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The desire for revenge—to cause those who inflict suffering to suffer themselves—is a basic human impulse. But righting a wrong through retribution is much messier in practice than it is in theory; in fact, some of the best movies about revenge are also about how empty and morally compromising it can be. In the real world, revenge is often futile; but in the heightened reality of cinema, seeing victims empowered and perpetrators punished can offer much-needed catharsis. This is even, or perhaps especially, true for those who have been the victims of violence and exploitation themselves.
The everyday violence of misogyny gives an added potency to films about women seeking revenge. The rape-revenge subgenre specifically deals with the ubiquity of sexual assault—and the psychological consequences of that trauma—in a visceral, confrontational way. These films are not for everyone, but the survivors who say that they watch rape-revenge movies and derive satisfaction from them cannot be denied. Much has been written on this controversial subgenre, in both academic and popular contexts: To begin a deeper dive into the phenomenon, you can’t go wrong with authors Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Kier-La Janisse, whose writing on these films has been essential to shaping modern attitudes around them, which have in turn triggered a wave of neo-rape-revenge movies, including Promising Young Woman.
For the purposes of this starter pack, we’ve only included a small selection of films from this branch of the subgenre, partally because many of the more infamous titles—Thriller: A Cruel Picture, for example, or I Spit on Your Grave—are rough watches even for viewers well-versed in them; we have also avoided titles that have aged especially poorly. Any films that discuss or depict the subjects of sexual assault or harassment have been marked with asterisks, two in the case of the former and one in the case of the latter, so our members can go in prepared (or bypass those films entirely).
Other genres abound in this starter pack, which encompasses many different kinds of vengeful women. In some movies, characters seek supernatural revenge from beyond the grave, while others follow a woman on a mission to avenge a wronged family member. Recently released titles like Mārama, from New Zealand, have opened up an exciting new frontier of post-colonial revenge, in which an individual seeks to right historical wrongs inflicted upon their loved ones or communities by imperial authorities.
Every movie featured arguably falls into the “Good for Her” Cinematic Universe, which member Claira Curtis describes as comprising films where “a woman achieves her dreams, fights back against her adversaries or receives an end to her story that is satisfying.” Journal contributor Lyvie Scott recently broached this concept as well, exploring Black women’s rage specifically in a recent starter pack (with which this list shares two titles).
Looking at depictions of female revenge in cinema from a wide-angle perspective, one encounters a vast range of genre tones and themes, from frothy comedies and character-driven arthouse dramas to disturbingly violent action and horror movies. Pam Grier and Meiko Kaji—two stars who played key roles in shaping the modern action heroine—built their careers on revenge films, placing the image of a woman who will not rest until those who’ve wronged her pay for their crimes at the center of what we consider “strong female characters” today.
