Alina Edwards, Wellesley College

Though directors often use women as protagonists in thriller films, their male perspective turns characters into puppets — and Alex Garland’s film is no exception.

Nnekakwo Adibe, Lesley University

The genre allows women to shift deeply ingrained power dynamics.

Audrey Martin, Boston University

Once a term that conjured up images of hard-working women ready to smash the glass ceiling, the word now represents everything wrong with America’s capitalistic system.