Five Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Mondays, July 6 - August 3 2026
7:00 - 8:30pm ET (NYC Time)
$180 Paid Patreon Members / $195 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
As Needy Lesnicky put it in Jennifer’s Body, “Hell is a teenage girl.” Horror movies certainly seem to think so. “Girl Horror” is a loosely coined subgenre that’s gained traction over the course of the past decade. But what is “Girl Horror,” exactly? Though seemingly familiar and intuitive, it proves about as slippery as the idea of “girlhood” itself.
The horror genre provides audiences with some of the most compelling depictions of femininity in cinema, from wrenching classics like The Exorcist (1973), to cult teen slashers like Cherry Falls (1999) or Ginger Snaps (2000), to modern masterpieces like The Witch (2016). The feminine experience, it seems, has continually electrified our collective nightmares and lent insight into the gendered dynamics of our political world in the process. Using depictions of adolescence as a jumping off point, this class seeks to probe a range of these cinematic representations, unpacking the myriad connections artists make between “girlhood,” “womanhood,” and a range of societal terrors.
Using a series of case studies across subgenres to ground discussion, author, film critic, and film programmer Payton McCarty-Simas will take students through a survey of the history and evolution of depictions of “femininity” in horror cinema, both narratively and aesthetically. Students will learn to deeply analyze films both thematically and structurally, utilizing film theory, political history, and literary fiction as guides. The class will delve into cinematic form and visual aesthetics as well as narrative conventions, providing the opportunity for students to hone their skills as media analysts.
Students will also engage with primary sources (film reviews, short stories, interviews with actors and directors, etc.) in addition to watching a film each week. The course will continually employ a queer lens to broaden definitions of both “femininity” and “girlhood” in the context of cinema, working to trouble the bio-essentialist underpinnings at the heart of the genre and highlight a range of women’s voices in the historically masculine-dominated genre space.
Students will come away with a deeper knowledge of horror cinema, its history, and its relationship to femininity, not to mention a vastly expanded watch list!
Payton McCarty-Simas is an author, programmer, and film critic based in New York City. They hold a Masters in film and media studies from Columbia University, where she focused her research on horror film, psychedelia, and the occult in particular. Payton’s writing has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Fangoria, Little White Lies, and others, and she is the author of two books, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture, and That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film. She lives with her partner and their cat, Shirley Jackson.
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Five Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Mondays, July 6 - August 3 2026
7:00 - 8:30pm ET (NYC Time)
$180 Paid Patreon Members / $195 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
As Needy Lesnicky put it in Jennifer’s Body, “Hell is a teenage girl.” Horror movies certainly seem to think so. “Girl Horror” is a loosely coined subgenre that’s gained traction over the course of the past decade. But what is “Girl Horror,” exactly? Though seemingly familiar and intuitive, it proves about as slippery as the idea of “girlhood” itself.
The horror genre provides audiences with some of the most compelling depictions of femininity in cinema, from wrenching classics like The Exorcist (1973), to cult teen slashers like Cherry Falls (1999) or Ginger Snaps (2000), to modern masterpieces like The Witch (2016). The feminine experience, it seems, has continually electrified our collective nightmares and lent insight into the gendered dynamics of our political world in the process. Using depictions of adolescence as a jumping off point, this class seeks to probe a range of these cinematic representations, unpacking the myriad connections artists make between “girlhood,” “womanhood,” and a range of societal terrors.
Using a series of case studies across subgenres to ground discussion, author, film critic, and film programmer Payton McCarty-Simas will take students through a survey of the history and evolution of depictions of “femininity” in horror cinema, both narratively and aesthetically. Students will learn to deeply analyze films both thematically and structurally, utilizing film theory, political history, and literary fiction as guides. The class will delve into cinematic form and visual aesthetics as well as narrative conventions, providing the opportunity for students to hone their skills as media analysts.
Students will also engage with primary sources (film reviews, short stories, interviews with actors and directors, etc.) in addition to watching a film each week. The course will continually employ a queer lens to broaden definitions of both “femininity” and “girlhood” in the context of cinema, working to trouble the bio-essentialist underpinnings at the heart of the genre and highlight a range of women’s voices in the historically masculine-dominated genre space.
Students will come away with a deeper knowledge of horror cinema, its history, and its relationship to femininity, not to mention a vastly expanded watch list!
Payton McCarty-Simas is an author, programmer, and film critic based in New York City. They hold a Masters in film and media studies from Columbia University, where she focused her research on horror film, psychedelia, and the occult in particular. Payton’s writing has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Fangoria, Little White Lies, and others, and she is the author of two books, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture, and That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film. She lives with her partner and their cat, Shirley Jackson.
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