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10 Badass Horror Film Babes

October is about celebrating the autumn season with seasonal beers, pumpkin carving, feeling the leaf-crunch on the ground, and most importantly, marathoning scary movies. But for me, an avid fan of the horror genre, it can be incredibly distressing when a character decides to make the wrong move, especially when a female character goes all demure on us, or by stereotype, is killed off because of her looks, bra size, ditzy lines, or non-virgin status. Yes, sexing it up with some jock is a death wish-says the pro-lez serial killer lurking in the bushes.

For every girl running up the stairs in her blood-drenched negligee, there’s an entirely separate brand of female protagonist on the horror screen-the unstoppable badass ladies who call all the shots, leave no prisoners, wear their bravery on their backs like a hard-shelled maniac out for a vengeance and break the most sweat doing it. Here’s a list of iconic women in horror-women who’ve earned a lesbian-approved spot in the category of serial killers, aliens, prom-destroyers, cave survivors and babysitters.

10. Natalie Mendoza, The Descent and The Descent II

The character of Juno in these 2007 and 2009 claustrophobia-horror films is the ultimate adventurist who goes on a spelunking trip with close girl friends, while dealing with regretful feelings over her friend Sarah’s late husband who died in a car accident (and also happened to be her secret lover). But, honestly, I think I speak for others when I suggest she was bisexual, since character Holly makes (what I think was) a lesbian joke at the beginning of the film and makes Juno a part of that joke. Meanwhile in the cave, it’s discovered that Juno doesn’t know this system at all and has taken them to a cave that has been “undiscovered.” I mean, what could go wrong? Well, for starters, they realize they aren’t down there alone, and that these gnarly looking crawlers are hunting their noise. Sarah discovers the truth about Juno and her deceased husband and leaves Juno for dead. Sarah is the only survivor…or is she?

In The Descent Part II, (spoiler alert!) Sarah, must take investigators back into the cave to retrieve the missing party-which seems really inappropriate, right? Shockingly, Juno is discovered to still be alive! She’s now this totally ripped cave warrior who’s got this cave and the crawlers down pat. In a world where women so frequently turn on one another-even in the face of a terrifying situation where they should come together and work to help one another-these films are a lesson in girl power, power used for either good or evil. Truly, both Juno and Sarah should have been given the right to make it out of the cave alive. They mounted these cave crawlers and smashed their heads in-and for what? To die? Blood-soaked and roaring with strength, that was Juno, the possibly bisexual cave babe.

9. Amy Irving and Emily Bergl in The Rage: Carrie 2

In this cult-sequel favorite from 1999, Bergl plays Rachel, a girl with telekinetic powers that resurrected Carrie prom survivor and school counselor Sue Snell recognizes and fears. Rachel is clearly an outcast bullied by a menacing group of popular jocks who taunt her while casting bets on which babe of the week they can bag. (See also: Gross.) When they show up at Rachel’s work, one of them half-ass asks her out on a date. She shuts him down and he asks, “Why not?” She replies with the best line of the film: “Cause I’m a dyke.” Take that, jerks.

Sue Snell, icon by default, makes an attempt to warn Rachel of her powers and even turns up for the final showdown, a party at a jock’s house where all the popular kids have invited Rachel so they can play a nasty prank on her. This film completely stand up to the original Carrie, especially with inclusions like Mena Suvari as Rachel’s suicidal BFF who has a copy of Hole’s Live Through This in her locker, and Rachel’s beloved Bassett Hound named Walter who is struck by a car. In the film, Rachel carries out one particularly masterful revenge scene-and there’s never been more ’90s teenage rage.

8. Felissa Rose in Sleepaway Camp

You guys, this film is literally campy. It’s begins as your typical ’70s chiller, but it’s soon realized this is anything but ordinary as the progressive subplots put a spotlight on gender and sexuality. Angela, an unusually quiet girl who is nearly molested at the start of camp, is the kind of girl who refuses to swim in the lake with the other kids, much to the aggressive teasing of the teen counselors who think she’s so weird.

