How Nightbitch brought a year of women’s horror to a terrifying end

As a long-time connoisseur of chilling tales and spine-tingling suspense, I must say that 2024 has truly been a golden year for horror enthusiasts like myself – especially those who appreciate strong, empowered female leads. The horrorscape this year has been dominated by a parade of powerhouse performances, each one more captivating and terrifying than the last.

Warning: contains minor spoilers for Nightbitch.

It’s unlikely that the Academy would agree, but it’s undeniable that some of the most outstanding movies of 2024 hail from the terrifying realm of horror films.

Movies such as Longlegs, recognized for their chilling brilliance, and Strange Darling, lesser-known but equally captivating, have filled cinemas with productions that may keep you tossing and turning at night due to their suspenseful nature.

remarkably different as they may be, most of these movies share a striking similarity – they all feature female protagonists.

In various recent films, actresses such as Demi Moore (as Elisabeth Sparkle), Sydney Sweeney (Mother Mary), Maika Monroe (Detective Lee Harker), and Cailee Spaeny (Rain Carradine) have captivated audiences with their powerful performances. From the aging movie star in a film reminiscent of her past glory, to a modern-day interpretation of Mother Mary, a detective pursuing a supernatural killer, and an orphaned miner turned xenomorph-killer, these women have portrayed characters who engage in intense scenes involving bloodshed, dismemberment, and self-immolation (as seen in The First Omen). These performances have drawn massive crowds to the cinemas.

Even as the days grow shorter, the air fills with the delightful aroma of gingerbread, and the excitement builds for the arrival of Father Christmas, I’m thrilled to see that female-led horror films are leaving a lasting impact in cinemas – and the latest black comedy body horror, Nightbitch, is certainly not one to be overlooked.

And yes, before you say anything, Nightbitch absolutely qualifies as a horror film – just not in the mainstream way.

As a cinephile, I can’t wait to catch the newest creation by director Marielle Heller. Known for her exceptional work on films such as The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, I have high expectations for this fresh piece she has brought to the silver screen.

In the tale penned by Rachel Yoder and featuring Amy Adams in an extraordinary performance, Nightbitch unfolds around a woman, whose name remains unspoken, who discovers her disdain for the mundane aspects of motherhood. An unexpected revelation follows: she has the ability to metamorphose into a canine creature.

What’s so horrifying about that? You might be asking. Well, as it turns out, a lot.

Initially, when we encounter the main character, known as ‘Nightbitch’, she’s facing significant challenges, to put it mildly. She’s a stay-at-home mom who has had to sacrifice her profession, aspirations, and any vestiges of a social life to look after her energetic child and husband who is barely around.

She leads a monotonous life filled with tasks like cooking, cleaning, attending infant classes, grocery shopping, and so forth, without the assistance of a partner who struggles to let her enjoy a 10-minute shower without inquiring about milk shortages. After one of his more aggravating displays of immaturity, she firmly asserts, “Babysitting isn’t required when it’s your own child!

It is the mother’s rage and unrelenting exhaustion that catalyses her grotesque canine transformation, and this is where the obvious horror starts to settle in, beginning first when she notices that she is developing excessive amounts of hair and has a brand new set of nipples – and at its most disturbing as she notices a tail growing out of her back in a scene that is akin to that in The Substance when Margaret Qualley’s Sue repeatedly jams a needle into the obviously infected wound of her older counterpart.

In time, a mother’s connection with food becomes abhorrent, leading her to serve her child from a dog dish and, in an unsettling turn of events, she kills her own cat. Leaving out the chilling transformation scene where her teeth elongate, bones snap, and hair shed – a transformation reminiscent of Ginger Snaps from 2024.

Apart from its graphic strangeness, what truly terrifies in Nightbitch is the underlying themes it explores. The movie presents several instances where motherhood transforms into a chilling experience, making it a formidable horror.

From the bloody labour of childbirth to the profound loss of both physical and emotional self, a mother lives in a perpetual, recurring nightmare from which she cannot escape – not for the next 18 years, at least – and there’s certainly more than enough horror in that concept alone.

It appears that this year has shown us that horror might be an ideal format for expressing women’s narratives. Not only does horror offer women the greatest on-screen presence, but it also provides a powerful and imaginative means to challenge conventional norms.

Horror allows women to confront their issues without consequence, without having to conform to the expectations of their gender – whether that is the mother in Nightbitch turning into a dog as a literal way to escape her domestic reality, Maxine pulling a gun on her attacker in a dark alleyway in Ti West’s third X instalment, or the true identity of The Lady in Strange Darling being revealed (I won’t spoil that one for you).

I’d like to express my gratitude to Nightbitch, The Substance, Longlegs, Strange Darling, Immaculate, Cuckoo, Alien: Romulus, The First Omen, MAXXXine, Smile 2, Don’t Move, and many other female-led horror movies of 2024. These films have given us, horror enthusiasts, plenty to sink our teeth into and have proven that the genre is more chilling than ever.

2024-12-06 17:06

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