Women Are Perpetual Victims in Horror Films

Al-Taj News – Women have not only been historical victims of societal violence in the real world; this continuing reality has also been reflected on the cinema screen since its emergence. Horror films have found in women the ideal victim, as they are pursued or kidnapped, or find themselves facing a killer. Cinema inherited part of this image from the first horror novels in the history of literature.

American philosopher Noël Carroll argues in his book “The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart” that stories of women being kidnapped were also read as a warning to women against crossing the boundaries imposed by society, because danger and punishment could await them beyond those boundaries.

Modern horror heroines may appear stronger because we see among them the detective, the mother, the survivor, and the woman who confronts someone trying to control her. But the films “Longlegs,” “Heretic,” “The Woman in the Yard,” “Bring Her Back,” and “The Substance” reveal that the fundamental role has not completely changed.

A woman may resist or ultimately prevail, but the story still often begins with her being pursued or held captive, or with her body, mind and family being subjected to harm.

So, has the woman become a true heroine in horror films, or has she merely become a stronger victim, more capable of survival? The following five films attempt to answer this question.

1- “Longlegs”… A Detective Faces a Serial Killer

The American horror-crime film “Longlegs” was produced in 2024 and written and directed by Osgood Perkins. It stars Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt and Blair Underwood.

The events take place in the 1990s and center on FBI agent Lee Harker, who investigates murders targeting entire families, with no evidence of the killer entering their homes. Coded messages and mysterious rituals lead her to a killer known as “Longlegs,” but she discovers his connection to her childhood and her mother.

The heroine may initially appear to be the opposite of a victim, as she is an armed detective pursuing the killer. But the film gradually reveals that she has been trapped inside the killer’s plan since childhood. He had previously visited her home, left behind a doll bearing her image that affects her consciousness, and forced her mother to help him deliver similar dolls to other families in exchange for keeping her daughter alive.

Detective Lee did not escape the killer; he merely gave her a life that he controlled from afar. He blocked part of her memory, turned her mother into an accomplice, and led her to the truth at the time he chose.

2- “Heretic”… Two Young Women Inside a Religious Maze

In the 2024 American psychological horror film “Heretic,” written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the screenwriters of “A Quiet Place,” we follow two young missionaries, Sisters Barnes and Paxton, who knock on Mr. Reed’s door after he expresses interest in learning about their faith.

Reed welcomes them kindly and falsely indicates that his wife is at home. The two young women discover that he has lured them into an enclosed place designed to test their faith and subject them to a series of discussions and psychological games. The visit turns into a confrontation in which the two women attempt to understand his plan and find a way out.

Reed seeks to control the way the two women think and force them to choose between answers he has predetermined. He treats them as subjects in an experiment in which he assumes that his authority, age and knowledge give him the right to scrutinize their beliefs, while denying them the freedom to withdraw from the discussion.

When Barnes discovers his deception and challenges his reasoning, he kills her, then uses her body as part of a new trick to test Paxton. The latter ultimately discovers that what Reed presents about true religion is nothing more than a system of control. He has held other women in cages beneath the house, deprived them of food and forced them to perform roles that serve his argument.

Thus, the two women become victims on two levels: victims of confinement and physical violence, and victims of a man who turns knowledge and religion into a cover for his desire to control women. Although Paxton understands the game and attempts to resist it, the film does not give her this power until after placing her inside a trap designed by someone else and making her friend’s body and her own life the price of escaping it.

3- “The Woman in the Yard”… A Mysterious Visitor Outside an Isolated House

The 2025 film “The Woman in the Yard,” directed by Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, stars Danielle Deadwyler as Ramona, a mother who lost her husband in a car accident that she survived with injuries, then found herself solely responsible for her two children inside an isolated rural house.

One day, a mysterious woman dressed in black appears and sits in the yard of the house, without the family knowing her identity or why she is there. She gradually approaches the house, and her shadows begin to penetrate the space, while Ramona tries to protect her two children and understand the connection between the woman’s appearance and what the family has been suffering since the accident.

Ramona initially appears to be a direct victim of loss. She has lost her husband, injured her leg, and remained alone responsible for two children in an isolated rural house. But the film reveals that her suffering predates the accident. She had been feeling unhappy and suffocated within her marital and family life, and she was driving the car on the night her husband died, following an argument during which she admitted that she wanted to leave the family. Before the crash, she saw the woman in black in the mirror, in the first appearance of a manifestation of her desire to escape and die.

The director reveals that the mysterious visitor is not a real woman, but a physical manifestation of Ramona’s depression, guilt and suicidal thoughts. She summoned it unconsciously when she sought the strength and ability to end the miserable life she was living. The misery in Ramona’s life turns into a monster that devours her and destroys her family.

4- “Bring Her Back”… An Adoptive Mother and a Ritual to Bring Back the Dead

The Australian horror film “Bring Her Back” was released in 2025 and directed by brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, directors of “Talk to Me.” It stars Sally Hawkins and Billy Barratt.

The story begins after the death of the father of half-siblings Andy and Piper, who are taken to the home of Laura, an adoptive mother who lives in an isolated house with an unusual boy named Oliver. Laura initially appears to be attentive to their care, but her behavior toward Piper raises Andy’s suspicions, and he discovers that the house harbors a mysterious ritual connected to the death of Laura’s daughter and her attempt to bring her back.

The film initially presents Laura as a victim of loss following the drowning of her daughter Cathy and her inability to continue with her life. But grief does not keep her in the position of a victim; rather, it drives her to turn other children into tools for resisting death. She kidnaps a child, subjects him to possession, and attempts to use him as a medium in a ritual intended to bring her daughter back.

Motherhood becomes a dual source of horror, as the mother crushed by the loss of her child transforms into a woman willing to kill another child to regain her role as a mother.

5- “The Substance”… A Star Creates a Younger Version of Herself

The body horror film “The Substance” was produced in 2024. It was written and directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat and stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid.

Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a former movie star and fitness show host who is fired from her job after turning 50. After being cast aside, she turns to a substance sold outside official channels that promises its user a younger, more beautiful and more perfect version of herself. A young woman named Sue, played by Margaret Qualley, emerges from Elisabeth’s body. The two are required to alternate their existence each week according to strict rules, but the imbalance between them leads to violent physical and psychological consequences.

Elisabeth enters the story as a victim of a system that sees women only in terms of their youth and marketability. Producer Harvey decides to fire her from her fitness program on her 50th birthday because her body no longer matches the image he wants to sell to the audience.

The woman’s decision to turn to “The Substance” to regain her youth appears personal, but she makes it after the industry has convinced her that she has become worthless. The substance produces a younger version that is more compatible with market demands, immediately gaining the job, fame and attention that the 50-year-old woman lost.

The film turns social violence into a war within the woman’s own body. Despite the instructions emphasizing that the two versions are one entity, each begins to view the other as an enemy. Sue takes more time than allowed and drains the older woman’s body of the fluid that keeps her young. The original woman rapidly ages and becomes increasingly repulsed by her image. Elisabeth becomes a victim of her younger version, but in reality she is a victim of the hatred that society has planted within her toward her age and body.

In “The Substance,” the woman becomes a victim of age discrimination, of the view that reduces her to her body, and of an industry that replaces her with a younger version, and then a victim of her self-hatred and her impossible attempt to separate herself from her age.

The film gives her the authority of a detective on the surface, then reveals that her childhood, family and investigative path were all parts of a plan devised by a man who was always one step ahead of her, leaving her both a survivor and a victim at the same time.