Every so often, the TikTok meme machine churns out something truly delectable; a concept you can really sink your teeth into, y’know, philosophically. Most recently, that nugget has been “girl dinner.” Sure, a not-insignificant portion of it recalls the energy of a ’00s pro-ana Livejournal blog, but it’s also Salome demanding the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter, Eve eating the apple, sirens devouring sailors. Girl dinner means a lot of things and based on how it shows up in horror movies, none of it really has anything to do with biological essentialism but it does have to do with appetite. If horror exposes the tensions of a given culture, what’s evident in these films is that our most basic wants have always been imagined as an impetus for terror…as well as some not-so-basic wants.
What unites the girls and women in these movies is their hunger. Regardless of whether they seek nourishment or poison, if they indulge or suppress their cravings, delight in or are tormented by them, regardless of whether they hunger for food or something else altogether, the point is that they are hungry. Here are twenty horror films on the matter of girl dinner.
Cannibal Girls (1973)
This underrated gem out of AIP was released the year before The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and holds its own next to the horror heavyweight, even as it leans more toward camp and sexploitation. Directed by Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), Eugene Levy (American Pie) and Andrea Martin (Black Christmas) star as Clifford and Gloria, a couple vacationing in a remote town with an urban legend about a Riverdale-esque trio of cannibal vixens who seduce and devour. Little do they know, there’s a bit more to it than that. Lovers of Yellowjackets and Midsommar won’t be able to get enough.
Ganja & Hess (1973)
What Ganja Meda (Marlene Clark) really wants is freedom, a complicated desire to be sure. That means money when we first meet her, but only because she hadn’t yet learned that her dead husband’s employer, Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones), is a vampire immortal. When they fall in love and she convinces him to turn her, the dinner scene that follows this transformation accounts for one of the most mesmerizing, delightful, and terrifying in horror history.
Sugar Hill (1974)
Marki Bey stars as Diana “Sugar” Hill in this AIP-produced blaxploitation classic. Encapsulating the trope of the Enduring Woman, Sugar develops a taste for vengeance after the mob murders her boyfriend in a business deal gone wrong. With the help of voodoo priestess Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully), Baron Samedi and his zombie henchmen are summoned to satiate her desire for justice—and vengeance. Sugar Hill marked a reclamation of the zombie as a monster that originated in Haiti and was born of the horrors of enslavement. Sometimes the most nourishing dinner is catharsis.
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
On Valentine’s Day, 1900, a group of private school girls goes on a field trip to have the picnic of Pinterest dreams at a nearby rock formation where, entranced by some strange influence, three students and one of their chaperones vanish without a trace. Known for its enchanting cinematography and as a primary influence on the subgenre of missing white girl mysteries, the arc of Peter Weir’s film surrounds the impact of the girl’s disappearance on their community and the haunting that ensues. A study in absence as presence.
Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
The alternative title, Communion, should tell you a little something about Alfred Sole’s Hitchcockian kinder-slasher. Problem child Alice (Paula Sheppard) is the primary suspect when her younger sister, Karen (Brooke Shields) is ceremonially murdered during her First Communion. Like The Exorcist, Alice, Sweet Alice is a film enmeshed in the tensions of Catholic theology and those of the Church as an institution. Alice wants what every child (what every person) wants: care, support, and to be heard and validated. But trapped in the role of girl and scapegoat, even her most basic wants are pathologized.
House (1977)
House could be described as Jaws if the family home (and all your youthful hopes and dreams) were the shark. Disappointed by her father for remarrying shortly after her mother’s death and hating her new stepmom, Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) ditches their planned family vacation and instead invites her pals along to visit her mother’s family home- now belonging to her Auntie- in the country. Though provoked by rebellion, angst, and the urge to be closer to her mom, the trip takes an unsuspecting turn when the girls disvoer that Auntie’s home is no ordinary house. Nobuhiko Obayishi’s girl gang-fronted masterpiece is as much an aesthetic delight as it is a thoughtful and heartbreaking examination of romance and disillusionment in post-war Japan
Der Fan (1982)
Misery may be the first film you think of on the subject of “obsessive fan runs amok,” but that’s only because you haven’t seen Eckhart Schmidt’s dreamy exploration of obsession, influence, and violent disillusionment. Consumed by fantasies of new wave pop star R (Bodo Steiger), Simone (Désirée Nosbusch) runs away to join the circus that surrounds him and ends up living every fan’s dream: from across a crowd, their eyes lock and he chooses her. And then the dream becomes a nightmare. Lovers of Possession, Dario Argento, and Taylor Swift will delight in this West German cult classic.
The Hunger (1983)
Is there anything better than a greedy bisexual? And has there ever been one hotter or more iconic than Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Baylock? Probably not. With David Bowie and Susan Sarandon rounding out the killer triad at the center of this messy vampire polycule, Tony Scott’s 1983 classic might be critiqued as incoherent, but frankly, who cares? An impeccable score, heavenly visuals, fashion to die for, and three legendary performances make the blood feasts featured in The Hunger a delightful indulgence.
Vamp (1986)
Grace Jones will steal your heart in her role as Katrina, the spellbinding star of the After Dark Club. Though it may seem like your standard strip club, it’s actually home to a nest of vampires, and Katrina is Mother. When a noxious gaggle of aspiring frat bros come looking for a girl to purchase as a Rush Week offering, they set their sights on Katrina in what proves to be a critical- and deadly- mistake. This Barbie just wants to eat yuppies and dance with her friends, and by the end of Vamp, you too will be screaming, let her!
