- Blood is linked to illness, fear, death, life and so the color. Aesthetically, blood is very neat, says gore specialist Jasmine Martinez, who is also one of the organizers of the film festival Women in horror.

The festival has collected scary films directed by women and this year everyone has something to do with blood. The film Rabid by sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska is about a woman who is disfigured by a traffic accident and chooses to test a stem cell operation, which makes her very craving blood. The Boogeywoman by Erica Scoggins follows a young girl who experiences both the scary and the fantastic in getting her first period.

- As a woman it is easy for the thoughts to go to men, because it is something that happens every month, and if it does not happen maybe you get a little panic or you become happy, depending on what you want. But the women's body and the female liberation have a lot to do with blood, says Sarah Giercksky, who wrote and directed the movie Create your killer, which is shown during the festival.

Inspired by female liberation

Blood can be scary. But is blood a bigger and more important issue for women than for men?

- There is a difference between blood and menstruation. Many guys like splatter and blood, but menses seem to be much creepier, says Jasmine Martinez.

- Probably because it is something they themselves do not experience, says Sarah Giercksky.

At the same time, male horror film directors have sometimes taken up the theme of female liberation, and often with the help of blood. Like the 1976 Carrie classic by Brian De Palma, based on a book by Stephen King. In it, it is when Carrie gets a whole thin blood over her that she really discovers her full power.

- Or Teeth where a girl gets teeth in her abdomen. In it, it is clear that they were inspired by the women's liberation, that they saw that struggle exists, says Jasmine Martinez.

"Something you had to hide"

Subjects that are considered a bit forbidden are grateful and therefore common in the horror film.

- Historically, menswear has always been considered dirty and unchristian. Something you had to hide, says Jasmine Martinez.

At the same time, they emphasize, it's not that women just like horror movies that have some kind of symbolic meaning.

- Sometimes you just want to let go and see splatter and disgust and have fun, says Jasmine Martinez.