by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

There’s only so many times I can watch a woman get chased in films, ultimately meeting her demise, hacked to death by some force of evil or insanity, or both, before I can’t take it anymore. It’s one of the main reasons I won’t watch most horror films, or extremely violent films. It doesn’t help that I’m a huge scaredy pants (I have jumped at my own shadow before), and am incapable of watching and processing women brutalized in film. These types of images plant themselves firmly into my over-active imagination and I start picturing the same happening to me. Maureen (Kristen Stewart) of Olivier Assayas’ 2016 genre-bending Personal Shopper feels the same. During a text message interlude with the unknown behind the Unknown number sending her unsolicited creepy-time texts, she point blank admits to her “stalker” that she finds horror films unsettling. There’s always a woman running from a killer, trying to hide. I can relate, Maureen.