Rape survivors are living vicariously through ‘Good for Her’ films

Good For Her films have risen in popularity since the 2010s, but what are they? (Picture: REX)

‘After watching Revenge, I knew there was no going back.’

A fan of horror since she was a teenager, Alice* was having a film night with her housemates when she found her life changed by Coralie Fargeat’s debut feature, Revenge.

The 2017 movie follows Jen (Matilda Lutz), who, while enjoying a romantic getaway with her boyfriend Richard (Kevin Janssens), is drugged, raped, and brutalised by him and two of his friends. After surviving the ordeal, she embarks on a mission of bloody revenge against her assailants.

While the narrative and the gore are entirely fictional, Jen’s plight struck a chord with Alice.

‘From the moment she was attacked, I related to Jen. During my time at university, a man I loved sexually assaulted me when I was drunk and I lost consciousness,’ she said.

‘I kept it to myself for years out of shame and fearing no one would believe me. He was well-liked and was still friends with my housemates. So I felt like I had to keep it to myself.’

But after watching Revenge, Alice decided she couldn’t stay silent anymore.

Revenge, the directorial debut of The Substance’s Coralie Fargeat, sparked change in Alice’s life after watching (Picture: Rezo Films)

‘A few days after the film night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What Jen experienced is far worse than what happened to me, but I wanted to tear this man apart all the same.

‘I finally told my friends the truth, and it felt like a weight had been lifted. They finally knew who this man really was, and they cut him off, which made me feel validated and supported.

‘It had taken me years to say I had been assaulted out loud, and although it was terrifying to talk about, it felt like I could start to move on.’

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) found that VAWG-related crimes recorded during 2022/23 equated to 20% of all police-recorded crimes and that VAWG-related crimes had increased 27% between 2018 and 2023.

As for conviction rates, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports the percentage of prosecutions leading to a conviction for domestic abuse decreased from 76.4% in March 2023 to 75.8% in March 2024. Home Office statistics for 2023/2024 state convictions in adult rape cases are at just 53.4%.

With epidemic levels of violence against women and girls (VAWG), ‘Good For Her’ films offer the catharsis many crave when faced with stomach-churning headlines and damning conviction statistics.

The term ‘Good For Her’ appears to have begun on social media (Picture: United Artists/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

What is Good For Her cinema?

The term appears to have originated from a simple Arrested Development meme and taken off solely through internet word-of-mouth.

In a scene from the show, Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) is watching a news report in which a burned-out mother lets her car roll into a lake with her children trapped inside.

Lucille simply responds, ‘Good for her,’ leaving her son Buster panicked.

This phrase was then co-opted by feminist film fans.

‘It’s a kind of emerging genre, where women experience more of a sense of justice and accountability than is available to them in real life,’ Dr Harriet Fletcher, lecturer in media and communication with Cambridge School of Creative Industries at ARU, tells Metro.

Writer and podcaster Jenn Adams adds: ‘Good For Her films also allow us symbolic justice when traditional justice is unavailable.

‘We excuse murder in rape-revenge films because we’ve seen the horrific reality of trying to hold men accountable for sexual assault. We celebrate women casting spells on men, remembering a time when they were allowed to burn suspected witches at the stake with no consequence.’

Lucille Bluth’s iconic line inadvertently became the mantra for a generation of film fans

Flipping the script

‘What’s empowering about these films is a lot of them are helmed by women with lots of women in front of the camera,’ says Mary Beth McAndrews, editor-in-chief at Dread Central and director of Good For Her film Bystanders.

‘It’s no longer just about the spectacle of “Look at the woman go through the worst things ever.” A lot of directors are taking that idea and asking, “What if it can be entertaining, but also very confronting and honest?”‘

McAndrews shared her inspiration for Bystanders, based on a script by Jamie Alvey, which sees a group of frat boys get more than they bargained for when the college girls they plan to drug, rape, and hunt for sport fight back.

‘Jamie wrote the script in 2017 and she was inspired by the Brock Turner case,’ she shares.

McAndrews (centre) noticed a gendered response when it comes to Good For Her films (Picture: Bryan Houston)

‘I read Jamie’s script because I knew her online, and I’m a sexual assault survivor myself. A lot of my healing has come through watching crucial movies such as Revenge.

Films with a bold statement and subject matter will often be met with criticism, something McAndrews faced with Bystanders after the movie was bashed as being ‘woke.’

