The Final Girls Present: XX at FACT, Liverpool
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Feminist horror collective The Final Girls have quietly built up a reputation as purveyors of thoughtfully conceived, quality film events that challenge audience preconceptions of genre cinema. Per their website, they seek to explore “the intersection of horror and feminism”, providing context and provoking debate with screenings of such transgressive greats as Claire Denis’ cannibalism-as-lust-movie Trouble Every Day, complex coming-of-age horror Carrie and Anna Biller’s absorbing horror-drama The Love Witch.
With such pedigree, it’s worth taking note when The Final Girls decide to show a new film. This May, the collective present a one-night-only nationwide screening of XX, the first and only all-female horror anthology. The film combines shorts from respected directors Karyn Kusama (The Invitation), Jovanka Vuckovic (The Captured Bird) and Roxanne Benjamin (V/H/S, Southbound), alongside the directorial debut of St. Vincent – each connected visually by eerily beautiful animation from Sofia Carrillo. We’re promised that each short has a distinctly feminine theme that tackles and subverts expectations placed upon women and the roles that they play.
