Very Mean Girls

ABOVE: STILL FROM TARA SUBKOFF’S #HORROR, 2015. PHOTO: LEARAN KAHANOV/TARA SUBKOFF, COURTESY OF GASLIGHT FILMS LLC.

For many, there is nothing more twisted than the hell that comes with adolescence. In her filmmaking debut, Tara Subkoff, the brains behind ’00s cult fashion label Imitation of Christ, takes girl-on-girl bullying in the age of the selfie to its bloodiest extreme. Written and directed by Subkoff, #Horror utilizes creepy genre conventions to confront social issues with a cast that includes Chloë Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne, Stella Schnabel, and a group of unknown preteen actresses. “I love the horror genre. I’ve been a big fan since I was a kid. Some of my favorites include early Wes Craven: The People Under the Stairs and The Last House on the Left,” says Subkoff. “They were visually stimulating, with flawed characters and real arcs. #Horror is an ode to that type of genre filmmaking, but with a modern, real-life horror story.” With a surreal and abject ambience aided by artwork by Tabor Robak, Rob Pruitt, and her husband, Urs Fischer, among others, Subkoff conjures the ugly effects that entitled privilege, clique politics, and online harassment can have on the young female psyche.