Heidi Honeycutt, actor, programmer of Etheria Film Festival and friend of FANGORIA, has spent the last 15 years researching and studying the history of female directors in the horror genre for her brand new upcoming book I Spit On Your Celluloid – and we’re excited to bring you an exclusive cover reveal today.
Available in August 2024, I Spit On Your Celluloid is described as “a first-of-its-kind celebration, study, and “a book that needed to be written”” and follows the long and storied history of women’s contribution behind the camera to the horror genre, with foreword by Pet Sematary and Urban Legends: Bloody Mary director Mary Lambert.
A full blurb of the book reads as follows:
Slumber Party Massacre. Pet Sematary. Near Dark. American Psycho… These horror movies have heavily contributed to pop culture and are loved by horror fans everywhere. But so many others have been forgotten by history. From the first silent reels to modern independent films, in this book you’ll discover the creepy, horrible, grotesque, beautiful, wrong, good, and fantastic — and the one thing they share in common. This is the true history of women directing horror movies.
Having conducted hundreds of interviews and watched thousands of horror films, Heidi Honeycutt defines the political and cultural forces that shape the way modern horror movies are made by women. The women’s rights and civil rights movements, new distribution technology, digital cameras, the destruction of the classic studio system, and the abandonment of the Hays code have significantly impacted women directors and their movies. So, too, social media, modern ideas of gender and racial equality, LGBTQ acceptance, and a new generation of provocative, daring films that take shocking risks in the genre.
Other horror icons giving advance praise and testimonies to I Spit On Your Celluloid include Gremlins director Joe Dante, who calls the book a “major work”, and American Psycho‘s Mary Harron, who calls it a “a treasure trove of information, written with affection and respect.”
If you’re still not convinced, just take a quick peek at this hugely cohesive and detailed table of contents:
Chapter 1: Mother of All Evil: 1896 through 1945
Chapter 2: A Land of Both Shadow and Substance: The United Kingdom and the United States in the 1950s and 1960s
Chapter 3: A Woman’s Place is in Exploitation Films: Drive-Ins, Art Films, and Feminism
Chapter 4: Obras maestras del terror: Non-English Language Horror
Chapter 5: Some Nudity Required: Strippers, Sequels, and VHS
Chapter 6: Sometimes Dead is Better: Theatrical Horror of the 1980s & 1990s
Chapter 7: Pieces of Jennifer’s Body: Theatrical and mainstream horror of the 21st century
Chapter 8: 21st Century Viscera: Digital technology, short films, and innovation
Chapter 9: Promising Young Women: The Changing Nature of Horror
The stunning cover – designed by Luke Insect – features scenes from Roberta Findlay’s A Woman’s Torment, Anna Biller’s The Love Witch, and Kei Fujiwara’s ID, with color inspiration from Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Jill Gevargizian’s The Stylist, and Nia D’Acosta’s Candyman.
You can find out more about I Spit On Your Celluloid from publisherHeadpress Books and set a calendar reminder for your perfect summer read next August!
