‘Women in peril are oddly empowering’ says Insidious: Chapter 3 star Stefanie Scott

THE star of a hotly-anticipated horror film admits young girls love scaring themselves to death as women outnumber men watching Insidious: Chapter 3.

IN horror films, it’s the smart girls who come out on top.

That might explain why an increasing number of young women — some as young as 10 — are embracing a genre once considered to be a primarily male domain.

More than half the US opening weekend audience for Insidious: Chapter 3(54 per cent) was female. And almost a third of those moviegoers was under the age of 18.

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Shock treatment ... Stefanie Scott in Insidious: Chapter 3.

“They love seeing women beat the bad guys, the bogeyman,’’ says Variety critic and horror buff Richard Kuipers, whose own 13-year-old daughter is a major fan of the $US350 million franchise.

“She goes for the strongest M she can get and I think that’s because, deep down, women feel horror more than men do. The threat of sexual or domestic violence is much more immediate for women.

“And I think that’s why a. they are the victims; and b. they are also some of the strongest characters in horror.”

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Female audiences also contributed 50 per cent or more of initial box office of films such as The Conjuring (helmed by James Wan, who also directed the first two Insidious films), its spin-off Annabelle, and the fifth film in the “found-footage” Paranormal Activity phenomenon The Marked Ones.

Horror hit ... Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton and Tony Amendola in Annabelle.

“More than any other movie genre, horror is about catharsis,’’ says Kuipers.

“For teenage girls to see someone around their own age encounter something very dangerous in the supernatural realm, figure it out, and survive, is a big part of the attraction.

“These girls are about to become women and go out into the world and encounter all sorts of (difficult) situations whether they be in the workplace or walking home alone at night.

“Horror movies, metaphorically, represent those kinds of fears, those kinds of anxieties.”

Pfeiffer Brown, star of The Gallows, the other hotly-anticipated Blumhouse Productions horror film releasing in Australia this month, supports Kuipers’ thesis with her own personal experience

“I went through a phase, all through middle school, so in my tween years, where my friends and I were obsessed with horror movies,’’ she says.

“Every weekend we’d have big sleepovers and one of our parents would take us to the DVD store, we’d get two or three movies and just scare ourselves to death.

“Everyone, I felt, at that age, between 10 and 14, I just loved that genre.

“It seems like a strange thing to include yourself in. But deep down, we are all interested, we all want to feel that sense of vulnerability and (terror).”

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From Deborah Kerr in The Innocents (1961) to Jaime Lee Curtis in Halloween (1978), Heather Lagenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Neve Campbell in Scream (1996), there’s a long and established tradition in horror films of strong, resourceful women being given centre stage.

“The ones that get slaughtered are the bimbos. The cluey ones, the ones who did their homework, they are the ones who survive,’’ says Kuipers.

No wonder such characters resonate strongly with contemporary female audiences.

“(Horror heroines) have to use their brains because men will always overpower them, physically. It’s a simple fact. So a lot of it has to do with being clever and resourceful. And something about that cathartic experience just clicks,” says Kuipers.

It’s not only female cinema goers who connect with these powerful female characters.

“There is no better launch pad for an aspiring actor than a good horror film — because of what they are asked to do, what they can showcase as a performer,’’ says Kuipers.

Insidious: Chapter 3’s Stefanie Scott agrees.

The juicy role of Quinn Brenner, a troubled young woman struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother, is the perfect vehicle for the former Disney actor to make the difficult transition from child star (Scott is best known for her role as Lexi Reed on A.N.T. Farm) to bona fide leading lady.

Feeling lost and lonely, her college student character tries to contact her mother from beyond the grave — but brings back a malevolent otherworldly presence instead.

“Quinn is a petite, 17-year-old girl who is very fragile, so for her to be brave enough to fight off a demon like that, and to have to do it by herself, I found that really empowering,” says Scott.

“Especially when (veteran actor) Lin Shaye and I team up in the film. It really is just us two.”

Scott, who has four films scheduled for release this year — including Hasbro’s musically-minded Jem and the Holograms and independent dramas Caught and Life At These Speeds — sees Quinn as part of a much larger trend.

“Every film I have taken on this year has been very empowering for the female characters involved — young women are leading the movie rather than being the arm candy to some hot Hollywood male.

“I actually think I get to be in this business at a really exciting time because so many people are trying to break outside the box. I get to be 18 at this time. It’s really exciting to be part of that.”

Insidious: Chapter 3 opens on July 16. The Gallows opens on July 23

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Originally published as ‘Women in peril are oddly empowering’ says Insidious: Chapter 3 star Stefanie Scott