FEARce FIVE Vol. 2 - Women in Horror

Well my dears, I hope you are ready one hell of a FEARce FIVE with the lovely Living Dead Girl Nicole. If there is one person who I can say is more horror obsessed than I am, it is this lady! Name a horror film, she has seen it. Horror Con? She's there! Hell! You want a hand drawn portrait of Freddy Krueger, she's your gal! For this volume of FEARce FIVE, Nicole and I will be chatting about women in horror as well as giving out Top Five Ladies in Horror!

1. In my experience, when asked to name an iconic woman in horror, most people will say one of four names the majority of the time: Elvira, Vampira, Lily Munster, or Morticia Addams. Why do you think these four are the most commonly mentioned?

When I think of these dark lovely woman I think not only of the color black, bats, cob webbed houses, horror hosting and sex appeal but the fact in some way shape or form we relate to them. I admire them in the sense that they are believable characters and to us horror gals give us something to relate to. They are not the villain in horror. They are not a final girl. They are not being chased down by monsters…..they are loved, admired, married and even raising them. They embrace the dark side and look damn good doing it too! Everything I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a little piece of each of these woman. So much so I actually have 3 of them tattoo’d on my body.

2. Final Girl and Scream Queen are two labels that women are often given in horror films. Why do you think so many horror movies have a female versus a male as the sole survivor?

More commonly back in the day you would watch a movie of any genre and the man would be rescuing the woman from a villain, monster, creature or bad situation. I guess it was more common for woman to want to be rescued by their prince charming. Woman are done with that stereo type. We don’t want to be rescued by a knight in shining armor. We want to be the baddest bitch in the land.

3. Do you think women have stronger impacts on their audience when they play a villain or a heroine?

One of my favorite sayings is “hell has no fury like a woman scorned” because it really is true. This goes for both the twisted villain side of our brains and the stand up for what you believe in heroine side of our brains. Think Mary in American Mary to Alice in Resident Evil. Unlike men, women hold some fierce grudges and will hold those grudges to the death. Hurt a woman’s family, friends or children… watch out! Tell a woman she can’t do something… watch out! Give a woman a cause or a goal to fight for… watch out! Put that on the big screen… watch out! I think I am more drawn to the villains then the heroines myself as I find them intriguing, interesting and unpredictable. Even growing up I preferred Poison Ivy and Catwoman over Bat Girl. I was interested more in Maleficent then Sleeping Beauty. When I watch True Blood I want more Pam then Sookie.

4. Werewolf films are a subgenre of horror, one that is commonly portrayed by men. Ginger Snaps was one of the first films to male dominated role and turn the tables, quite successfully, I might add. What other roles in the horror world would you like to see a stronger female presence?

First off Ginger Snaps =  LOVE! This is one of many that has a cult following of female horror fans for so many wonderful reasons. I think that has a lot to do with the fact you get to see the girl be somewhat of the bad guy for a change. You get to see a beautiful young woman turn into this beastly, hungry out for blood creature. I would love to see more female horror villains in a lead roles. We need more females that will go down in the test of time for being classic horror maniacs. We need female Freddy Kruegers, Jason's and Leatherfaces!! It’s always cool to see final girls surviving a mass murderer situation…..but it’s even more entertaining when you give a woman a knife and tell her she can’t have what she wants! Take La Femme in the movie Inside. Nothing like persistence and determination to make for a great horror movie with a female for a psycho lead role. When a woman is determined she finds a way to get what she wants at any means necessary. Or how would you like to be the one man that runs into Asami Yamazaki in Audition or Annie Wilkes of Misery? Then there is the hotter side of the spectrum. One look at Baby Firefly in House of 1000 Corpses and the Devil’s Rejects and you think god has answered your prayers. Piss her off and you realize it’s the devil who answered them as she skins you and laughs in your face. If I were to ever star in a horror movie in my lifetime I wouldn’t want to be the final girl….. hand me the axe!

5. Who is an actress that is new to the horror scene within the last 5 years that you would like to see in more horror films? What is your favorite role this person has played in a horror movie and why?

I would love to see more horror movie work by Scout Taylor Compton. I really like her. I think she is stunning, she is a great actress and on top of it amazing to her fans. I met her at a horror con and she was one of the sweetest celebs that I have met. I fell in love with her as Laurie Stroud in Rob Zombie’s Halloween. I think she did Jamie Lee Curtis justice (huge act to follow) and more directors should be calling her by the minute to get her in their horror films! Her Dad ran a funeral home for crying out loud.

Before we get into our Top Five Women in Horror, I would just like to say, we both had a hard time trying to narrow down out lists of ladies. I thought about doing a top five for scream queens, but I felt like that would leave out so many options. When it came down to it, we both made out decisions based on something that Nicole describes best here:

Ok since this is entirely way too difficult to pick just 5 horror actresses in film because I love so many of them.... I am going to pick the top 5 horror actresses that are my favorites in a sense that if one of them is in going to be in a horror movie it draws me to watch the movie just because they are in it. I have eliminated horror hosts from this list otherwise Elvira would be on here as she is my idol ha ha. And since we are not including tv that eliminated by other idol Yvonne DeCarlo :)

Living Dead Girl Nicoles Top Five Women in Horror

1.) Elsa Lancaster

2.) Sheri Moon Zombie

3.) Katharine Isabelle

4.) Mila Jovovich

5.) Rose McGowen

This Ghouls Top Five Women in Horror

1.) Asia Argento

2.) Camille Keaton

3.) Angela Bettis

4.) Karen Black

5.) Mary Elizabeth Winstead