Horror movies usually cast beautiful women for three reasons: to have them show their sexuality, scream like they’re actually dying, and act like helpless victims. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes these ladies are the evil monsters that need to be dealt with, and sometimes they’re the heroes who do the slaying.
Here are the top 8 greatest female-led horror movies!
1. Scream
Sidney Prescott is beautiful and smart enough to handle not one but two maniacs wearing the famous grinning face masks. First, she jukes the killers and then brutally murders them in cold blood. Another interesting thing about Syd is that she is the main protagonist in all the sequels, so we can actually see her becoming more and more badass as time goes on.
2. Halloween
If it wasn’t for Jamie Lee Curtis, we would not get as many “scrappy girls” in the horrors as we do now. In many ways, her character became the trendsetter of that movie cliché where the heroine survives and kills the bad guy. If only Mike Meyers was an easy ghoul to kill, eh?
3. Jennifer’s Body
This dark comedy/horror starring Megan Fox can be safely called one of the most memorable movies of the last decade where a spectacular cheerleader turns into a demon seductress. She shamelessly uses her sexuality to get what she wants, which is men. But the succubus bit off more than she could swallow when she killed her best friend’s boyfriend. Now Amanda Seyfield’s character must stop her evil sexy friend.
4. Babadook
Amelia is raising her 6-year-old son alone after the tragic death of her husband. You can hardly call her happy, but things get much worse when the monster from a book — Babadook – starts following them around. How do you fight a fairy tale creature? And is it even real or just a part of their imagination? According to that ending, all you need is a strong maternal instinct and some treats.
5. Alien
Ellen Ripley is one of the most iconic horror movie protagonists in the history of cinema. The final 40 minutes of the movie are an insanely intense experience, culminating in an unforgettable twist ending. After the first movie, nothing was going to stop Ripley, not even a whole horde of Xenomorphs or even her own death. That woman is on a mission!
6. [REC]
Found footage movies rarely have smart and resourceful characters. Usually, the person holding the camera dies eventually, often due to their own stupidity. Angela from [REC] is nothing like that. She is on an assignment to unravel the terrible mystery of people turning into zombies, and all she has is her trusty camcorder and a pair of steel testicles.
7. The Descent
Trapped in the caves, Sarah Carter starts seeing and hearing strange things, but believes she’s just hallucinating. Very soon, those nightmares become a reality, and the monsters start flooding the cavers. After witnessing all of her friends get killed one by one, Sarah finds a way out of the caves and then comes back to slaughter the creatures.
8. The Ring
The legendary horror movie Ring has such a strange premise that it could only have been composed by a twisted mind. After all, we are talking about a VHS tape that kills people. Well, it’s actually the vengeful spirit of a little girl who does the killing but it’s still weird. As soon as the victim finishes viewing the creepy footage, their phone rings, telling them that they will be dead in seven days. That’s what happened to the main heroine Reiko, so she has no other choice but to untangle this mystery.
