25 Incredibly Well-Made Horror Films Directed By Women

23. Roberta Findlay - Tenement (1985)

A long forgotten entry into the slew of B-movie urban warfare action/horror flicks that populated grindhouse theaters and video stores in the '80s, Tenement (aka Slaughter In The South Bronx) is a scuzzy, nasty exploitative version of the superior filmmaking of John Carpenter€™s masterfully suspenseful Assault On Precinct 13 (and that's certainly not a put-down). After the landlord of a rundown apartment building has a reprehensible street gang arrested for squatting in the basement and harassing the tenants, the gang returns to take back what they believe is theirs, and they won€™t be going about it nicely. In fact, they utilise endless violent tactics, including rape and murder, as they push the tenants to the point where they have no choice other than to fight back. Widely regarded as Roberta Findlay's best solo (non-pornographic) film after the death of her husband and filmmaking partner Michael Findlay, Tenement is an ultra-violent slice of '80s trash filmmaking that delivers the exploitative content but wears its budget and technical limitations on it's sleeve. A true cinematic stain of a film that does exactly what a good exploitation film should do; it entertains just as much as it offends.