Deadly Ladies: 13 of Horror’s Most Murderous Women

In honor of Friday the 13th and Pamela Voorhees’s bloodcurdling killing spree, I give you 13 of horror cinema’s most murderous women.

JENNIFER HILLS
I Spit on Your Grave

Occupation: Short story writer

Hobbies: Castration, tranquil boat rides, long baths

Backstory: Jennifer abandons the loud and turbulent streets of Manhattan for an isolated cottage in the woods of Connecticut to write her first novel.

Catalyst: Jennifer catches the eyes of four psycho bumpkins who brutally rape her before leaving her for dead. She takes her time recuperating before killing her attackers in grotesque fashion.

Victims: Four crazed hicks who sexually abuse her.

Weapon of Choice: Various bladed instruments

 

CAROL CUTLER
Strait-Jacket

Occupation: Artist

Hobbies: Mask making, sculpting, scripting lullabies

Backstory: Carol went to live on the farm of her Uncle Bill and Aunt Emily following the murder of her father at the hands of her psychotic mother at age three.

Catalyst: Carol’s mother is released from a psychiatric hospital after twenty years and immediately begins meddling in Carol’s love life. Carol responds by disguising herself as her mother and embarking on a terrifying killing spree.

Victims: People close to her mother, including her doctor.

Weapon of Choice: Axe

 

EVELYN DRAPER
Play Misty for Me

Occupation: Unknown

Hobbies: Stalking and poetry

Backstory: Evelyn is a lonely woman obsessed with a late night radio show and its host, the soft-spoken Dave Garver.

Catalyst: Dave is disturbed by Evelyn’s neurotic behavior. His attempts to sever ties with her push her to the brink. The sight of Dave with his ex-girlfriend are too much for her to take.

Victims: A police detective who got a bit too close to the truth.

 Weapon of Choice: Emotional manipulation

 

MRS. TREDONI
Alice Sweet Alice

Occupation: Housekeeper

Hobbies: Living to appease her god and impersonating young children

Backstory: Mrs. Tredoni left the scenic landscapes of Italy for the shores of New Jersey where she lands a gig tending to the needs of a catholic priest called Father Tom.

Catalyst: Mrs. Tredoni grows jealous when Father Tom takes a liking to Catherine Spages and her two daughters. Her bitterness intensifies when she learns that Catherine’s daughters were conceived out of wedlock.

Victims: Catherine’s ex-husband Dominick, their daughter Karen, and her slovenly neighbor Mr. Alphonso.

 Weapon of Choice: Butcher knife

 

AILEEN WUORNOS
Monster

Occupation: Prostitute

Hobbies: Indulging in daydreams, using foul language, smoking cigarettes.

Backstory: Aileen had a terrible life. Her father committed suicide after being convicted of pedophilia, she was abandoned by her mother, and raped by her grandfather. She became pregnant at 14 after being sexually assaulted by a friend of her grandparents. Shortly after, she began selling herself for money.

Catalyst: Aileen shoots Vincent Corey multiple times after he sexually assaults her in his car.

Victims: She robs and kills a number of clients.

Weapon of Choice: Hand gun

 

ANNIE WILKES
Misery

Occupation: Nurse

Hobbies: Reading, crushing hopes, shattering bones

Backstory: Annie attended the University of Southern California’s nursing school where she graduated with honors in 1966. She worked at a number of hospitals throughout the country before settling in Colorado. She is an avid fan of romance novels and has a particularly ardent admiration for author Paul Sheldon and his character, Misery Chastain.

Catalyst: Upon discovering Sheldon has killed off Misery in his latest book, Annie imprisons the writer and subjects him to physical and psychological torment.

Victims: The local sheriff and possibly several infant children.

Weapon of Choice: Firearm

 

LOLA STONE 
The Loved Ones

Occupation: High School Student

Hobbies: Playing dress up, human branding, inflicting excruciating pain

Backstory: Lola is a typical teenage girl with dreams of attending the prom in a silky pink dress on the arm of her beloved beau.

