Ever wanted to meet monthly to discuss movies the way book clubs discuss books? You can, with Strawberry Cinema Collective — a project that is the brain baby of me and the endlessly cool, endlessly stylish, endlessly astute Maria Hawthorne of Writer? I Hardly Know Her! All throughout 2026, we’re focusing on horror movies directed by women.
At Strawberry Cinema Collective, we support women’s rights and wrongs all year long, but we wanted to pick a film this month that centered wild, violent reaches of womanhood, in honor of Women’s History Month.
A title in the Good for Her cinema canon that has meant a lot to both Maria and me is The Love Witch, directed by Anna Biller. I can’t think of a film that is more iconic when it comes to its strong visual identity — which happens to be distinctly feminine and was clearly the result of astute research — and its plot, which feels familiar to any witchy crashout queen.
TL;DR: Anna Biller, you will always be famous, mamas.
Still, as iconic as this film is, our re-watch and discussion wasn’t without critique.
My main takeaway was that it’s super interesting to hear three people’s opinions on a movie, versus people just giving their “reviews”. Our conversation led to discussing more abstract thematics and stylistic critiques, which I really appreciated!
I also loved how we all brought our unique lived experiences with dating and identity to the conversation.
If you’d like more insights from Emme, check out her Substack film diaries here. First up: Hagsploitation.
I’m sorry to admit it, but I definitely went into this discussion feeling a little judgmental of Elaine. I don’t tend to get along with people who are too male-centered, so a lot of her behavior — like saying women need to perform the fantasies of men, as well as her general desperation for a relationship with a man — was really off-putting to me.
That’s not to say I don’t like the movie. I think it’s gorgeous. But as much of a fashion icon as she is, I just think Elaine is a little bit annoying.
However, I think our conversation really altered the way I thought about the film. One of our main topics (among other tangents of our zodiac big 3—which was so fun~!) was wehther this film was a feminist work. We discussed Anna Biller’s intentions behind it, which seemed like she wasn’t necessarily setting out to create a feminist work, and whether a piece could still be feminist if the director did not consciously intend for it to be.
I think what convinced me that it was, was a comment that Caro made. Caro asked the question, “Do you think a film has to portray a perfectly feminist woman in order to be a feminist film?” Which I thought was a really good point.
I don’t think we necessarily need to have a “perfect” woman in order to create a good piece of feminist art. And although I may not particularly like Elaine and her attitude towards relationships, there are several aspects of the film I can recognize as feminist ideals.
Despite Elaine’s insistence of traditional, conservative gender roles within her own relationships (which I found annoying) the film itself wasn’t saying that these roles were correct. In fact, it showed that these ideals lead to tragic consequences for both parties. Elaine doesn’t find love, and none of her relationships work out the way she wants them to.
I loved chatting with everyone, especially with all of the wonderful participation from everyone tuning in for the discussion. This was one of my favorite conversations so far, mostly because I could talk with such intelligent and thoughtful cinephiles who were able to challenge my initial thoughts about a movie, and help me learn through film analysis.
Rewatching this film now that my frontal lobe has developed is a trip. I used to watch Elaine’s lovelorn shenanigans and think “She’s so me!”
Even then, it was hyperbole, because even as someone who practices hoodoo, I would never engage in a spell involving another person — “positive” or “negative” without their consent.
Long before I became deeply interested in African Traditional Religions, I knew the basic laws of witchcraft: In order to get something, you probably have to give up something, too. The physics theory of witchcraft is seen in a movie like Practical Magic, where magickal trial and error are driving plot point of this spooky movie.
When I looked deeper into hoodoo, brujería and all kinds of spiritual practices, I read anecdotes of the most common way a love spell can go wrong, especially if the attraction is one-sided: You end up more “Crazy in Love,” à la Beyoncé, and the object of your affections remains generally unmoved or unchanged.
Or worse, the object of your affections becomes violently obsessive: We see this in The Craft, when Sarah brings harm to herself by casting a lovespell on Chris.
I’m not healed and I’m not perfect, but I’m happy to say I’m no longer in an Elaine Parks state of mind. I was heartened to hear Maria and Emme say that I seem level-headed in my approach to dating — it’s taken lots of tears, journal pages, hours of therapy and milligrams of medicine to get here.
My main takeaway from this re-watch of The Love Witch: Elaine is desperate pick-me who should have just listened to her landlord Trish in the tea room. Essentially: Girl, you gotta stop focusing on men.
But I’ll take Trish’s loving concern for Elaine a step further: Girl, you are the magic.
More of us girls (gender-netural) need to realize that sometimes, we have an exhilaratingly flirty conversation or a fun first date or really good orgasm not because of the other person, but because we made that magic ourselves. The Love Witch seems like a metaphor for that — and a cautionary tale of what can happen when you forget that you are the prize.
Be sure to tune in next time! We will be taking a break in April, but will be back with another woman-directed horror film in May. For now, we’ll leave you with some recommendations.
From Caro:
Reading: “was he special, or are you just good at making things feel special?” by Isabel Timerman
Wearing: about-face matte fluid eyepaint in “Daytripper”
From Maria:
Reading: A (not so) brief history of blue eyeshadow: From the 2010’s to present day by Maria Hawthorne
Note: This is one installment in a five-part series about blue eyeshadow!
From Emme:
Watching: Any film by John Waters
Watching: Viva, dir. Anna Biller
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For more updates on the movie club, check out our Instagram! ♡ If you’d like to read more about the intersection of sex and horror, check out this essay I wrote for Dread Central.
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