Yell! Magazine’s Halloween week is kicking off pretty good so far with articles we hope you are enjoying. TheMatt started it up with his list of scary video games to play, Evil Argento brought us tips in the makeup department, and Jamie Lee introduced you to some horror classics that you must see before you die. Things are moving just fine here. Do you really see any employee problems at the moment?
TheMatt and NoFaceNorm can burn in hell this Halloween… MUAHAHAHAHA!
Except for those two guys mentioned above, who will be dealt with unimaginable pain in just a few more days, our previous means of measure wasn’t working efficiently enough, and it’s time to bring out the pendulum, guys!
Now onto our list of the Top 10 Most Memorable Women in Horror. Can we really move on this Halloween without honoring some of the top actresses who have either scared the living crap out of us or have simply showed us something to desire in horror films? Hell no!
So, to start off the list at the Number 10 spot is Cécile De France, who bumped off our original choice, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, for not living up to a similar role set out by Kurt Russell in The Thing prequel. Tons of other female actress could have made the list, so feel free to leave your top choice in the comment section below.
No.10 Cécile De France
Haute Tension (2003)
Cécile De France, the talented French actress born in Belgium who was once named one of Europe’s “Shooting Stars” by the European Film Promotion, landed her first notorious horror role as the protagonist in Alexandre Aja’s Haute Tension. You could also call this film the Fight Club of horror for having a similarly twisted ending where Marie (Cécile De France) attempts to save her college friend from a maniac that killed her family in brutal fashion before the ending revealed that Marie is really the murderer. Why you ask? For her love, and desire to be left alone with Alex (her college friend). Now that’s incredibly hot if you ask me! Beyond the main plot of the film, we see great scene’s with Marie, a memorable masturbation moment (most likely thinking about Alex), and a bloody fight for life against her persona (the psychopathic killer) set in her deep dark mind.
Cécile De France carries herself through as Marie like a pro in every suspenseful moment in the film, making herself comparable to a young Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. Although in real life she prefers thrillers to horrors, Haute Tension delivers everything you could ask for in a modern horror: gore, suspense, and unnerving sound design. She has a spot in our hearts, and deserves to be on this list of memorable women in horror among many others.
Personal Quote:
“I prefer thrillers, but when it’s thriller/horror I like it. The gore is not very important to me, I prefer suspense. But I like dark films.”
No.9 Jessica Harper
Suspiria (1977)
The godfather of Italian Giallo films, Dario Argento, had Jessica Harper star as Suzy Bannion in one of the scariest movies ever made, Suspiria. While the film is still labeled as a glossy horror film for its ravishing visual performance, it still contains all the gory trademarks of Dario Argento, like close ups on wounds, never-ending stabbings in the first-person point of view, and the strangest occurrence of deaths — all combined with a chilling ambiance created by Goblin (an Italian progressive rock band).
It may sound like I’m glamorizing the film too much at this point… it really should be about Jessica Harper, and why she ranked in at number 9 on this list, but all those elements about the film are as damn great as her performance. It’s actually pretty hard to describe how great she was because she was so seemless in Suspiria, blending in with the same fear you faced as a viewer of the film (a goal successfully achieved by Argento). She also brought additional beauty, and aesthetics to the picture when she had to face the terrifying coven of witches.
If only Suspiria had a more promising ending, and mainstream success like The Exorcist did. Jessica Harper would have ranked in much higher.
No.8 Patricia Tallman
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
[In a creepy voice (CV)]:: “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”
Barbara: “Stop it! You’re ignorant!”
(CV): “They’re coming for you, Barbara!”
Barbara: “Stop it! You’re acting like a child!”
(CV): “They’re coming for you!”
As annoying as that was for Barbara, I sure as hell had a kick out of it, and I continued to pursue it on a few of my dates. It didn’t get me laid, but what the heck, it was going nowhere anyways, and I still felt VICTORIOUS afterward. Thank you Mr. Romero! I’m sure you experienced the same situations. You’re probably asking this question “Dude, why aren’t you featuring the original Barbara?” Well, it’s an easy answer: TheMatt (one of our favorite writers) has a sexual fetish for redheads. If we didn’t include her on our list of the most memorable women in horror, we would all have to face his hissy fit for weeks to come, and you’d have to endure his incessant bitching and moaning in his articles. Trust me! You don’t want TheMatt interfering with your daily time on the Interwebs.
Anyway, Patricia Tallman was hot for the role, or possibly too hot. Wait a minute, did I just say that! I’m a guy who craves titties night and day. You can never be too hot to star in a zombie horror. As weak as her character was at the very beginning, when she first realized the circumstance that was happening with the dead, her role quickly made a u-turn when she had to face the zombies one on one with a rifle in the climax of Night of the Living Dead. Patricia Tallman lived up to the original actress as well as beating out Jessica Harper, and Cécile De France on this list because zombies are much more frightening than witches and a dyke who craves pussy. C’mon, if you don’t agree, just have a second look at that picture, doesn’t she look badass enough?
No.7 Natasha Henstridge
Species (1995)
Natasha Henstridge was an easy choice for our list of the most memorable women in horror considering she was the cause of an outbreak of premature ejaculation in the mid ’90s with all the boys who snuck in to see Species during the opening week. I guess I was one of them, and at the age of 14 it didn’t take much for a rapid fire.
Species was famous for its sexual content and simplistic story that called on Henstridge to star as Sil, a genetically engineered alien/human hybrid who breaks free from captivity while also discovering her instinct to mate. Let’s just say it didn’t take much for the marketing team over at MGM to think up ways to sell the film. Species earned $113 million at the box office, making it an instant hit. For an acting debut, the blonde bombshell was instantly recognized as a sex symbol in mainstream horror cinema, landing her future roles in a Species sequel, alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme in Maximum Risk, and another horror/sci-fi by legendary director John Carpenter called Ghost of Mars.
What’s not to like about Natasha Henstridge? Being one of the sexiest creatures in horror history lands her the number 7 spot in the most memorable women in horror.
Find out who’s the most memorable women in horror after the jump…
