Horror Movies

You guys, I was a scaredy-cat kid. I could not watch or read anything even remotely scary without many sleepless nights ensuing. So it's pretty weird that I find myself increasingly enjoying horror movies (though I still can't handle anything with ghosts.*) However, I've noticed that the horror movies I've seen recently do a not terrible job with their female characters.

Last year I went to see Splice. (Not a great movie to go see with a coworker, by the way.) This movie is about mad science (the mad scientist in question is female) and fucked-up mother-daughter dynamics. It veers off the rails at the end (let's throw in some rape!), but the first 80% is pretty fascinating.

Then a month or so ago I finally got around to watching Jennifer's Body. ZOMG, you guys, I heart this movie. Amanda Seyfried!** Amy Sedaris! Dudes getting eaten! Spiky vomit!

Again, though, the movie is really about the interactions between two women. Said interactions are, again, kind of fucked-up, because this is a horror movie, but you get that there's a real bond of some kind between the two women. So, my question is, is this a horror movie thing? Why can't we have complicated woman-woman interactions and realistic female badassery in other types of mainstream movies?

I don't have any answers for you, because it's Friday, and my brain is tired. But I have bumped up Teeth and Ginger Snaps in my queue, that's for sure.


*The Haunted Mouth, it warped me for life.

**SPOILER ALERT: Am I the only one who thinks that this whole movie would be a totally kick ass origin story for a superhero movie centered around Amanda Seyfried's character?