Def By Temptation (1990)
The vampire-succubus known only as The Temptress (Cynthia Bond) runs no danger of missing a meal while hunting in Big Bad New York. Described as “the very nature of negativeness in mankind,” she is said to “use sexuality to hold morality hostage” by seducing men and devouring them, but what she really hungers for is the innocence and spiritual purity of her prey. Enter Joel (James Bond III), a divinity student on the path to becoming a minister. Naive to the ways of the world, Joel’s crisis of faith plays out through his encounter with The Temptress in this very Christian meditation on the corrupting forces said to prey upon Black men.
The Craft (1996)
High school is a horror movie, that’s for damn sure. And like a fucked up edition of The Wizard Of Oz, the teen “weirdos” of The Craft all hunger in different- albeit completely human- ways. Bonnie (Neve Campbell) wants her scars to be taken away and to be seen as beautiful, Rochelle (Rachel True) longs for her resident racist bully to meet justice, Sarah (Robin Tunney) wants to be desired by the object of her affection, and Nancy (Fairuza Balk)…. Well, Nancy wants power. Perhaps a bit too much. What’s a little godhunger for lunch?
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Weird sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) have always been inseparable. That is, until the night Ginger gets her first period and is promptly attacked by a wild animal—then the changes begin. Growing up is a process of developing new tastes and needs, shedding old skin, and finding new ways to feel at home in our bones. In other words, it’s a process of continuously devouring and regenerating the self. Ginger Snaps both problematizes and celebrates these transformations and the appetite for destruction they require.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
After a night of casual boystalking takes a really bad turn, Jennifer (Megan Fox) manages to make it home- just survive, they say- but when she comes back, she comes back wrong…and with some new cravings. Don’t worry though; she isn’t killing people, she’s killing boys. And by “killing,” we of course mean devouring their flesh, bathing in their blood, and enriching herself with their life force. Y’know, Friday night activities. Just ask emo boy Colin (Kyle Gallner), otherwise known as “lasagna with teeth.” A single night can really change your life.
Raw (2016)
Freud theorized that our personalities and sexualities- our tastes- are shaped by how we respond to our family dynamics, and what Justine (Garrance Marillier) wants most is to belong. A legacy freshman at the veterinary school attended by her parents and older sister, Alexia (Ella Rumpf), she’s forced to violate the lifelong vegetarianism practiced by her family during a hazing ritual her first week. What that first taste of flesh triggers is a different family legacy altogether…and some complicated desires.
The Neon Demon (2016)
“Are you food, or are you sex?” is the question and beating heart at the core of Nicolas Winding Refn’s shimmering meditation on beauty, power, and the predatory nature of the fashion and beauty industries. Elle Fanning stars as Jesse, the latest at-risk ingenue to arrive in Los Angeles and internalize the lies it tells her about herself—namely, that her beauty will protect and feed her. Taken under the wing of admiring makeup artist, Ruby (Jenna Malone), she’s ushered into a world of surrealist spectacle where everyone wants a piece of her. In the City of Angels, “girl dinner” quite literally means girls for dinner.
Sharp Objects (2018)
Growing up as a girl can sometimes feel like being enfolded into the most delightful, tantalizing secrets of the universe…and other times, it can feel like being poisoned. Frequently, that poison is disguised by sweetness and found in the most well-lit places. Everyone is incriminated in the series based on Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name because what we all share at one point or another is an appetite for self-destruction. While struggling with alcoholism and compulsions toward self-harm, Camille is forced to return to her hometown to investigate the murder of one young girl and the disappearance of another. The intersection of the case and her personal history means she must dine with demons old and new.
Swallow (2019)
Hunter (Haley Bennett) is nothing but grateful when she marries into an affluent, ambitious family, even though no one cares about anything she has to say. There to look pretty, keep things clean, cook and entertain, and make her husband look good; the thing about Hunter is she’s happy to do it! Or pretends to be, at least. But the truth about the romance of the tradwife lifestyle is that there’s nothing romantic about it at all. Once she gets pregnant, the conditions set by her new family become increasingly unpalatable, and the more she tries to swallow a life she doesn’t want, the more she finds herself craving things she shouldn’t.
Yellowjackets (2021)
One word: Snackie. The second season of Yellowjackets features a full-scale bacchanal (really, so did the first, but they upped the ante considerably this go around), and being that this show is basically entirely about girl dinner- the full spread: ambition, death, sex, love, martyrdom, vengeance, family, divine madness, belt soup, you name it- this list couldn’t be complete without it. I mean, haven’t you ever loved your best friend so much you’d eat her ear to be close to her (and to maybe keep yourself alive, but mostly to be close to her)? Yeah. That’s what I thought.
Bones And All (2022)
We all just want to be loved for who we are, right? Young cannibals Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet) haunt the Midwest in Luca Guadagnino’s sun-drenched romance about the horrors of growing up desperate to not become your parents while also desperate for their love. Plagued by the existential question of whether they deserve love (or life), they find that love in each other—literally. A film for anyone who really identifies with the Maurice Sendek rhyme, “Please don’t go. I’ll eat you up, I love you so.”
Pearl (2022)
Oh, Pearl. All she wants is to be a star. Admired and desired and paid attention to. Delusion incarnate, Pearl (Mia Goth) nourishes herself on her dreams: the producer, director, and star of the movie playing in her head, she grants no mercy to those who get in her way or break character (the one she assigned them without their knowledge of course) and in this single-minded dedication, she allows everything around her to rot. Nothing but pity to those who find themselves on the wrong side of her outbursts…or her dinner table.
