news.avclub.com: With the release of Blumhouse’s rebooted Halloween just a couple of days away, studio head Jason Blum has been doing his usual round of interviews touting the studio’s success. But rather than letting Blum rest on the laurels of Get Out and Halloween, Matt Patches of Polygon asked Blum about a less flattering aspect of Blumhouse’s famous production model: Why, in the past 11 years of its existence, has Blumhouse never released a horror film directed by a woman?
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While I could comment on how so many female creators exist under the radar, after reading this article I have much more interesting things to say about the content that these directors are releasing. As has been stated in many previous comments, I am not a fan of horror movies and even seeing clips is enough to set me on edge, but I can still appreciate the work being done to create these spooky atmospheres and moments. One of the clips included in the article was for the horror short, The Stylist, particularly peaked my interest. The color scheme and the way the short was shot reminds me of more romance or drama movies, not one set up for horror. However, I guess that plays into this sense of "based on A, B and C, it cannot be scary," but then in reality, it's frightening. The fact that it's called The Stylist, and Jill Gevargizian has her day job of being a stylist means that she has the whole set up for easing people into a sense of security, and then suddenly there's ominous scissors, and then blood. I really appreciate how she can so easily set up a comfortable situation, which we are probably all familiar with, and then turn it bad. As in, no one is safe. Although I can't say that I would be more likely to watch horror movies, with directors like these at the helm, but I can definitely say that they get the job done and I am thoroughly spooked.
I enjoy this article for a number of reasons. 1. I love it because it's very aggressive and has a lot of bitterness, and 2. because it exposes me to new horror movies that I've never heard of, especially with female directors. Typically, with horror movies, the more obscure and independent they are, the higher they are quality and creativity. Most large horror films are overly technical or extremely cheesy and tacky. When I wrote my first comment about Jason Blum, I hadn't realized that his company created Truth or Dare. I saw that with Emma last spring, and it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's amazing that he acts like such a refined artist, when his company produced that dreadful, trope-filled jump scare movie. Despite all that, I am excited to go through this list of films and see how many of them I can watch.
Full disclosure, I didn’t watch any of the trailers. I am not brave. I get the impression that, on one level, the author of the article is probably right. But on another, it seems like she’s pointed out that Blum asks women whose careers are too advanced for his movies, but not women whose careers could use some help...and then ends the article with a woman who Blum sent on her way to her first feature film. It undercuts her message a bit. The article is pretty sensationalist, and doesn’t do a great job of showing how that gut-punch quote from Blum, “There are not a lot of female directors,” might be statistically true. What I think the author is trying to get at is that a paucity of female directors is due to institutional issues in the film industry, and it’s up to producers such as Blum to create opportunities and actively recruit women. I’m not trying to defend him (the opposite, actually), I just think this article does a great job at giving some exposure to female directors and not such a great job of getting at the heart of issue.
So, I watched each of these clips. And, well, they are not that good...Not to say that the clips from the article's chosen films are bad because they are made by women. The clips are bad because, well the filmmaking is bad. Especially in these longer clips presented. M for Matador is a horrible piece of filmmaking, and I will be remarking on this clip for my entire comment. From the monster point of view shot of the woman in the bull's head to the awful cut editing of the matador's death, this film has made so many mistakes already. Do not get me wrong, male filmmakers have made these mistakes, everyone makes these mistakes, regardless of gender. Bad filmmaking is honestly genderless. I wish this article had found some better films to pull from because they are undermining their own point by presenting poor filmmaking while trying to write of the triumphs of female film directors.
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