Editorials
8 Female Serial Killers Who Changed Horror
Horror has enough female victims. What about female villains? While there’s certainly a disparity in the number of male killers to female killers in the history of horror film, the scarcity of bloodlusty ladies has at least had the effect of complicating, and often making more interesting the backstories of these individual rarities. I’m not talking vampires or other forms of feminine supernatural beings, but realistically-coded murdering women.
Obsession buoyed by delusions and fantasy drives some of the women on this list into bloodletting, others are fueled by rage against the patriarchal establishment. With the Shudder premiere of Craig William McNeill’s Lizzie, which follows famed 19th century ax-murderer Lizzie Borden in the events leading up to her breaking point, we thought it opportune to remember some of our favorite killing ladies:
Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003)
Charlize Theron’s iconic performance as notorious real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos will be forever remembered as the actress’s most impressive physical transformation. The feature directorial debut of Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins, Monster is an acting tour-de-force that follows Wuornos’ dehumanization as she accrues more and more male victims. Based in part on the Nick Broomfield documentaries on Wuornos, Monster is a serial killer flick with a heavy dose of pathos. Wuornos certainly becomes a “monster,” but the movie makes sure to give motive for the madness. An alienated prostitute living in a slummy part of Florida, Wuornos begins a relationship with the equally struggling Selby (Christina Ricci). Driven to desperation, Wuornos loses control and resorts to murder as both a means of making ends meet and as emotional catharsis. Above all, Monster is a character study of a woman pushed to her limits and driven to violence as a result of a life marred by patriarchal abuse.
Mother Martha in Deep Red (1975)
Dario Argento’s giallo classic is an inversion of expected gender roles, casting Marcus (David Hemmings) as the sleuth and damsel in distress to Mother Martha’s psycho killer (played by Clara Calamai). Martha, mother of Marcus’s best friend, Carlos, is a faded actress suffering from a deranged form of bipolar disorder that has her shift from ruthless, but disturbingly childlike killer in one instance, to normal, sympathetic older women in the next. Hospitalized after killing her husband on Christmas Eve years ago, Martha returns to live with her son and begins terrorizing Marcus and those around him, until her true identity is discovered at the film’s climax — along with her terrifying collection of creepy dolls and murder tools.
Lola Stone in The Loved Ones (2009)
Rejection can be a nightmare. That goes double for young people running on the fuels of raging hormones. Lola “Princess” Stone (Robin McLeavy) is one of the school’s resident freaks, with delusions of one day taking her prince charming, Brent (Xavier Samuel), to a dance in which she’ll be crowned queen. But when an already traumatized Brent rejects Lola’s real life proposal, Lola takes matters into her own hands by kidnapping Brent and subjecting him to torturous in-house festivities set up by her equally deranged father. Turns out Brent is not the first prince charming to disappoint, as Lola uncovers a pit of reject “frog” dates that she’s personally lobotomized. A fucked-up family affair of repressed incestual impulses, The Loved Ones riffs on Carrie but plays out on home turf, where Lola is able to enact all her murderous dreams on the boys that continually fail to live up to her expectations.
Asami Yamazaki in Audition (1999)
When Aoyama stages a fake casting call in an attempt to find a woman of romantic interest, the single father meets the beautiful Asami (Eihi Shiina), who swiftly demands Aoyama pledge his fidelity to her and only her. Aoyama consents, but when Asami discovers his emotional investment is also split amongst his son and the memory of his late wife, she exacts revenge by drugging Aoyama and torturing him by increasingly sadistic means. Audition’s feminist value is often debated, with audiences split between reading Aoyama as simply a mentally sick femme fatale on the one hand. On the other hand, Asami’s actions are a powerful, vengeful counter to the type of objectification that Japanese women suffer daily, as evinced by the romantic “audition” of the film’s first act.
Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme in Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Friendships that develop as a result of traumatic experiences in common can be intense, even dangerous according to Peter Jackson’s early psychological thriller, Heavenly Creatures. Based on the true life Parker-Hulme murder case of 1954, this movie follows Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) and Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey), two teenage girls of disparate class backgrounds that form an intense friendship that teeters into the erotic. A bright, candy-colored color pallette characterizes the film as the girls sink deeper and deeper into dizzying delusions that will lead them horrifically astray. When family complications threaten to tear the girls apart, the two plot and (and ultimately succeed) in murdering the perceived source of their separation — Pauline’s mother.
Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in Misery (1990)
The term “stan” might be a recent invention, but there’s nothing new about unhealthy celebrity obsession devolving into something more villainous. Kathy Bates plays one such off-the-rails stan in Misery, the adaptation of a Stephen King novel that pits expectation versus reality as the tipping point for Bates’ fangirl, Annie Wilkes. When Paul Sheldon (James Caan), the writer of popular romance novels featuring a character named Misery, suffers a car accident, nurse Annie rescues the badly injured man and rushes him off to heal at her remote cabin home. Paul gives Annie access to a new unpublished Misery manuscript as he recuperates, but when the story does not read to her liking, Annie’s demented streak begins to show — to traumatizing results.
Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) in Friday the 13th (1980)
What would a list about female killers be without the iconic Mrs. Voorhees? You guys know the story — teenage camp counselors are murdered one by one by one by what’s thought to be the vengeful spirit of the drowned ex-camper, Jason Voorhees. Turns out his mom’s still bitter about her son’s death, and is taking it out on the sort of kids she believes were responsible. Played by Betsy Palmer in the original Friday the 13th, Pamela Voorhees is a small sweater-wearing mom with blonde pixie hair — all the better to throw off the scent!
Nadine and Manu in Baise-Moi (2000)
A staple of the New French Extremity, Baise-Moi is a straightforward, blood-soaked tale of female vengeance and rampage. Manu (Raffaëla Anderson), a rape victim, randomly encounters deadbeat Nadine (Karen Lancaume) on the streets, and the two soon realize they share comparable levels of rage and an equal number of fucks: zero. The girls embark on a merciless countrywide killing spree, leaving dead cops and bloodied, sodomized men in their wake. Beyond the lead-up to their fateful union, there’s not much of a plot to Baise-Moi. It’s pure, unfiltered havoc; a deeply flawed, but refreshingly unrepentant scream in the name of feminine empowerment.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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