This past weekend, Universal’s new female version of The Mummy played by Sofia Boutella got trounced by Wonder Woman, but the film scored a record opening for Tom Cruise at the international box office. We hope the lackluster performance of the film stateside won’t sour studios on supernatural lady creatures in the horror genre, which are a worthy bunch if you check out our list compiling The 18 Baddest Female Monsters in Horror Movies in the gallery below!
The Mummy isn’t the only female monsters showcase recently unleashed for your viewing pleasure. The folks at Scream Factory have put out an excellent Blu-ray of last year’s freaky festival sensation The Autopsy of Jane Doe, directed by André Øvredal of Trollhunter fame. Also out on Blu through Severin Films is the deliciously-bizarre Canadian cult classic Cathy’s Curse, a 1970’s Omen rip-off with a little girl and an oh-so delightful “Canuxploitation” vibe. Both are worthy entries in our list below!
Click here to buy The Autopsy of Jane Doe on Scream Factory Blu-ray!
Click here to buy Cathy’s Curse on Severin Films Blu-ray!
Who are your favorite female monsters in all of horrordom? What makes them the baddest, most vile villainous creature we can imagine? Let us know in the comments below!
The 18 Baddest Female Monsters in Horror Movies
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Jane Doe in THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE (2016)
When a father-son pair of coroners (Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch) receive the body of a mysterious dead woman to examine, they recognize (perhaps too late?) that while the flesh is weak, the spirit is very, very willing to terrorize. A fun, twisted little chamber piece that throws lots of curveballs and gives us a female monster that doesn't have to move a finger to spread her evil.
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Edith Brennan in MAMA (2013)
The debut feature of Andrés Muschietti (this year's IT) casts a very skinny man (Javier Botet) to play the mother of all evil moms. The spirit of Edith Brennan may have saved two small kids when they lived as feral children in the woods for several years, but she's not gonna lose custody without a fight in the court of PAIN.
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Jennet Humfrye in THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012)
How's this for a monster: The Woman in Black can just convince you to kill yourself in some horrible way, be it setting yourself on fire, jumping out a window, etc. That's the kind of power that only Harry Potter himself Daniel Radcliffe could fight.
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Jennifer Check in JENNIFER'S BODY (2009)
Megan Fox starred in this high school horror comedy as a man-eating succubus (not a stretch for the foxy Fox) whose reign of terror her bestie (played by Amanda Seyfried) is determined to put a stop to. Features many of the bon mots that are a trademark of screenwriter Diablo Cody, and is the rare horror film starring, written by and directed (Karyn Kusama) by women.
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Dren in SPLICE (2009)
This Cronenberg-esque film from Canadian helmer Vincenzo Natali follows two renegade genetic scientists, played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, who create a new female genetic hybrid that looks humanoid but possesses physical abnormalities that make her something of a superpredator.
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Eli in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008)
While Eli states bluntly "I'm not a girl," and may have been a boy when she was originally turned into a vampire centuries before, she has the look of a 12-year-old girl all the same. While she shares a tender relationship with young outsider Oskar, her ability to climb hospital walls, summon cats and, of course, do all her vampire stuff makes her a force to be reckoned with and an enemy of bullies everywhere.
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Dark Nurses in SILENT HILL (2006)
A staple of the original video games, the Dark Nurses of Silent Hill, you better hope these disfigured hospital employees don't get the Florence Nightingale effect for you!
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Tooth Fairy in DARKNESS FALLS (2003)
This wrongfully-murdered widow by the name of Matilda Dixon was horribly burned in a fire, and if you take one glance at her spirit you are marked for vengeance. By the end of this film many unfortunate townspeople feel that wraith.
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Samara Morgan in THE RING (2002)
The Ring series revolves around a videotape that kills anyone who watches it after seven days, but it's not the tape itself that kills you but Samara, a seriously disturbed girls with supernatural abilities who was thrown down a well for what we later realize was good reason.
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Santanico Pandemonium in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996)
The resident Queen Vampire of Mexico's Titty Twister bar, Santanico (the lovely Salma Hayek) uses her human form to seduce her victims, then transforms into her reptilian vampiric form to finish the job.
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Sil from SPECIES (1995)
Another female creature that uses her powers of seduction to kill men is Sil (Natasha Henstridge), a creature created in a lab by hubristic scientists trying to create a human/alien hybrid. The result looks like a human but rapidly matures to a woman in a matter of months, and she's desperate to procreate...
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Vera Cosgrove in DEAD ALIVE (1992)
Known as "Braindead" everywhere besides the US, Peter Jackson's Oedipal nightmare of a horror comedy features a henpecked young man hounded by his nagging mother (Elizabeth Moody) even after she becomes a flesh-eating zombie and (eventually) a giant super zombie!
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Alien Queen in ALIENS (1986)
James Cameron's 1986 sequel explained just who created all those eggs in the cargo hold in the original Alien, an explanation annoyingly undone by Ridley Scott's recent Alien: Covenant. As for the bitch herself, she's a masterful extension of the original design executed by Cameron and the late Stan Winston.
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Gozer in GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
Making the big bad of the bro-tastic Ghostbusters a woman was a cool idea, and as played by Serbian model Slavitza Jovan she's a slinky evil deity who you would happily cross the streams for.
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Cathy Gimble in CATHY'S CURSE (1977)
This loony Canadian Omen rip-off follows a Quebec family that moves into a new house that's inhabited by the spirit of a little girl who burned to death years earlier. For no apparent reason she's evil, and sets about inhabiting the body of Cathy (Randi Allen), making her do all sorts of terrible (and terribly random) things, from making a statue explode to forcing the groundskeeper to get drunk with her. It's nuts, and oh so wonderful.
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Carrie White in CARRIE (1976)
Brian De Palma became the first director to bring Stephen King's brand of horror to the screen with this tale of a naive young girl named Carrie (Sissy Spacek) raised by a religious tyrant of a mother and who also has psychokinetic powers. While Carrie's intentions are pure, she's pushed too far by her classmates and winds up toasting the whole lot of them. Bad Carrie!
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Regan MacNeil in THE EXORCIST (1973)
Cinema's all-time great possessed little girl was played to head-spinning perfection by Linda Blair. The combo of Dick Smith's brilliant make-up and William Friedkin's intense direction made this a jarring, scarring experience for '70s audiences.
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Carmilla in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970)
Predating Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" by 26 years, Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" was brought to the screen by the fine folks at Hammer Films as The Vampire Lovers, which was part of their loose Karnstein trilogy. Containing more nudity than a typical Hammer outing, the film features the impeccable Ingrid Pitt as Mircalla Karnstein (aka Carmilla), a lesbian vampire who tangles with Peter Cushing, playing a variation on his own Van Helsing character.
