by Ashley Jane Davis and Jaime Davis, Staff Writers

Some of our favorite spooky/creepy/scary/terrifying stories are all about women, and let’s just say it - oftentimes complicated women - who find themselves, horrifically, in new and unexpected territories. Perhaps they’ve had to move to a new country, or a new home, or are now under the protection of someone they trust and must make a life work in a new environment, one that may not always feel warm and fuzzy and altogether welcoming. Please enjoy our favorite horror films (and one tv show!) all about women who must endure being strangers in a strange land.

Ashley’s Picks

The Innocents (1961)
dir. Jack Clayton. Starring Deborah Kerr. Runtime 1h 40m

I can’t stop, I won’t stop (stay tuned) heralding this movie on MovieJawn and in my day-to-day life. Not that it needs MY help. Anyway, bless you, Deborah Kerr as Miss Giddens. We’ve all been in her shoes - had that feeling that we must escape our parents’ dominion so urgently that ANYWHERE is better. Should I stay at home with dear ol preacher dad, or move sight unseen to this ghostly Victorian manor to care for two unnervingly spooky possibly possessed children? I would have made the same choice as our Miss Giddens. I mean, you teach them some mathematics, bring them for a walk in the garden, have them wash up before dinner… how hard could it be? Do you have an imagination?

Rebecca (1940)
dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier. Runtime 2h 10m

Ah, young love. You meet a brooding young widower with cash to spare, and TA DA! So long, career! Hello, hasty marriage! The thing that always gets me about Rebecca is how intimidating it all is. We don’t even know the name of Joan Fontaine’s character who is thrust into the home and life of the dearly (?) departed namesake, REBECCA - her husband’s first wife. Not only is she just getting to know her brand new husband (who’s NO), but she is constantly watched and compared to this mystery woman while being stuck in this cold mansion that will never feel like home. Rebecca is in every fiber, in every breath. It’s hard enough knowing you don’t belong somewhere, but when everyone else knows?

Carnival of Souls (1962)
dir. Herk Harvey. Starring Candace Hilligloss. Runtime 1 h 20m

How do you move on from being the soul survivor of a deadly accident? Do you pick up the pieces of your life as it was? Or perhaps start fresh, somewhere entirely new? In Carnival of Souls, Mary decides to move to an unfamiliar town where she can learn more about who she really is. With no family and no friends, she starts noticing she’s not connecting with anyone here. Something feels very off, but she’s not sure what. However, there is something in this town that is calling to her - luring her to the abandoned carnival pavilion. Is this where she will feel at home with people like her?

Raw (2016)
dir. Julia Ducourneau. Starring Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella. Runtime 1 h 39m

The first semester at college is a thrilling time (so I hear). It might be your first time living away from home and all the kids you may have gone to school with your whole life. It’s a time of reinvention - you can be whoever you want! No one knows what you were like up till this point, so no one can call you out for acting out of character. Who will you be away from the watchful eyes of your parents? Will you continue your family’s traditions, or find you’re drawn to something very… different? I love watching Justine’s experience unfold in Raw. We watch the shy girl become shocked, ashamed, and then lustful over her newly realized hunger. Turns out this new environment is just what she needed to awaken to who she really is.

Jaime’s Picks

Watcher (2022)
dir. Chloe Okuno. Starring Maika Monroe. Runtime 1h 31m

This is one of the most fascinating films to me of late, because it does such a fantastic job of visualizing what it can feel like for women on a daily basis - the sheer horror that can come from doing simple things like walking home alone at night (or even during the day) or taking a simple trip to the market. Julia (Maika Monroe) makes a move from America to Bucharest with her husband and immediately feels isolated due to a lack of language skills, cultural understanding, and an almost immediate alienation from her man who is perpetually booked and busy at his new job. When she begins to believe that someone may be stalking her, no one believes her - not the cops, not hubs, no one. I love the moments when Julia goes from being watched to the one who is watching - is she hunting the right person or has she just gone over the deep end?

Crimson Peak (2015)
dir. Guillermo del Toro. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, and Tom Hiddleston. Runtime 1h 59m

Poor, beautiful, rich Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska). She falls madly in love with the dashing, slightly off Thomas (Hiddles), is whisked away to a remote, crumbling estate in a foreign country, only to be met by the cold gray glance of his sister, the difficult Lucille (Jessica Chastain). I love watching Edith slowly peel back the layers of chilly Allerdale Hall - the secrets it contains and the fate that awaits her if she doesn’t break from her husband’s spell. Her transformation is truly a joy to watch.

Suspiria (1977)
dir. Dario Argento. Starring Jessica Harper. Runtime 1h 39m

You know something ominous is afoot right at the start of Suspiria when wide-eyed American Suzy lands in Germany to attend ballet school. It’s night, it’s the middle of a heavy rainstorm, and when she arrives at the school, she’s refused entry after watching another student flee in absolute fright. (This alone would be enough to have me running back to the airport). In the first few moments of the film, Argento manages to create a quite unwelcome scene for Suzy, one that continues as she becomes regularly terrorized by the evil within the school’s walls.

American Horror Story: Coven, (2013-2014)
Created by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk. Starring the most amazingly talented cast you’ve ever seen.

Average high schooler Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) just wants to have some innocent sex with her boyfriend. Is that too much to ask? After a little mishap, come to find out, she’s a witch! So her parents send her to a special school in New Orleans run by Cordelia Foxx (Sarah Paulson), daughter of THE Supreme herself, Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange). At first Zoe is put off by this new world and the unique gang of witches she encounters, but she quickly gets the hang of things. This entire season of AHS has everything: Angela Bassett, one of the most iconic casts of a television series ever, an evil white supremacist played by Kathy Bates, a Stevie Nicks-obsessed witch (Lily Rabe), a Stevie Nicks cameo (!!!), witch exams, and so much more. And if you’ve ever wanted to see a high fashion-loving witch burned at the stake after shouting “BALENCIAGAAA!” as her last words, this show has you covered.