[Editorial] Do We Need More Female Killers On-Screen?

Society views women in many negative ways; coddlers, nags, victims, bitches, whores, the cause of the fall of man –  so many needlessly cruel labels that get thrown around without a thought.

But bring up a woman’s ability, or desire, to kill a fool and watch the wheels turn. Justifications are needed. What were the circumstances that led her to have to kill? Was it rape revenge? Of course it was! Why else would a woman kill?!

The question is less do we need more female killers on-screen, and more why the fuck do we need more male killers on-screen?! 

Men are more physically capable of overpowering a person, especially a woman, so they may have to think less about how they will kill. It can get boring. An oversized man-child stalks horny teens, barrelling through windows and doors, squeezing the life out of his victims with the mere manly force of his big strong man hands. What a spectacle, what power! What a lack of ingenuity. 

It is awesome to watch heads get crushed and bodies torn asunder. But there is also a reason people gravitate towards characters like Hannibal Lecter and true-crime killers like Ted Bundy; these are killers who use manipulation, charm, and diligence to lure their victims. There comes a time when film fans want more from their killer, and I have found that the most compelling and interesting killers in movie history have been women. 

Women, at least those not built like Gwendoline Christie, must find creative ways to kill. Some, like Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie, The Devil’s Rejects) use their sexuality to lure men into states of vulnerability. Others, like Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman, Orphan) and Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts, Scream 4) embody the innocence that others perceive in them in order to move undetected; predators stalking their prey. 

Orphan

Alex Forrest (Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction) is a bunny-boiling psychopath whose anger gives her a motivation to kill, but because she acts purely out of rage, she is unable to carry out her revenge and is easily defeated. Esther in Orphan, on the other hand, is precise and cunning in her manipulation. She targets the man in the family that takes her in, posing her attention initially as a virtuous desire for a father’s love, before moving into inappropriate behaviour that, when rejected, awakens a violent rage. 

I’m not talking about the killers whose kills are circumstantial. Carrie White (Sissy Spacek, Carrie) is overcome by a supernatural force that she can’t control, one that is awakened by severe bullying and unleashed by humiliation. Baby Firefly, on the other hand, just likes “to get fucked up and do fucked up shit, you know what I mean?” This mentality is commonly more accepted in films where men act in vile and abhorrent ways. But there’s no need to isolate that trait, women have the same impulses that men have, and with female killers there is typically a welcomed absence of sexual assault involved. 

Masculine aggression is a way of life, commonly blamed on past abuse or neglect from a maternal figure. It is easy to ascertain that, when dealing with anger or depression, men are more likely to harm others, while women are more likely to self-harm. But society also allows and encourages these behaviours by rewarding physical strength above emotional strength in men, and stoicism instead of fight in women. 

These norms stir up an almost rebellious counterattack in me. It’s the very idea that women can’t behave a certain way that veers my judgement toward the concept that yes, we do need more women acting violently in unprovoked and sadistic ways – in film only, of course. Female killers like Baby Firefly and Esther aren’t stuck in a situation that is kill or be killed. They are intentional in their violence, and more so, they take great joy in murder. 

All of this is not to say that films should toss all women into the character motivation wood chipper and let the blood spray indiscriminately. There is great power in a strong motivation for killing. La Femme (Béatrice Dalle, Inside) is driven by grief and envy to commit some of the most gruesome acts of violence captured on film. La Femme considers no life sacred other than the baby inside of Sarah (Alysson Paradis), and she climbs over bodies and wades through blood to carry out her plan. Evelyn White (Emma Booth, Hounds of Love) aids and abets her husband in the abduction of young women. She is manipulated into participating, but her subsequent jealousy of her husband’s sexual interest in the victims leads Evelyn to lust for violence toward and eventual murder of the captives. She enables her husband’s deviance – like so many women who stand idly by and excuse predatory actions by men as ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘she was asking for it.’ 

12 Hour Shift

There should be more female killers on screen because women are just as capable as men of committing atrocities. They may need to be more cunning in their acts but being underestimated is ultimately a very powerful weapon. Men don’t have to be vigilant when walking to their car in an underground parking lot. A woman could walk right up to a man and ask for help with her car; he wouldn’t suspect a thing until the knife slips between his ribcage. Men may use their strength, but women must use their smarts. And murder is just more interesting when it’s committed by brains, not brawn.

These days there are more and more women writing screenplays and at the helm of films. Women are paving their own way in the classically male dominated horror genre and as a result we are seeing amazingly complicated and fully developed lady killers born. Rose Glass’ spectacular debut Saint Maud gives us a chilling and passionate woman who will stop at nothing to save a woman’s soul. Brea Grant’s 12 Hour Shift has night nurse Mandy (Angela Bettis) flying completely under the radar while harvesting organs from living patients. And, while not created by a woman, Psycho Goreman (Steven Kostanski) offers up the most delectably vengeful and blood-thirsty little girl (Nita-Josee Hanna) who will surely become a mascot of young female horror fans everywhere.

Ultimately, I think we all want to see something new. Something fresh and wicked. And I believe that the best way to accomplish that is to hand the knife (or axe, or chainsaw, or boat propeller) over to a woman just a little more often.

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