‘When I would tell people that I’m making a rape-revenge movie, very gendered responses happened. Women would be like, “Oh, cool, I can’t wait.” And men would say, “I’d never watch a movie like that,” she explains.

‘Women have been abused and murdered onscreen for decades – Good For Her films flip the script.’

Amanda Jane Stern – the writer, producer, and star of Lauren Greenhall’s 2023 thriller Perfectly Good Moment – never set out to make a Good For Her film. But while writing the script, she felt drawn to the idea of revenge, a notion that became more apt when she realised many of the cast and crew had experiences with the film’s subject matter.

The psychosexual thriller follows Ruby and David (Stephen Carlile), who have been together on and off for eight years since she was 19 and he was 34. Ruby returns six months after leaving David once more, but soon, toxic patterns begin to re-emerge.

On starring in the film, Stern shared: ‘It was so much fun and so cathartic to say certain lines I wrote, and I know that this was kind of a sentiment on set.

The final push

Regardless of the backlash they may receive, many viewers have shared their deep connections to Good For Her titles across social media, lauding the strong female leads as heroes on and off the screen.

Sophie* explains how a wildly misunderstood 00s horror film kick-started her leaving an abusive relationship.

‘From 2012 to 2015, I was in a relationship with a man who, although initially seemed sweet and romantic, soon became increasingly emotionally and psychologically abusive.

‘I stopped taking part in hobbies that I’d previously enjoyed, like performing music and going out to concerts. He also made me believe that I was really unattractive and nobody else would love me.’

But one night, she decided to watch Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body, a film in which Megan Fox’s Jennifer becomes a bloodthirsty succubus after being murdered by an indie band as part of a sacrificial ceremony.

Megan Fox-starring Jennifer’s Body was widely misunderstood at the time of its release (Picture: Fox Atomic/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

The film flopped at the time of its release but is now deemed a cult classic.

‘Despite the fact she becomes a man-eating demon, I saw it as a symbolism of coming out of a terrible and traumatic situation and becoming something powerful,’ Sophie pointed out. ‘Jennifer utilises her inner power to get what she wants, and refuses to let the men who hurt her, destroy her.’

She said the film was the ‘final push’ she needed to ‘break away’ from her abusive relationship, eventually getting back into her hobbies and reconnecting with loved ones.

‘It felt like I was finally finding myself and my power again after going through such a traumatic time with my ex,’ she concluded.

An increased appetite in a Post-Me Too world

Filmmaking in a post-Me Too world – kick-started by the revelation of decades-long sexual abuse by American film producer Harvey Weinstein – has led to a worldwide recognition of VAWG not just in the entertainment industry.

Ari Aster’s Midsommar has become one of the poster films of Good For Her (Picture: Shutterstock) The rape-revenge boom of the 1970s has come around again in the 2010s and 2020s (Picture: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

‘Good For Her horror is a byproduct of that cultural shift, and it also shows that there’s more demand for stories that engage with women’s experiences of abuse as well as horror through a feminist lens,’ Dr Fletcher theorises.

McAndrews agrees: ‘It feels like the time to make these movies because people now are going to take them seriously and pay attention.’

The women who spoke up about these abuses at the forefront of the Me Too movement are attributed as a key factor in the rise in these female-led revenge films – films that have, in turn, given other women the courage to speak out about their experiences.

Adams adds: ‘It’s not just about punishing the man who hurt us, it’s about preventing future injustices and creating a better world for our daughters.

Good For Her films not only reflect society to us, but they also offer important lessons for viewers to not only change their own lives, but to learn to combat the rise of VAWG.

‘When you’re younger watching them, they can teach you how to spot red flags in potential relationships,’ Stern stated.

Amanda Jane Stern (right) was inspired to let Perfectly Good Moment’s leading lady seek revenge while penning the script (Picture: Phaedra to Black LLC)

‘I would love teenagers to see these films and for them to acknowledge, “Hey, that 30-year-old dude who has been flirting with you and making you feel so special, mature, that you’re old for your age, you’re gonna have an awakening.

‘You’re gonna talk to other women and realise that you all have that story.’

For male viewers, she says it can ‘show them how to empathise with people that aren’t them.’

McAndrews adds that the films simply teach viewers to ‘respect women’ and not ‘see them as objects.’

She continues: ‘I know that sounds so simple, but I feel like so often Good For Her cinema sees a woman trying to get away from being treated like an object in some way, shape, or form. We should all be treated like human beings.’

*Names have been changed

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