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Thomas Foster, Programmer at Filmhuis Den Haag, on Scream Queens:

Spookytober is here again and as always we're diving heads first into one of our fav genres: horror! Because when seasons change and leaves fall from the trees nothing hit's different then a horror deepcut.

This year, curating a Halloween program has been particularly challenging, shaped by the current zeitgeist and the painful reality of ongoing violence against women. Instead of repeating familiar tropes, we chose to look further and create a selection that is female-centred in a way that feels healthy, fun and different.

With October upon us, Scream Queens delves into the women who have both shaped and haunted horror cinema. From survivors to witches, killers and uncanny figures, these films trace a century-long journey through the evolution of female archetypes. Moving between cult classics and art-house nightmares, the programme explores how horror uses women to embody fear, defiance, vulnerability and power. Again and again, the genre reinvents the “scream queen” as something far more complex than a victim.

Horror, after all, is a space where the final girl and the female antagonist appear as two sides of the same coin. Scream Queens invites you to experience the stories through a different lens and consider how female characters continue to redefine the genre.