There is no denying that being a woman can be quite terrifying. But nothing is better suited than a classic horror film to consider just how terrifying real-life fears and difficulties can be.

With scream queen protagonists and nuanced stories, the genre has a subset of feminist horror. While some franchises may center on the male gaze, and a handful of older filmmakers may include shameful messages (ever notice how the first character to be killed in a slasher is the one who has sex?), horror also has a long history as a feminist genre. From the "last girl standing firm against the villain" trope, to themes exploring puberty and empowerment, to the many up-and-coming filmmakers working in the genre today, many horror films center on female narratives. Below is a roundup of must-see feminist horror films.

Has there ever been a more badass character in the sci-fi/horror world than Ripley? Sigourney Weaver stars in this space movie about the horrors that await a seven-person crew on a mission to explore the new moon when they encounter signs of life. Her teammates turn a deaf ear to her warnings, leaving her (along with her cat Jones) a one-woman mission, but there is nothing more terrifying than when no one hears a scream.

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"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was the first ever slasher, and while "Halloween" is credited with pushing the genre into the mainstream, "Black Christmas" actually came first, just months after "TCM. Released just a few months after "TCM," this home invasion thriller starring Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder, two of the most popular actors of the 1970s, is set in a sorority house just before winter break. The sorority girls begin receiving obscene phone calls and a murder occurs.

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Being a teenage girl is a nightmare, and this film, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, is exactly that. Brian De Palma deftly adapts the story of a bullied girl (Sissy Spacek) with telepathic powers and her abusive, religious mother (Piper Laurie), making the horrors of the girls' locker room as real as the supernatural. She will forever be the prom queen in our hearts.

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Ginger Snaps walked as Jennifer's Body could run. (Like Carrie, it is a classic in the adolescent horror genre. However, after an encounter with the Beast, the outcast Ginger (Catherine Isabelle) grows a tail and begins to transform into a werewolf.

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When we hear the phrase "a girl walks home alone at night," it implies that something terrible must be lurking around the corner, and it will bring her to her death. Ana Lily Amirpour's film defies that perception: in this Persian-language indie film, the girl walking home is an all-powerful vampire (Sheila Vand). Set in a ghost town in Iran, she roams the streets on a skateboard and finds men to feast on, including men with addictions of their own.

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In this film inspired by H. G. Wells' 1897 novel, Elisabeth Moss plays a woman on the run from her abusive and crazy scientist/tech boss ex-boyfriend (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Having invented a suit that makes him invisible, he stalks and torments her in the most macabre ways until she discovers how to beat his game.

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No one knows what "it" is in this teen scream, but once you have sex with it, it begins to haunt you (i.e., it's a pretty obvious stand-in for the shame associated with teen sex and STDs). The film is a somber, quirky indie film centered on high school student Jay, played by Micah Monroe, whose performance quickly made him a modern-day scream queen. With its larger themes, "It Follows" and filmmaker David Robert Mitchell unquestionably changed the horror game upon its release and inspired the "highbrow horror" genre as we know it today.

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When "Jennifer's Body" was released, misogynistic critics failed to appreciate the genius of this Diablo Cody-penned film directed by Karyn Kusama. Megan Fox stars as Jennifer, a protagonist whose body becomes a vessel for the devil after an assault, and in reaction, she begins killing boys at school. As her best friend, the clumsy Needy (Amanda Seyfriend), takes matters into her own hands, it turns into a campy cat-and-mouse game, but this was a smart movie about assault long before it was talked about more openly in Hollywood.

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Anna Biller's "The Witch in Love" is more comedy than horror film, but it is a satire that will captivate you. Shot in Technicolor and set in a 60s-style world, the film follows Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a young witch desperate to find love. When men let her down again and again, whether they are simply Pisces women or force her to conform to certain expectations, she finds herself bloodied but more powerful as a witch.

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Not many horror films are set in daylight, but leave it to genre master Ari Aster to make one of the freakiest cult films ever set at a sunny Swedish film festival. Grieving the death of her entire family, Dani (Florence Pugh) is surprised to learn that her lover (Jack Rayner) is traveling with friends to investigate a midsummer festival in a desolate location. Things get strange upon arrival, and "Midsummer" evolves into a folk horror about grief, found families, and bad boyfriends.

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"Pearl," the second film in Ti West's "X" trilogy, can be enjoyed as a standalone film or as a prequel to the series. On its own, the slasher, set in 1920s Spanish Flu-era Texas, is a wildly entertaining examination of feminine rage, featuring the most overt feminist themes of the three films. Series star Mia Goth reprises her role as Pearl, the titular character, a would-be farmer's wife who dreams of the silver screen. She's a bit eccentric and will do anything to become a star, so you'll scream before she takes her final bow. You will also change the way you look at Scarecrow.

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When Julia Ducournaud's feature film directorial debut premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, audiences couldn't stop talking about how it creeped them out. The gore portrayal is exaggerated, but the film is stomach-churning. When Justine (Garance Marillier) goes to veterinary school, she undergoes a ritual in which she is forced to eat raw meat, despite the fact that she is a vegetarian. The film is an allegory of sexual awakening, and it will keep you full from start to finish.

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You get married and find out on your wedding night that your in-laws are trying to kill you, not just a hypothetical nightmare. What do you do?" That's what happened to Grace (Samara Weaving), who married into the Le Domus family, a wealthy board game family. When Grace chooses to play hide-and-seek, it becomes a deadly hunt and an action-packed, sinisterly funny F. Rich movie by the horror collective Radio Silence.

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Don't ignore your mother's instincts. Rosemary's Baby, the story of a Manhattan woman (Mia Farrow) who is convinced that the child she is pregnant with is out of this world, is a classic that has inspired countless other horror films and is also a fashion film.

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Directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown, this '80s film plays with every expectation one might think of upon hearing its title. Rather than an exploitative slasher, it satirizes the subgenre (the murder weapon is a phallic power drill) and uplifts the women who are its frequent victims. Even though it is a parody, it plays out like a horror film, so the bonkers killings and scares are still present.

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Dario Argento's splashy 1977 original is legendary, but Luca Guadagnino's remake is a feminist update. The original Susie (Jessica Harper) was the vessel for all the horrors that unfolded behind closed doors at Tanz Academy, but the version played by Dakota Johnson steps into her power. The overall mood is dark and brooding, featuring some refracted body horror, but the payoff deserves a standing ovation.

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Set in colonial New England, teenage girl Thomasin (Blake's Anja Taylor-Joy) is accused of being a witch by her family and subject to scrutiny. Robert Eggers' debut feature film cemented him as a horror writer with an impeccable sense of mood, period accuracy, and language. It is also one of the best witch stories ever made, both as a tale of a young woman confronting mistrust and mob mentality, and as a story that delves into the sacred feminine. Watch it with the thought, "Live Deliciously."

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