Helvetica (2007)

Reaching nearly Halloween, Amazon Prime released Run Sweetheart Run (2020), the most relatable horror film for women. Directed by Shana Feste, Run Sweetheart Run follows a single Black mother, Cherie, who wants to land a job as a lawyer, but is instead demoted to a secretary at a prestige law firm. Cherie's boss sets her up with a business meeting with a new client. But this meeting quickly turns into a date, and Ethan (the client) seems to be the perfect man a woman could ever want... almost too perfect. Ethan shows his dark side when he attacks Cherie after inviting her to spend the night with him. Long story short, Ethan is not exactly your typical psycho boyfriend (he's more supernatural than human). Ethan reveals he intends to "hunt" Cherie, and if she can survive until morning, he will let her go. It's safe to say that is a bloody game of cat-and-mouse. Cherie is a Black woman in a red dress, running through the dark streets of Los Angeles from a supernatural madman, and to make matters worse, she's on her period. But, what makes Run Sweetheart Run as scary as it is relatable, is its ability to connect to women through women spectatorship.

One of the uncomfortably relatable scenes on Run Sweetheart Run is our main protagonist being groped on the bus (a near-universal fear for women riding public transit). The grope scene was short and intense, with a prolonged effect on women spectators. As Cherie is talking on the phone on the crowded bus, we see a man eyeing her from afar. He then follows her to the back of the bus and gradually touches her butt. A lady on the bus notices this assault, yet she did nothing, but looked away. After the assault, Cherie fears for her own safety, and understandably, does what many women would do in this situation: move away. While the horror of this film is surviving the night from a homicidal date, this early scene emphasizes the struggles women have to deal with every day.