We learn that Angela lost her brother and father to a horrific boating accident. The only survivor was Angela and her father’s lover, Lenny. Angela was sent to live with her strange aunt who made Angela dress up in super girly clothing. Angela is mostly mute throughout the film, seemingly confused and traumatized by her sexuality and feelings of being misused. In flashbacks, we see fragments of scenes in which she and her brother are giggling while spying on her father and Lenny in bed.

Angela kills off most of the campers and counselors-all the people who pick her apart, sexualize her, and attempt to treat her like she’s less than. The final scene exposes all of the secrets we already knew were coming. Who is Angela, anyway? This film takes a close look at how rigid gender roles are enforced, sometimes with deadly consequences.

7. Camille Keaton in I Spit On Your Grave

This 1978 film with the alternative title, Day of the Woman, is perhaps the most disturbing film I’ve ever watched. It’s horrifying and graphically unforgettable and will make you extremely angry. Jennifer Hills, a writer who’s travelled to a cabin in the woods to work on her manuscript, encounters a group of men who brutally rape her and leave her for dead. Where anyone else would flee, Jennifer stays and seeks out revenge on each of the men, killing them in vicious ways, forcing them to beg for their lives. If you’ve been watching American Horror Story: Coven, you understand completely that the persecution of women has historically been a fight so interlaced in sexuality. Jennifer Hills may have used her sexuality to carry out her revenge, by making the men think they could “have her.” What that requires is for her to disconnect from her fresh, emotionally scarred state, and that’s plain witchy.

Jennifer Hills is turned into a savage, matching the hate and verve that these men have shown to her. She’s basically saying that women will not be persecuted for being women. Jennifer Hills will make you pay, and then she’ll spit on your grave, because she can.

6. Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in Scream

Sidney Prescott is an uptight teen with an intrusive boyfriend named Billy whose only goal is to take her virginity. It’s the day before the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death and there’s a serial killer on the loose, killing teens and leaving everyone in a state of paranoia-which means a party should absolutely happen.

Let’s talk about the fact that when Billy surprises Sid in her bedroom in the first act, there’s an Indigo Girls poster behind him as he’s giving her a speech about respecting her body. C’mon, Billy-all lezzie roads lead back to the Indigo Girls. Also, Sid has the most badass boots in Scream. She boot-kicks just about everyone, and the karate moves save her life every single time. Note to self: Invest in a new pair of Doc Martens.

Now, Courteney Cox, also known as Gail Weathers, plays a sharp-shooting reporter who doesn’t care what she has to do to get the Top Story. For a woman who looks like she’s only concerned with the perfect mini-skirt suit and lip liner, Gail proves herself in the end when she shoots down the killer. Sure, Sidney punches Gail to let her know that her book defending Cotton Weary (best character name, ever) was absolute shit, but when all is forgiven and we see Gail and Sidney make a great team, the franchise comes together and sets the tone for future Scream sequels in which Gail grows more and more into a total bad ass. I admire Gail because she carries hidden cameras, has a female following of young girls who love her work, and she totally wears the pants in her relationship with Dewey. Sidney and Gail: Taking over the world one Ghostface at a time.

5. Cecile de France in High Tension

Let’s discuss the fact that we all went into this film without any idea of the level of gore it would reach. And that twist at the end? High Tension is one of those films that I can’t really watch more than twice. Even when Cecile de France is having sexy-alone-time in bed, I couldn’t get down with what she was serving because the tension of something terrible on the verge of happening was so overwhelming. A mad man kills everyone in the home and kidnaps her female friend/lover. Now she must do whatever it takes to get her back.

BUT HOLD UP. The twist at the end was perhaps the last thing I saw coming. There was no mad man trying to kill them after all. It was de France the entire time-she was the crazy, disillusioned killer. Now you know why you have to see this Sapphic nail-biter twice.

4. Piper Laurie in Carrie

When Margaret White warned her daughter, Carrie, that everyone would laugh at her at the prom-momma was right. I have to admit, as CPS as her prayer closet looked, Mrs. White really went all-out on her home décor. The candles, the rosaries, prayer cards, religious figurines-damn, There’s a peculiar feminine juxtaposition from Carrie‘s opening scene in which girls are changing in the locker room and we see Carrie soap-lathering in the shower, only to discover she’s getting her period for the first time, to the final scene when, ironically, she is blood-soaked from a terrible prank by P.J. Soles and gang, and the gymnasium is on fire along with everyone in it.

