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Horror Heroines: The Best and the Brightest Women in Horror (Part One)

In horror history and even still today, women are often found to be the victim. There are many stereotypes that come to mind when talking about women in horror movies. A terrified girl, pummeling limp-wristed at some large, lumbering murderer. The woman who gets a call from a threatening voice that says they're watching her and she doesn't just immediately hang up the phone to call the police. The air-headed bimbo that decides to have a quickie even though her friends seem to be disappearing. You know the stereotypes I'm talking about. How did women get dealt such a band hand of cards in horror movies? As a fellow member of the female gender, it's always bothered me. That's why when a female character in a horror movie really turns the tables and comes of tough, intelligent and quick-witted, I get super excited. There is something so satisfying about watching a scream queen come out triumphant (or as triumphant as one can be in a horror movie).

For every ditzy lady running upstairs when they should be running out the front door, there's horror heroine that strikes fear back into the heart of her attacker. The five women I mention below are just a few of the many greats in the horror world. Let's take a moment and explore why these ferocious females are worth mentioning.

***SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD***

Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street

  

A Nightmare on Elm Street very well may be my favorite horror movie and Freddy Kreuger is definitely one of my favorite horror movie villains. However, for me the best thing to come out of the movie was it's heroine, Nancy. Talk about running the show! Freddy Kreuger would have killed every teenager and kid in town if Nancy hadn't stepped up to the plate. When Tina has her nightmare, Nancy is the only one that believes her fear and connects the dots that everyone is dreaming about the same guy.

In fact, throughout the entire movie she is the only to be proactive at all. Everyone in the movie is the most useless and unhelpful people to be with in a horror movie. Rod, Tina's boyfriend who watched here get sliced and diced mid-air by NOBODY, didn't have the smarts to deduce that maybe something outside the norm was happening. At least not until his bed sheets got the best of him in jail. Nancy's mother is a drunk who knows exactly who Freddy Kreuger is (she killed him in real life, duh) and even after Nancy says his name and gives a perfect description of his appearance her mother STILL WON'T BELIEVE HER. She watched Nancy pull Kreuger's freaking brown hat out of her dream and she was just like, "Aw honey you just need more sleep." Even less helpful than Nancy's mom is her father, the head of the town's incompetent law enforcement. Nancy's father (played by the forever cop John Saxon) never believes Nancy until he finally sees Freddy with his own eyes. He also arrests the wrong guy, which by the way, props to Nancy for jumping in front of her father's loaded gun to save Rod (how many of your friends would jump in front of a loaded gun for you?). Her boyfriend Glen had one job: stay awake while Nancy goes into her dream to pull out a vicious child murderer. Not hard, right? COULDN'T EVEN STAY AWAKE. 

Nancy had to literally do everything herself and it culminates in an amazing climax where Nancy finally pulls Freddy out of her dream (a stop watch did Glen's job better) and beats the crud out of him with sledgehammer booby traps, explosive trip wires before ultimately setting him on fire. However, what really earns Nancy her spot on the list is how she finally conquered Kreuger. Exhausted and running on no sleep, she decides she's tired of his shit and turns her back on him. Nancy realized Freddy Kreuger is not worth her energy and by taking that energy away, he can no longer exist. What's cooler than saying, "Screw you. I'm tired of being scared and I'm not playing your games anymore." You go, Nancy!

Sidney Prescott from the Scream Franchise

This woman has survived horror not once, not twice, but FOUR TIMES. I'm not just amazed at her ability to continuously thwart Ghostface, but at the fact that she still has not broken down after repeatedly being stalked and attacked. Just look at the timeline! 

First movie: Best friend murdered, life flashed all over the news, boyfriend and his bestie try to kill her after admitting to murdering her mother. Sidney pushes through. Second movie: Sidney is getting a college degree! New best friend murdered, new boyfriend murdered, and ex-boyfriend's crazy mother tried to kill her. Sidney pushes through. Third movie: Her whole life has been turned into a movie, police are good looking yet no help, and her estranged brother she never knew about tries to kill her. Sidney somehow still freaking pushes through. Fourth movie: Somehow Sidney has not yet had a total psychotic breakdown. She is owning her life and has written and published a book. She has literally survived over a decade of harassment and knife wounds. Her niece is Emma Roberts and that's not even the worst part! HER FREAKING NIECE TRIED TO KILL HER. Seriously, why do people want to kill Sidney so bad? She's done nothing to warrant such hostility and all she wants is to live her life in peace. Sidney is the Jackie Chan of horror movies. She's just trying to mind her own business and people keep messing with her. And to what effect? Sidney has killed personally killed every one of her attackers (and does it with a great snappy one liner). Maybe one of these days people be smart enough to not mess with Sidney, but until then I will enjoy watching her dish out a Ghostface ass whooping.

Erin from You're Next

GORGEOUS BADASS ALERT. This is the kind of woman you want to take home to your mother. Unless you plan on killing your mother along with the rest of your family and using her as a witness. That won't fly with Erin. Everybody get's nervous about meeting their significant other's family for the first time. It's important to make a good impression. Unfortunately, that all went out the window when Erin sat down for a lovely dinner with her boyfriend's family and one of them got shot in the head with an arrow. Bummer. Blood in the mashed potatoes. Dinner totally ruined. Don't you hate when that happens? 

The family and Erin are trapped in their house under siege from invaders and what does she do when everyone's cowering in the corner? She starts looking for weapons and setting up traps. She's uncannily calm and seems to know exactly how to do when all of a sudden she even starts taking out some of the killers single-handedly! Is this girl a superhero? Nope. Turns out she just grew up on a survivalist compound where she learned combat and survival skills. You know, that old chestnut. The masked murderers are in over their head when Erin starts knocking them off one by one and in turn uncovering an inheritance murder plot. Erin ends up as the sole survivor at the end of the brutal night and went from "You're Next" to "You're Last". Erin is a strong independent woman who don't need no man! (She had a man, but she stabbed him in the eye)

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Do you agree with my choices? Who do you think should be on the list? This is only part one so there are many more horror heroines to fawn over so let me know which ones you admire!