The Descent

Outside of the occasional action blockbuster or turgid documentary about the history of women’s sports, there are few spaces for female athletes in film. For every Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, there are 500 other films where lithe actresses stick to running in heels and/or catsuits; sometimes they get to shoot a gun instead of just holding the male lead’s hand while doing some cardio.

Isolation

One of the grimiest movies ever made, Isolation is the ultimate in contained, farm-set horror, perfect from its attention-grabbing opening titles to its chillingly bleak finale.

The Fly

It’s an unfortunate fact of life: even super-smart women sometimes end up with terrible boyfriends. This, along with a very different tragic, universal reality—everyone’s body radically changes and deteriorates with illness and/or age—forms the basis of David Cronenberg’s The Fly.