WOMEN IN HORROR + 😊 🩸

The Witch (2015) • dir. Robert Eggers
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) • dir. Tobe Hooper
Hush (2016) • dir. Mike Flanagan
Ready or Not (2019) • dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Carrie (1976) • dir. Brian De Palma
Freaky (2020) • dir. Christopher Landon
A Classic Horror Story (2021) • dir. Roberto De Feo & Paolo Strippoli
The Love Witch (2016) • dir. Anna Biller
Scream (1996) • dir. Wes Craven
Jennifer’s Body (2009) • dir. Karyn Kusama

Samantha Robinson as Elaine in The Love Witch (2016) dir, Anna Biller

“It’s all stuff that I fantasize about wearing, outfits I would wear if I was that put together. I used to put a lot of time into my own wardrobe, but since I’ve been making films I’ve put a lot of that energy into film wardrobes instead. I love vintage-inspired clothing, and I used vintage patterns to create her wardrobe. I wanted her to look really stylish, but also to be dressed how I imagine a 1960s witch would dress. I know some girls who dress like Elaine, and I love the way they dress and do their makeup.

Elaine’s style definitely follows a narrative path. One of her most important outfits is the white dress she wears in the last tearoom scene with Trish. It’s a stylish mod short linen dress with a high collar, so it looks Victorian like her other dresses, but it’s short. More importantly, it’s white. Elaine feels she is going to get married, so she unconsciously is dressing like a bride. The white is also in stark contrast to Trish’s black outfit, that she wears while mourning her dead husband. So Elaine goes from red for danger, to pink for female fantasy, to black with a rainbow lining to signal inner danger, to yellow for aggression, to purple for magic, to multicolored for deception, to white for bridal, then back to red for transgression and finally back to black, for death.”  — Anna Biller

Staging Pleasure: In Conversation with Anna Biller

Samantha Robinson’s dance audition for The Love Witch (2016)

The Love Witch (2016) dir. Anna Biller

The Love Witch (2016) dir. Anna Biller