It’s more than appropriate that ​​Kier-la Janisse’s HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN gets its 10-year-rerelease during the height of the “unhinged woman” – an identity created and embraced in response to respectability feminism that says “not only do I support women’s rights, I support women’s wrongs.” The “unhinged woman” lives a life that makes us say “good for her” for rejecting what’s typically expected of women, whether that’s in her actions or simply her existence.

HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN is part memoir and part film history as Janisse recounts both her childhood and her experience in the horror film circuit, and how she relates to the troubled (and sometimes virtuous, sometimes not) women characters that feature in the horror and exploitation film genres.

Of the films featured, Janisse recognizes that the entries vary in both quality and in how they treat their women characters, but HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN isn’t a list of the best representations of insane women. It’s a cinematic history of how women have been mentally unwell, whether that is something they were pushed to or otherwise, and the ways in which society reacted to them and/or they lashed back out at society. From classics like Carrie to newer releases like Promising Young Woman, these films are featured not only with all their ugliness bare but questioning and comparing how exactly we treat “psychotic women” and how much autonomy they receive.

Janisse acknowledges that not every film covered fits perfectly into what we would expect of this trope, but all do relate to her experience – and with straightforward honesty that almost wants to make you look away from the page, Janisse does not shy away from detailing her experience as a “psychotic woman.” HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN works because it isn’t entirely a listicle or an autobiography by itself – Janisse’s self-actualization cannot exist without these women, and these women do not exist without Janisse (and other viewers) bringing them to the light.

HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN is a testament to unwell women everywhere, previously unheard, clawing for their voice. You can purchase a copy here.