The Feminine Horror Renaissance

Why Horror Finally Put On Lip Gloss

Horror has always loved women; it just did not always necessarily know how to treat them. 

Take a look at the genre as a whole, I mean, one of the community’s absolute favourite tropes has always been the final girl; so why did it take so long for the producers/writers of these films to stop mocking “her” for being a woman? 

Classic horror often framed our favourite femmes as naive, vain, or simply to be seen as someone who has survived despite being a woman.

As discussed briefly in my Fear In Frame article, specifically in the 1950s-1980s era, some of Final Girl Royalty, such as none other than Laurie Strode, were less actual characters and more of a message. They survived not because horror celebrated femininity, but because they represented restraint. 

In many early slashers, the final girl was always rewarded for purity while the hyper-feminine women were punished - a message that quietly framed womanhood itself as something dangerous. To put it plainly, we were dealing with the original blueprint for “good girl vs bad girl” storytelling. 

But that is no more. 

Say bye-bye to beige clothes and unconditioned hair; the real baddies are now gracing our screens. 

Women in horror are now free to be messy, selfish, angry, horny, chaotic - and do it all in heels. They no longer have to survive politely, and I can not be more thankful for that as a huge fan of femme fatales. Hyper-feminine aesthetics are being reclaimed and weaponised by the likes of movies such as:

❤︎ The Babysitter, 2017

❤︎ Mandy, 2018

❤︎ Fresh, 2022

❤︎ Bodies Bodies Bodies, 2022

❤︎ The X trilogy, 2022-2024

❤︎ Lisa Frankenstein, 2024 

❤︎ Companion, 2025

❤︎ Forbidden Fruits, 2026

But by far, the media that kick-started this craze is the iconic Carrie movie from 1976. Long before femininity became fashionable, this film explored imagery of menstruation as body horror, dealing with shame and bullying, but using her own rage as power?! Fantastic! 

Girlhood Has Always Been Horror

We as audiences love seeing maximalism, camp scenes and even better: fashion as storytelling. There is something strangely cathartic about watching violence wrapped in glitter, hyper-femininity and impossibly good outfits. It feels less like escapism and more like permission.

To really show this, I am going to ask a simple question: Why does Jennifer’s Body hit differently now than 2009?

Audiences have evolved. We finally understand that this movie is so much more than just a hot demon chick. That is actually just a bonus. What the film is really exploring is exploitation, female friendship and a lovely side of rage. 

We all relate to the pressure of body image, friendship fallouts, loneliness, performance and beauty standards because we have lived them. So, as horror has always done, it has shifted to fit what real-world problems scare us. 

And nothing is scarier than girlhood. 

Okay, But What Actually IS Bubblegum Horror: A Definition

Whether you call it bubblegum horror, feminine horror, pink horror, or simply horror for the girls, a distinct aesthetic movement has quietly emerged over the last decade. It is campy, glossy, funny and strangely heartfelt, pairing hyper-feminine visuals with bloodshed in ways horror rarely dared to before.

We are no longer praising horror simply because “there are women in it.” Bubblegum horror offers something richer: maximalist styling, pink palettes, iced coffees clutched between catastrophes, and fashion so good it may as well deserve its own credit line. 

Above all else, it is violence with a wink.

Of course, this subgenre does not take itself too seriously. Take Cherry’s death in Forbidden Fruits, for example: unable to free herself because of her nails being too long, the scene perfectly balances horror with camp absurdity. It is ridiculous, self-aware, and somehow still memorable. Love it. 

Yes, the horror still exists, and whilst these films look playful, beneath the glitter is something extremely vulnerable. Our loneliness, insecurities, grief and exhausting performances of being women shine through. 

The prettiest horror films often say something ugly. And perhaps that is exactly why we cannot look away.