Horror filmsare chock-full of iconic villains: Jason. Freddy. Jack Torrance. Candyman. Vincent Price in any number of movies. What else do they have in common? They’re all men. So today we are rounding up the lady baddies of horror who send a chill down your spine: the overbearing mothers, the creepy little girls, and the best friends with ulterior motives, proving that men don’t have the corner market on scary.
15The Descent (2006) - Natalie Mendoza as Juno
A year after a hideous tragedy kills her husband and daughter, Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) is cajoled into aspelunking tripwith friends who are trying to distract her from her grief. Juno (Natalie Mendoza) used to be closer to Sarah and apologizes for her distance after the tragedy. She also apologizes for taking the group into an uncharted series of caves, rather than the safer, mapped route they’d agreed upon. Things turn sour then sourer, as the group is trapped by a collapse before one of the women breaks a leg.
The women encounter grim, human-like but definitely not human creatures that begin to attack, but it’s when Juno reveals her secret that things really start to get out of control: it turns out that Juno was having an affair with Sarah’s husband before his death. With friends like these, you’re better off on your own in a collapsing cave being hunted by God-knows-what.
14Misery (1990) - Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes
Stephen King plus Rob Reiner plusKathy Batesequals one of the scariest movie villains of all time, male or female. Writer Paul Shelton (James Caan) is looking to distance his writing from his usual style, killing off the character that made him famous, Misery Chastain, when a car accident in a blizzard sees him injured, and rescued by his ‘number one fan’. Bed-bound and recuperating, Sheldon has no choice but to rely on Annie, and tries to repay her by letting her read his new draft. Annie is furious, and Sheldon soon realizes he’s been imprisoned by a woman who has likely killed before. Annie forces him to burn the draft and write one more to her tastes, and Sheldon has no choice but to comply, all the while trying to plot his escape. Bates won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for her role as the terrifying Annie Wilkes.
13Rosemary’s Baby (1968) - Ruth Gordon as Minnie
Ruth Gordonwon a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Minnie Castevet inRosemary’s Baby. Minnie and Roman are the elderly upstairs neighbors of Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, (Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes), and to Rosemary’s chagrin, their new best friends. Minnie is pushy but seemingly well-intentioned, and Rosemary finds it difficult to turn down her gifts: a necklace that belonged to their neighbor Terry (who committed suicide) and smells terrible, an unpleasant tasting chocolate mousse, and even pushing Rosemary into switching doctors once she finds she’s pregnant. What initially seems to be a slightly doddery, mildly grating woman insisting that she knows better than the naive young Rosemary turns out to be Minnie, being part of a Satanic coven that has helped get Rosemary pregnant from the Antichrist. Gordon’s trademark nasal voice and sinister portrayal of Minnie has made pregnant women distrustful of their neighbors’ home remedies ever since.
12Pearl (2022) - Mia Goth as Pearl
The world was first introduced to thecharacter of Pearlin Ti West’s 2022 slasherX, but she really came into her own in the prequel, released the same year.Mia Gothplays Pearl, who is an elderly woman inXbut just a sweet young thing inPearl, rebelling against the constraints of a stern, icy mother, waiting for her husband to return from WWI. The family lives on a remote farm, and Pearl begrudgingly cares for her incapacitated father while wreaking various sorts of havoc: alternately coddling and killing animals on the farm, self-pleasuring with the local scarecrow, and torturing her paralyzed father. She longs to escape the farm and sees a life as a showgirl as her escape. She has just graduated to killing people rather than animals, when failing an audition seals her fate to remain on the farm, where she will continue her murderous ways.
11Inside (2007) - Béatrice Dalle as The Woman
This 2007 French film goes to some very dark places, and it’sBéatrice Dalleas a nameless woman who takes us there. Sarah (Alysson Paradis) is past her due date, mired in grief after her husband was killed when they were in a car accident halfway through her pregnancy. She is home alone when a mysterious woman shows up, and Sarah realizes the woman has been stalking her. She calls the police, who promise to watch the house, but the woman slips into the house and stabs Sarah with a pair of scissors, and Sarah realizes with horror that she is trying to steal her unborn child. What follows is a horrific game of cat and mouse as the woman terrorizes Sarah, and several people (police, Sarah’s colleague, Sarah’s mother) become collateral damage. There are a couple of heart-rending twists that cast light on the woman’s motives that leave it up to the viewer to decide whether she is truly evil.
10Carrie (1976) - Piper Laurie as Margaret White
In Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel,Piper Laurieis the ultimate villainous mother to the titular Carrie (Sissy Spacek). Margaret White has religion on the brain, a particularly twisted, suppressed form of religion that sees her punishing her teen daughter for going through puberty. She ruins the moments before Carrie is off to the prom by declaring her a witch, and everyone knows how the prom goes. Upon Carrie’s return from the abysmal dance, when she is most in need of comfort, Margaret rails at her about the dirtiness of sex before appearing to comfort her daughter, which she only does, so she can take the opportunity to stab her in the back. It’s hard to blame Carrie for telekinetically killing her after that.
Related:They’re All Going to Laugh at You: A Closer Look at Women in 70s Horror
9Soft & Quiet (2022) - Everyone
This under-the-radar 2022 debut by Beth de Araújo begins by introducing us to Emily, a banal yet seemingly inoffensive kindergarten teacher who is starting a support group of sorts with a few other women. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what the point of the group is, the audience realizes that what all the women have in common is a particularly noxious form of white supremacy. It’s horrible enough that they are sitting around blithely discussing it while eating pie and drinking coffee, but an incident at the grocery store sparks the women’s racist opinions into action. What the women tell themselves is going to be just a prank escalates quickly into unimaginable cruelty. By the end, you’ll be hoping for a sequel where they all get what’s coming to them.
Related:20 Great Horror Movies Directed by Women
8Orphan (2009) - Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther
Little Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) seems like the answer to prayers for Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard). With their marriage on the rocks after a stillborn child, the addition to their family of the charming Russian orphan just might smooth everything over. But John, Kate, and their children Daniel and Max all begin to harbor separate suspicions about Esther’s behavior, which can be secretive, surly, manipulative, violent, and precociously sexual for a nine-year-old. What started as a dream descends into a nightmare as a little digging uncovers what the problem is: Esther is no little girl at all, but a grown woman with a condition that makes her appear child-like, and she’s hidden behind the condition to murder at least seven people, and she will stop at nothing to keep her secret from getting out.
7Battle Royale (2000) - Ko Shibasaki as Mitsuko
As if high school wasn’t bad enough, in Kinji Fukasaku’s 2000 cult film, a high school class has been selected by the Japanese government to fight it out amongst themselves on an empty island until only one of them remains alive. In shock at their predicament, some students kill themselves rather than participate, some band together to try and find a way for everyone to survive, some run and hide, some get down to the grim business of playing the game. And then there’s Mitsuko. Beautiful but friendless, Mitsuko is ruthless, lulling her victims into believing she’s an ally, then viciously killing them, wielding a taser and a scythe.
6Friday the 13th (1980) - Betsy Palmer as Pamela Voorhees
In this classic 1980 slasher, Camp Crystal Lake is about to reopen, and the counselors are getting everything ready. Rumors abound about a camper years before who drowned, but the counselors are too busy refurbishing and having sex to think much about that. That is, until the counselors start getting murdered. Bloody chaos ensues, and by the time the film is down to final girl, Alice (Adrienne King), the killer is revealed to be Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), the mother of the child who drowned all those years ago, Jason. Turns out, he drowned because the neglectful counselors were having sex, and Mrs. Voorhees still has an ax to grind against the camp.
