I Spit On Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies

by Heidi Honeycutt

Overview

Slumber Party Massacre. Pet Sematary. Near Dark. American Psycho — These horror movies have heavily contributed to pop culture and are loved by horror fans everywhere. But so many others have been forgotten by history. From the first silent reels to modern independent films, in this book you’ll discover the creepy, horrible, grotesque, beautiful, wrong, good, and fantastic — and the one thing they share in common.

This is the true history of women directing horror movies.

Having conducted hundreds of interviews and watched thousands of horror films, Heidi Honeycutt defines the political and cultural forces that shape the way modern horror movies are made by women. The women’s rights and civil rights movements, new distribution technology, digital cameras, the destruction of the classic studio system, and the abandonment of the Hays code have significantly impacted women directors and their movies. So, too, social media, modern ideas of gender and racial equality, LGBTQ acceptance, and a new generation of provocative, daring films that take shocking risks in the genre.

Includes short films, anthologies, documentaries, animated horror, horror pornography, pink films, and experimental horror.

I Spit on Your Celluloid is a first-of-its-kind celebration, study, and "a book that needed to be written" (says cult filmmaker Stephanie Rothman). You will never look at horror movies the same way again!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781915316295
Publisher:	Headpress
Publication date:	09/01/2024
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Heidi Honeycutt is a film festival programmer, film journalist and film historian whose expertise is horror movies. She is co-founder of Etheria Film Festival, the most prestigious festival showcase of new horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action, and thriller films directed by women. She has contributed to a variety of genre books and magazines, including Fangoria, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Moviemaker Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Rue Morgue, and Delirium.

http://www.heidihoneycutt.com/

Editorial Reviews

At long last, a criminally-neglected aspect of film history is illuminated by Heidi Honeycutt's incisively detailed chronicle of the continuing contributions of women filmmakers to the development of horror and exploitation movies. Names both well-known and obscure dot the landscape of the mostly low-budget productions surveyed here, which have often been tarred with the "psychotronic" label. Honeycutt knows her stuff, and the wealth of information is fascinating. This is a major work.” – Joe Dante, director of Gremlins (1984) and The Howling (1981)

“This is a book that needed to be written, an international survey of women who have made horror films from the birth of the film industry to the present. It traces how amazingly they thrived in those early years, almost disappearing in the male-dominated world of mid-twentieth-century filmmaking, and then rising again, in ever greater numbers, until the present. Some are famous, some known only to their peers, and some forgotten. But they and their diverse histories—whenever possible in their own words— are all here.” - Stephanie Rothman, director of The Velvet Vampire (1971) and Terminal Island (1973)

“I thought I knew a bit about women and horror, but I Spit On Your Celluloid showed me just how much I don’t know. Heidi Honeycutt has uncovered an astonishing amount of lost history, from the neglected women of silent movies to the sixties avant-garde to exploitation films around the world to the explosion of female horror in the twenty-first century. It’s a treasure trove of information, and whether she’s writing about Maya Deren or Doris Wishman, she treats all these women’s stories with affection and respect.” - Mary Harron, director of American Psycho (2000)

“Heidi watches our films, and she listens to us.” - Mary Lambert, director of Pet Sematary (1989)

“With I SPIT ON YOUR CELLULOID, Honeycutt has amassed a priceless treasure hoard of feminist horror history. It's truly an incredible achievement, and essential reading for all horror fans, cinephiles, and women's history buffs. For anyone who says women have no history in horror cinema, now you can throw the book at them, literally.” - Mallory O'Meara, author of LADY FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

From the Publisher