Catalyst: When her invitation to the school dance is dismissed by Brent, she cooks up a macabre plan for revenge.

Victims: Timmy Valentine and other unfortunate high school boys who rejected her advances, her benumbed mother, and a local cop called in to investigate.

Weapon of Choice: Power Drill

 

MARY MASON
American Mary

Occupation: Medical Student/Body Modification Technician

Hobbies: Genital mutilation, body modification, exacting revenge

Backstory: Mary is a promising surgical student who performs illegal procedures on hopeless strippers for extra cash.

Catalyst: Mary transforms into an angel of death and destruction after she is drugged and raped by Dr. Grant at a networking party hosted by surgeons from the hospital where she is completing her residency.

Victims: Dr. Grant and an unfortunate security guard who got a little too close to discovering the truth.

Weapon of Choice: Surgical tools

 

HEDRA CARLSON
Single White Female

Occupation: Sales clerk at Rizzoli book store

Hobbies: Animal cruelty, impersonating others, binding arms and legs to chairs

Backstory: Hedra is a lonely young woman haunted by the accidental drowning of her twin sister who develops an unhealthy attachment to her new roommate, Allie.

Catalyst: Hedra overhears Allie expressing uneasiness to a friend regarding her roommate’s distressing fascination with her.

Victims: Allie’s fiancé and her personal identity.

Weapon of Choice: Stiletto heels

 

BEVERLY SUTPHIN
Serial Mom

Occupation: Housewife

Hobbies: Baking pies, birdwatching, singing show tunes, studying serial killers

Backstory: Beverly is a suburban house mom with three children and an unusual penchant for serial murderers.

Catalyst: Beverly disposes of her son’s math teacher after he suggests her son may require therapy. Her disposition toward deadly behavior is triggered each time she sees her family wronged.

Victims: Her son’s math teacher, her daughter’s cheating boyfriend, a couple who hinders her husband’s participation in family activities and a woman who argues with her son at work.

Weapon of Choice: Household items such as scissors, butcher knife, car, fire poker, and leg of lamb

 

ASAMI YAMAZAKI
Audition

Occupation: Claims to have worked for a music producer

Hobbies: Managing pernicious substances, Chinese medicine, binge vomiting

Backstory: Sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather as a child has left Asami unable to commit to a romantic relationship as an adult. She tortures and kills potential suitors before they have the opportunity to abandon her.

Catalyst: Asami “auditions” to be Aoyama’s new wife. When she discovers a photo of his late spouse, she fills with anger. She drugs Aoyama and takes to torturing him in diabolically inventive ways.

Victims: A number of former lovers.

Weapon of Choice: Acupuncture needles and piano wire

 

BRENDA BATES
Urban Legend

Occupation: College student

Hobbies: Studying folklore, scrawling in blood, psychological manipulation

Backstory: Brenda was engaged to be wed to her high school sweetheart before he was tragically killed in an accident. Now she’s attending college with the girls who offed him and is dead-set on revenge.

Catalyst: A seemingly innocent prank by a pair of coeds play on Brenda’s fiancé goes horribly wrong.

Victims: Michelle Mancini (one of the girls operating the vehicle that killed her boyfriend), members of Michelle’s inner circle, and unlucky staff members at Pendleton University.

Weapon of Choice: Urban legends

 

CATHERINE TRAMELL
Basic Instinct

Occupation: Crime novelist

Hobbies: Writing, inflicting emotional abuse

Backstory: Catherine is a bisexual fiction writer living in San Francisco when her boyfriend, rock star Johnny Boz, is murdered with an ice pick. The crime shares an uncanny likeness with a crime outlined in one of Catherine’s novels.

Catalyst: Catherine is diagnosed by her doctor as having a “risk addiction.” It is his belief that she creates dangerous situations for herself to feel alive.

Victims: Johnny Boz, a college professor, and a pair of police officers

Weapon of Choice: Ice pick