10 Incredible Female Horror Directors You May Not Have Heard Of

In the 1940s Lupino worked as a Hollywood actress, however, she quickly parlayed this expertise into a role behind the camera despite the film industry's hostile attitude toward women at the time. On her sets, Lupino would frequently whisper changes to a scene to a male first A.D. for him to announce so that the all-male production would comply.

Lupino's 1953 horror-noir The Hitch-Hiker is the first horror film directed by a woman in the Hollywood system. The Hitch-Hiker follows Ray and Gilbert, two men that head to the brothels of Tijuana under the guise of a fishing trip to escape the watching eyes of their wives. Unknowingly, the men pick up a hitchhiking serial killer with one bad eye and their plans and lives unravel. Lupino's distinctly masculine story seems like a surprising choice, but her way of examining and questioning masculinity is an intriguing one, told through a female lens.

She delves into male infidelity, ego, and gay themes in a way most male directors would not have approached in the fifties. Lupino clearly drew from her experience as an actress to draw the desperate and confounding performances out of Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy, and the pure terror William Talman invokes is legendary.

Lupino's directing chops rivaled any male directors of the time, and she deserves more credit as a pioneer of women in film.