You Are Not My Mother,” on March 25, about a young girl in Ireland whose mother starts behaving strangely, and Charlotte Colbert’s “She Will,” in which a woman travels to Scotland. to recover from a double mastectomy and eventually leads to channeling the ghosts of local witches.
Alan Jones, co-founder of FrightFest, Britain’s most prominent horror film festival, said female directors have been working in the genre since its inception, but in the past five years their numbers have increased in Britain and Ireland. They brought “a feminine perspective on the clichés of yesteryear,” Jones said.
One reason for the boom was that horror was more open to female debutants than other genres, he said. “You don’t need stars, or even that much money,” Jones said. “You just need a really good idea.”
Last week, four of those debuting filmmakers, all in their thirties — Paxton, Bailey-Bond, Dolan, and Colbert — got together for a video call to discuss what drew them to the genre, what they bring to it as women, and how horror films social change. can cause.
These are edited excerpts from their conversation.
This isn’t the first wave of female horror directors. Why do you think another one is emerging now, in Britain and Ireland?
Prano BAILEY BOND It’s not just women who make a lot of horror here: we’ve got Rob Savage and Remi Weekes and Mark Jenkin. But the conversations about diversity in the industry are now enabling all the women who have wanted to make horror for years and years, finally make movies.
KATE DOLAN All the female directors I admired during my childhood, like Kathryn Bigelow and Claire Denis and Mary Harron, have almost all made at least one horror film. It’s not necessary that women are attracted to horror just now; they just get a chance.
In the 1980s, Britain had a list of horror films: the so-called “video nasties” – which were effectively banned from home viewing, as shown in ‘Censor’. Some horror fans talk about working through that list as a path to the genre. What was your route?
DOLAN Growing up I watched a lot of horror and I think it was really exciting for me then because it’s a genre where female protagonists survive and win – “the last girl”. As a teenage girl, that was really empowering.
BAILEY-BOND I was also totally drawn to the genre, to extreme things that are going on in movies. I think it was part of the physical sensation in the beginning – the knowledge that when you’re done watching, you then have to go upstairs to go to bed, and you think something is going to grab your ankles.
But I never thought of becoming a horror director until someone saw my show running and said I was one. I remember getting off that phone call and saying, “Am I?” But if people want to pigeonhole you, it can sometimes be useful because there are a lot of filmmakers out there, so how do you make sure you stand out?
CHARLOTTE JACKET I love how there is a great artistic freedom in horror that may not be available in other genres. Obviously in a drama you can’t grow a worm out of someone’s nostril, or anything so sassy or artistic. But horror really has incredible freedom in terms of visuals and characters, and what’s acceptable and believable.
PAXTON Growing up, I watched a lot of horror, but mostly because they had a lot of soft porn in them, and I wanted to see the sex!
But I think I’ve always loved looking into the dark corners of things, and that’s partly because of my own experience. The scariest experiences I’ve ever had were in my own head.
Even if the boom in Britain extends to all genders, what do you think horrifies women, in particular?
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PAXTON At ‘A Banquet’, my path to it was my experiences with eating disorders, and its ripple effect on the family around me, and especially the dynamic with my mother, who wanted me to eat when I didn’t.
I really don’t know what to bring except my own interests. I’ve been bizarrely aware of death since childhood—I wrote a will when I was eight—but I don’t know if it has anything to do with my gender.
DOLAN You can only bring your own life experience into what you create. Being a woman is full of horror, so it makes sense to turn those experiences into horror.
My next project will hopefully be about women’s physical autonomy in Ireland, as we have fought horribly for reproductive rights here. I want to make films about my experiences and struggles.
Is horror a better way than other genres to explore those issues?
JACKET Personally, I think it’s a great and creative way to tackle social issues. And what’s also cool is that teenage boys are generally the biggest audience, so it’s a great way to convey feminist imagery to people who aren’t necessarily interested. It can really have a long-term effect on the next generation.
DOLAN It’s interesting you say that because there’s a great book called “Men, Women and Chainsaws” by a scholar, Carol J. Clover, and she has a section where she talks about slasher movies and how they change the male audience. in “the last girl”, essentially. Thus, the audience has to perceive her fear of being chased by the killer, which makes her relate more to the female character.
We’re also seeing a wave of critically acclaimed horror movies around the world, including: Jordan Peele’s Movies of the United States; French director Julia Ducournau won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year with “Titane† Does anything make British and Irish horror different?
BAILEY-BOND Britain is really good at folk horror – “The Wicker Man”, of course. I don’t necessarily think we should stay there, but there seems to be something in our culture and our history that serves that subgenre. And it kind of feels like it’s part of this country.
The same goes for the gothic haunted house story. We’re really good at that, and when you think of Britain and its architecture, a big haunted house with a maid really fits the bill.
JACKET Yes, somehow the landscapes here, especially in Scotland, feel the fog, so entrenched with stories and mythology. Even in England I sometimes feel like you could film any landscape and the creatures of the past will emerge.
BAILEY-BOND That reminds me of the trope in American horror films like ‘Poltergeist’ that explores legacies with Native American cemeteries. It’s that same relationship with your past and either that country’s fears, or that country’s guilt, and how the country holds memories. You can tap into all of that with horror.