Carrie seemed like the lesser of two evils, where Mrs. White was just batshit crazy and damned her daughter to hell instead of embracing her weirdness. Mrs. White’s look is fierce, though-her wild red hair, her black cloaks and her piercing eyes. Also, the witchy pre-prom candlelit “pillowy breasts” conversation is well-played. Maybe underneath it all, Carrie White is a chick that wasn’t going to give into the patriarchal brouhaha of prom, dating, kissing boys and getting popular girls to like her. Plug it up? Tell that to Carrie, and she’ll set you on fire. It’s not her fault that she was never taught about her period. Margaret takes the transformation of puberty very seriously. She may be off her rocker, but she’s one domineering woman.

3. Sigourney Weaver in Alien

I’d like to offer a moment of silence while we pay proper tribute to Officer Ellen Ripley. Let’s inhale and exhale deeply and repeat her name three times-she just might appear. And that wouldn’t be the worst thing. First thing’s first-“wife beaters” should never be called “wife beaters” again now that we’ve all caught up on 1979’s hit sci-fi film in which Weaver butches around a space ship killing mammoth aliens and protecting her kin. At one point, she’s underwear-clad with nothing else on but a wife beater Officer Ripley shirt. Enough said. Giant, scary mouth spitting aliens? Officer Ripley has got this. Lesbians of the ’80s, you had it good.

In a word: Ripley was a hero-she saved mankind. She was smart, clever, quick, and she never broke a promise. I bet she can make a mean breakfast, too. You know you want to be the first one to do her laundry and fold it for her. Admit it.

2. Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween

Laurie Strode and Michael Myers had a pretty screwed up relationship dynamic. It’s eventually discovered in the Halloween franchise that Laurie is the sister of Myers, which explains why he’s always been after her (and can always sense where she’s at-Michael is intuitive?) He killed their older sister Judith when Laurie was just a baby, and then after their parents died in a car accident, she was put into the foster system and adopted by the Strodes. Now, Laurie is just a regular high school girl with a babysitting job on the night of Halloween in Haddonfield, Illinois, where Michael has made his return after escaping the insane asylum under the care of Dr. Loomis. By night’s end, Laurie will end up in a closet with wire hangers.

Somewhere in there is a coming-out joke-and a Mommie Dearest reference. But I digress. The real bad-assery comes out for Laurie in Halloween II where we pick up from where Halloween left off with Michael Myers seemingly dead in the front yard, only to completely disappear. Laurie is transported to the hospital with serious injuries to her foot. When she realizes Michael has found her there and that her life is in danger once again, that girl crawls and limps through that entire facility, up elevators, into parking lots-I get tired just thinking about it. Laurie “kills” Michael and makes it through the whole franchise unscathed. Or does she?

1. Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs

I have to admit: I really couldn’t handle watching this film for a long time. I thought the depiction of Buffalo Bill was a gross misrepresentation for the transgender community and his dog Precious looked like my own pets. So, there’s that. But then I saw that look in Jodie Foster’s eyes. And I thought, “OK Jodie, if you can do it. So can I.” Clarice Starling-maybe the bravest woman I’d ever seen in a film-will not go on letting the lambs scream at her.

Physical encounters with a psycho are harrowing, I bet. But, what Silence of the Lambs did was totally get into our minds-and into Clarice’s mind. Hannibal may be behind a glass wall, but he can still “get to her.” But this is Jodie Foster we’re talking about here, so let Hannibal win? She couldn’t. In the end, Hannibal Lector spares Clarice, telling her the world is too interesting with her in it. I argue that this is the unspoken sentiment among many horror franchises, in which the main female is saved for sequels. Because what would these films be without their main fighting females?

Jodie Foster proved that the role of a demure woman in a horror film can be knocked down by a strong woman in charge of finding the truth at any cost-even if it means she must give herself up a little bit in order to receive that necessary veracity-so long as she holds on to the important parts of her that people like Dr. Lector could never touch, even if he tried. Jodie Foster is queen.

Which leading ladies who deserve honorable mention did we leave off the list? Who are some of your own favorite badass babes in horror?

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