Ladies of Horror: 10 Cloverfield Lane

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Today’s pick is the psychological horror, 10 Cloverfield Lane. This movie is proof that a film can have a strong feminist character and without passing the Bechdel Test. Our heroine Michelle, wakes up in an underground bunker, after a car crash. She is locked with two men who both insist that an event has left the surface of Earth uninhabitable. At her first chance she fights her way to the exist only to see for herself that they are telling the truth. What is extraordinary about this film is Michelle is not portrayed as a sexual object. The possibility sexual abuse is acknowledged and swiftly ruled out of the movie. Michelle, like Ripely of Alien, is a fully formed character with strength, intelligence and her own motivations. That is not so say that there is not a dark aspect of patriarchy at work in the film.

SPOILER WARNING

We also love how Michelle uses a typically feminine skill, her knowledge of fashion design, to macgyver a bio-hazard suit and save her life.