The Top 10 Best Killer Women From Horror Movies
Hell Hath No Fury Like These Killer Women From Horror Movies.
Every October I get into the Halloween spirit by gorging myself on all things horror the entire month, and one thing that I’ve noticed is that the vast majority of big-screen psychopaths are dudes. That hardly seems fair, considering that there have been some horrifying killer women in horror movies over the years. Sure, statistically men are much more likely to commit violent crimes than women, but I’ve been in enough toxic relationships to know that women can be plenty frightening in their own right. That’s why I got my feminism on and pulled together this list of the top 10 killer women from horror movies. Now, this is a list of scary movie psycho slasher. So, I won’t be counting including badass action heroines here, even though they might technically kill people. I’m also not going to include any characters who are (more or less) justified in the murders they commit (IE: Jennifer from I Spit on Your Grave, Haley Stark from Hard Candy, Carrie White from Carrie, etc). I’ve also decided that this is a human-only list (women are humans, after all) and won’t include monsters or supernatural creatures. So, get ready, because this list of killer women will convince you that the “fairer sex” just might be the fiercest.
*Caution: This list contains some spoilers.*
10. Mandy Lane- All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Kicking off this list of killer women is a teen who wields her feminine wiles with deadly results. As the title suggests, all the boys do, in fact, love Mandy Lane (Amber Heard). Well, they “love her” in that special way that teenage boys “love” anything with a pulse (hormones are a hell of a thing). So, it makes sense that she’d be one of the first gals invited to a party being held on an isolated ranch. Now, every horror fan knows a house party means that a psycho killer will inevitably show up to harsh everyone’s vibe. At first, it seems like Mandy is just another unfortunate victim in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the final twist reveals that she coaxed the killer into his rampage with the promise of joining him in a suicide pact. Turns out that Mandy had no interest in killing herself and was planning on betraying her admirer once the dirty deeds were done. Keep Mandy in mind next time a girl starts whispering sweet nothings into your ear. Some women can be deadly when it comes to words.
9. Rhoda Penmark- The Bad Seed
Technically, the next character on this list of killer women hasn’t quite blossomed into womanhood yet. Patty McCormack plays an adorable little psychopath named Rhoda who doesn’t like it when things don’t go her way. Now, I don’t want to sound like a condescending misogynist, but Rhonda has some serious daddy issues. The issues being that daddy was actually a notorious serial killer, which means he contributed some pretty bad genetics to the blood running through her veins. Rhonda reveals her true nature early on in the film when she murders her classmate for winning the coveted penmanship award. Turns out that this isn’t the first time Rhonda’s killed over an inconvenience and since then the little stinker has become a master manipulator fooling everything into believing that she’s just a sweet little angel. In my eyes, Rhoda is a cautionary tale when it comes to creepy kids.
8. Sadie Cunningham and McKayla Hooper- Tragedy Girls
The next two characters on this list of killer women show what happens when women support each other. Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) might seem like typical, vaped, high school popular girls dreaming of social media stardom, but the truth is much more menacing. The two are actually quite the cunning, manipulative, and cold-blooded duo who are planning on taking advantage of a local serial killer (Kevin Durand) to ride the true crime wave to greatness. Rather than chase after the killer, the two take control of the story by using a modified honeypot (serial killers have a type) to capture the killer and start a spree of their own. They prove to be unnervingly effective, after a short learning curve, and it soon becomes apparent that their actual plan is to frame the killer for their actions and pose as final girls. Sadie and McKayla are what happens when popular girls graduate from murdering the self-esteems of their classmates to actually murdering.
7. Red- Us
Jordan Peele has proven himself an up-and-coming master of horror with Get Out. However, for this list of killer women from horror movies, I’m more interested in 2019’s Us. Red (Lupita Nyong’o) organizes an army of underground doppelgängers and leads them in a revolt to take over the surface world. Without warning, they appear one night en masse to take out their counterparts with brutal efficiency thanks to the careful planning of their leader. Red’s weapon of choice is a pair of gilded scissors that she’s all too happy to draw blood with. Beneath her unnerving exterior lurks an unquenchable rage that’s very different from the type of mental instability we see in her fellow doubles. I won’t spoil the source of Red’s rage, but she’s been planning her revenge for decades, just waiting for her opportunity to draw first blood. Her kill count might not be the highest on this list, but let’s just say it’s a good thing her jumpsuit is red.
6. Marie- High Tension
I was on the fence when it came to including Marie (Cécile de France) among the rest of the killer women on this list. At first, Marie comes across as the hero audiences are meant to root for as she survives a brutal attack on the family she’s staying with. Surviving the massacre at the hands of an unknown assailant, she discovers that her friend has been abducted by the madman. Without a second thought, Marie takes off after the killer to save her friend. The man’s killing spree isn’t over though, and he picks up a few more victims on the way home. You might wonder why Marie would be on a list of killer women if she’s the victim, but here’s the twist: the man she’s chasing is in her head. Marie suffered a psychotic break and killed her friend’s family along with anyone else she thought might come between them. This shocking twist earns Marie a respectable spot on this list of killer women, especially when it’s revealed that Marie is just as murderous when she snaps back to reality.