Crouching at the door

: The Devil's Doorway and firsts in Northern Irish and female horror filmmaking

Abstract

This essay was written for future readers and scholars, especially those in the fields of women's horror and Irish horror filmmaking, and it focuses on my produced screen output between 2012 and 2018.

As highlighted in recent scholarship, the historic work of women in film production has been poorly documented, so this piece seeks to ensure that my own small contribution is recorded. It aims to place my debut feature film, The Devil's Doorway (2018), in its cultural, political, and personal context.

The first chapter outlines the increased visibility of women in horror that began in the 2010s and received wide attention on the release of The Babadook (Kent) and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Amirpour) in 2014. This was accompanied by academic writing and grass roots activism that constitute the Women in Horror movement and I discuss the effect and influence this climate had on my work at the time.

The second chapter considers how, during a similar time frame, the film industry in Northern Ireland, via Northern Ireland Screen, began to develop local filmmaking talent in a bid to sustain a regional film industry with an international profile.

Chapters three and four look at my short films and The Devil's Doorway. That film was considered, on its release, the first horror film written and directed by a Northern Irish woman and I use these chapters to consider how my identity and experiences as a Northern Irish woman contribute to my output and how this work may be considered specifically Northern Irish or female output.

Date of Award	Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Glenn Patterson (Supervisor) & Derek Johnston (Supervisor)