"All the Pretty Girls" by Ronald Malfi (BADASS HORROR)

Horror has a Misogyny Problem.

All stories discussed in these columns were published in BADASS HORROR, a Dybbuk Press anthology.

Nothing quite clarified the lack of women representation in Hollywood like seeing The Hard Way right after Silence of the Lambs. I followed Jody Foster's multidimensional competent FBI trainee (who still forgets to check the corners) rescue a woman who also refuses to play a victim with a comedy in which the only woman gets dangled off of a roof so Michael J. Fox can rescue her. Sexism is bad in Hollywood. It's worse in horror. Too often, horror writers just kill off women for cheap thrills. No matter how often we condemn these tropes, we still get the sexy lamp, the dead girlfriend in the fridge, etc.

I'm not innocent here. I published BADASS HORROR, an anthology loaded exclusively with male writers. I would later publish anthologies with more women writers, but I can't criticize sexism in the horror community without acknowledging that I too have contributed to the problem.

I should also say that Ronald Malfi is one of the most generous and helpful writers I've met. I asked both him and Michael Hemmingson for stories to fill this anthology out and they immediately submitted. When my roommate wanted to make a film about Long Island with four different scenes written by different writers, I approached my friends. One sent garbage. Malfi was the only one who sent me a script that my roommate could have filmed. Sadly, my roommate also flaked. When I went freelance in 2008, I sold my first pitch because Malfi agreed to an interview. He's still writing great books. He's still going from strength to strength. I still consider him a friend.

Furthermore, this story is one of the strongest stories in the anthology. Malfi writes beautifully and he knows how to ramp up the sense of doom. I always appreciate stories with sentences like “In his youth, he'd spent many evenings watching the sun deteriorate beyond the horizon, bruising the sky with a multitude of pastel hues while sipping dandelion wine and smoking Pall Malls.” Ronald's protagonist is disturbing because he's so normal. His name is Pablo Santiago and he works at the local tourist spot. He doesn't seem evil. He doesn't see himself as evil. He's merely following the orders of his god, which happens to be a 1962 Mercury Comet S-22 Coupe.

Even better, Malfi leaves the car's power ambiguous. The story ends with the cops finding more bodies than Pablo admits to killing. One cop sits in the car for much longer than he intended and volunteers to take care of it himself. That could mean that the car has found a new disciple. Or it could mean nothing. Pablo could just be bad at counting. He wasn't trying to kill the women that he locked in the trunk. He was always hoping that they'd emerge after a week fully alive and reborn. Without an easy explanation, the tension creates a more powerful story.

Still, I wish that I had asked for a different story.

For all its beautiful prose and narrative tension, this is still a story about a man who kidnaps, rapes and murders women by locking them in a trunk. Worse, it's all his perspective. One woman begins the story as a corpse and the second one has one scene before he grabs her. Like many horror stories, this one relies on the women in peril trope without caring about the women.

Of course, the trope reflects real concerns. No one is posting memes advising men to always have a full tank of gas and a fully charged phone. Saoirse Ronan made news by stating that women do have to worry about their safety on a talk show. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Adrienne Shelly were murdered in New York buildings, places that should be safe due to the potential witnesses.

The problem with stories like this one is the fact that the women don't matter. They are just tools for the serial killer to disturb the reader. Like racism and homophobia, sexism is systemic. I didn't have a problem with this story when I published it. Malfi certainly didn't intend to write a story that reinforced misogynist tropes. Yet, I read it today and I wince.

Horror is supposed to reflect modern fears. Whether we are talking about killer clowns or the Babadook, horror helps us to process the myriad anxieties that hit us daily. Is it any surprise that Terrifier 3 is still making money so close to an election where one candidate has promised to use the military against his enemies?

Still, horror needs to do better. No, we shouldn't do away with the “women in peril” trope altogether. Nor should we lean so heavily on it. At very least, we should write and buy horror that treats women like people with agency instead of as disposable victims. Definitely, we need to celebrate and promote women writers in all genres.

I am a freelance writer, available for all jobs. If' you’d like to hire me

Ronald’s latest book is Small Town Horror. Buy a copy.

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Again, all of these stories are out in BADASS HORROR, available at many bookstores including Amazon.