Women in Horror: The Directors, Part 2 (Pet Sematary, Celia, Ravenous, American Mary)

A Cure for the Common Craig

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More women! More horror! Directors. And movies. We're right in the middle of a three-part series on horror movies directed by women! This episode features very strong evidence that sometimes dead is better, a young girl who dreams of creepy storybook characters while rabbits run wild in Australia, western expansion and cannibalism in the 19th-century, and a promising medical student driven to pursue an unconventional surgical career.
Stephen King should be ashamed of himself. He gave a perfectly respectful graveyard honoring animals such a bad rap. It's a place where the dead speak. But you certainly do not want to go beyond, to the place where the dead walk! Director Mary Lambert takes us there and back again, in the first feature film adaptation of Pet Sematary (1989).
Political tension, and rabbit panic are running wild in Australia in 1957. A young girl struggles with forbidden friendships, the death of her grandmother, the threat of her pet rabbit being taken away, and even her own imagination. Childhood proves to be a very challenging experience for Celia (1989), directed by Ann Turner.
It's manifest destiny time in the United States. But some of these characters are definitely not who you would hope to encounter if you were heading west in the mid-1800s. Director Antonia Bird serves up a darkly comedic adventure of gruesome cannibalism, with some truly unsettling music setting the tone, in Ravenous (1999)!
Ah, Katharine Isabelle is featured in the role of Mary Mason. A promising young medical student, who uses her skill to perform underground body modification surgeries. But why would she leave medical school for such a pursuit? Well, money. And revenge. The Soska Sisters invite you to spend a little time under the knife, with American Mary (2012).