Is Horror a Woman? At Splat!FilmFest, It Is!
For years, there was a widespread misconception that women did not make bloody, brutal films capable of sending audiences out of the cinema with trembling knees. Whether they did not make them, or were simply not allowed to, is a separate question. Audiences at Splat!FilmFest are used to hard-hitting cinema directed by female filmmakers with wildly uninhibited imaginations. This year, during the biggest edition in the festival’s history, its 12th, the programme of nearly 100 productions makes one thing abundantly clear: horror cinema, terror and fear can also have distinctly female features.
Among other things, we will screen three powerful, frightening and genre-defying horror films by bold, boundary-pushing female filmmakers. Dreamlike, nasty and tender, “Sick”, Agata Trzebuchowska’s directorial debut, tells the story of a brother and sister who become consumed by a dark desire.
Marta Giec’s daring “ÒPI” is powered by outstanding performances from Gabriela Muskała, Magdalena Boczarska and Wiktoria Kruszczyńska, while Julia Kowalski’s harrowing Polish-French horror “Her Will Be Done”, starring Maria Wróbel in a role that will move audiences, is another film that refuses to fit into simple categories. Audiences at Splat!FilmFest will be able to meet and talk to all the filmmakers and actresses after their screenings.
A female perspective on danger and fear is also brilliantly captured in Gloria Mercer’s “A Safe Distance”. It is the story of a woman who, after turning down a proposal, is abandoned by her boyfriend in the wilderness. There she encounters a toxic couple who initially seem like a stroke of luck, but fate turns out to be particularly twisted in this case.
A brutal and wickedly funny bloodbath, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Jenn Wexler, director of “The Last Temptation of Becky”, an absurd action film in which a rebellious and brazen CIA agent travels to Poland to stop neo-Nazis led by a character played by Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”). Explosions, bullets whizzing past her head, her own broken nose and common sense cannot stop her.
A bloody thriller focused on women and the dangers lurking around them, “Find Your Friends”, written and directed by Izabel Pakzad, tells the story of a group of friends who want to escape the pressures of big-city life by heading into the desert. There, they discover that cruelty and senseless violence can live anywhere. This hard-hitting film echoes John Boorman’s “Deliverance” and Harmony Korine’s cult classic “Spring Breakers”.
The Splat!FilmFest programme also includes the explosive, hilarious and at times exceptionally nasty horror anthology “Grind”, co-directed by Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty and Chelsea Stardust. In this daring commentary on big corporations, genre icon and scream queen Barbara Crampton stars herself, an actress whose charisma and ability to adapt to a constantly changing genre are legendary. In “Grind”, Crampton embodies corporate evil. Watching her on the big screen is a reminder of why “scream queen” is a title to be proud of.
Maya Annik Bedward offers a deep and fascinating portrait of one of horror cinema’s most popular figures, the living dead, in her documentary “Black Zombie”. The director delves into the origins of the zombie and explores what Hollywood has done to Haitian culture.
The packed programme of the 12th Splat!FilmFest also features films in which women cut, hack, kick and carry out diabolical plans that no sane person would ever dream up. In the hilarious thriller “Drag”, produced, among others, by Danny DeVito, two women, played by Lucy DeVito and Lizzy Caplan, one of whom is suffering from a severe back injury, must survive an encounter with a serial killer. In the brilliant “Chili Finger”, starring John Goodman and Bryan Cranston, a civil servant, played wonderfully by Judy Greer, decides to blackmail a restaurant chain after finding a human finger in her chili. In the Turkish “Mutter: The Diary of a Mother”, a young mother learns to love the monster she has given birth to. And in the eagerly awaited “Onslaught”, a loving tribute to grindhouse cinema, a mother and former military sniper declares war on mutated soldiers.
At the special invitation of Splat!FilmFest, Julie Corman, wife of legendary producer Roger Corman, is also coming to Poland. Until his death in 2024, the two formed one of the most fascinating producing partnerships in the history of cinema. Among the festival guests, in addition to those already mentioned, are Irene Guerrero, the Spanish producer behind our festival film “Luger”, and Grace Gallagher, star of the horror film “The Forgotten Place”. As part of the special events programme, producer and screenwriter Mirella Zaradkiewicz will lead her masterclass, in which she will discuss why horror is a high-risk genre.
Splat!FilmFest, Poland’s scariest event, is headed by a woman: Monika Stolat, the festival’s director, producet and the head of programming. For more than a decade, she has been frightening Polish audiences and proving to them that horror can be festival cinema. She brings festival gems and new genre films to Polish audiences, while also inviting legends of horror and cult cinema to Poland, people whom audiences had previously been able to encounter only on screen.
Splat!FilmFest takes place from 22–31 October at Kinoteka in Warsaw. This year, selected films will also be screened in nine other cities as part of Splat!FilmFest On Tour. The festival will bring its programme to Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Gdynia, Katowice, Kraków, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin and Wrocław.