Are you tired of watching spooky movies during the month of Halloween that always seem to end terribly for women and girls? We are! So, we decided to bring a list of spooky feminist movies to inspire and empower your inner witch to come out this season.
The Love Witch
This campy and rose-coloured movie tells the tale of a witch who craves a fairytale kind of love and uses magic in her favour to get the same level of devotion of that ‘happily ever after’ image back from her partners, which usually leads to disaster. It is a nice reminder of the strength that even the girliest and most hopeless romantic women carry. The message is clear: do not underestimate a woman; no matter how pink and girly she might act, she can and will bite back.
Practical Magic
Another classic with a feminist message. This is probably the scariest of the list, but it does a good job of illustrating the power of sisterhood and womanhood. One of the most iconic scenes shows a group of women who are not even friendly with the coven coming together to help save one of the main characters, who is possessed by an evil ex-boyfriend.
Make sure to invite your besties to watch this one, as it will put everyone in a spooky mood—and potentially inspire a paganist full moon party with loud music, and girly sweet drinks galore!
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
Cassandra Peterson’s character Elvira has become a third-wave feminism icon. The character is not afraid to embrace her sexuality, but she, like all women, is a very complex individual who is much more than just her sex appeal and is not defined by her choice of clothing. She manages to outsmart, in her own quirky way, everyone around her with her quick-fire quips and remarks.
In Mistress of the Dark, Elvira manages to open the minds of a very puritanical community to her alternative taste by winning over their hearts without losing the essence of her own being along the way.
The Craft
The movie is centred around a group of high schoolers who get into magic. The downside of it is that they eventually end up turning on each other, once Robin realizes Nancy’s search for more power makes her unstable. However, back in 1996, when it first came out, having a group of all-female leads doing witchcraft together and, most importantly, with a little bit of diversity within it (you go, Rochelle!), was a win.
Jennifer’s Body
From the start, we can see a very empowered and sexually liberated Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) living her best life, as well as her bond with her childhood best friend Anita (Amanda Seyfried). It doesn’t take long before a group of men try to take advantage of her, literally sacrificing her to Satan to bring fame to their band.
When Jennifer comes back possessed and has to feed off of men, her relationship with her best friend is tested. Once she passes away for good, however, her best friend, who picked up some powers herself during their last fight, avenges her best friend by killing the entire band.
This is a cult favourite that shows feminism in different nuances within the two main characters. Jennifer is sexually empowered from the start, but she does target men who are enamoured with her best friend. Anita, on the other hand, begins the movie much more conservatively but later goes on to avenge her friend, which is an interesting approach to her character development.
Promising Young Woman
In this movie, Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) is a woman whose best friend in college was raped and took her own life as a result. Once the crime goes unpunished, Cassandra starts her quest of scaring men into not taking advantage of women by pretending to be drunk at bars, later surprising them by being fully lucid and reprimanding their behaviour.
A few years later, she decides to take matters into her own hands, making sure the perpetrator and the people who sided with him don’t get to live happily ever after.
This movie is the ultimate rape revenge story, which is why it has become so popular in a matter of years.
