Throughout the years, the pyscho-killer trope has evolved into a key character within thriller and horror genres, however, they are normally represented as males, as women apparently had no place in murder.
Subversion
In the early 1980s, we were shown many new sides and aspects of psycho-killer character trope, and it had already given us some of our favourite villains. But we still had yet to shown many women in such a role.
In tune with our own history, which has never been free of murderous women whose criminal careers have crossed boundaries and stirred imagination, it was time to move on from Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and Norman Bates.
Bring on the ladies!
Today we have we selected ten female killers, who're so memorable, they have changed the face of cinema forever.
1 Annie Wilkes
Film(s): 'Misery'
Year(s): 1990
Director(s): Rob Reiner
Actress: Kathy Bates
Personality: She was obsessed with Misery, the protagonist of several romantic novels by the writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan), but her madness is unleashed in full when, by twist of fate, Sheldon sustains an injury in a nearby car accident, and she had the opportunity to rescue him. Let's just say she wasn't happy when she discovered that her beloved heroine dies in the last installment in the series.
Victim(s): The poor writer, who after becoming a unwilling guest, will end up prisoner in the house of a lone, psychotic woman.
2 Pamela Voorhees
Film(s): 'Friday the 13th'
Year(s): 1980
Director(s): Sean S. Cunningham
Actress: Betsy Palmer
Personality: The cold and sweet revenge of a mother whose child (Jason Voorhees) drowned while the camp monitors had sex, she is presented in the guise of a gentle woman, but who secretly feels that all children deserve to be punished with death, as if she herself were executing arm of morality.
Victim(s): Nine supervisors from Camp Crystal Lake, until she is decapitated by the sole survivor, Alice (Adrienne King). She is the reason for which Jason returns from the dead and continues the bloody legacy started by his mother.
3 Angela
Film(s): 'Sleepaway Camp' trilogy and 'Return to Sleepaway Camp'
Year(s): 1983-2008
Director(s): Robert Hiltzin ('Sleepaway camp', 'Return to Sleepaway Camp'); Michael A. Simpson ('Sleepaway Camp II', Sleepaway Camp 3')
Actresses: Felissa Rose; Pamela Springsteen
Personality: The small Peter Baker saw as his father and his sister Angela die in a tragic accident caused by a motor boat, and afterwards was adopted by his eccentric aunt Martha, who raised him as if he were a girl and gave him the name of his deceased sister: Angela. Years and years of repression and psychological torture lead to horrific, murderous desires being unleashed upon the unsuspecting Camp Arawak.
Victim(s): More than fifty people that they have ended up dead at the hands of Angela, who makes no distinction between age groups, social class or sex, because in her eyes, all deserve to die.
4 Catherine Tramell
Film(s): 'Basic Instinct' and 'Basic Instinct 2'
Year(s): 1992-2006
Director(s): Paul Verhoeven; Michael Caton-Jones
Actress: Sharon Stone
Personality: Sensual, cold and ruthless, Catherine Tramell committed her first murder against her parents by planning a fake accident to check if could escape unpunished. Since then, she has been dedicated to romanticizing fantasies of crimes and sex in which she creates an intricate spiderweb of conspiracy, in search of the perfect crime.
Victim(s): All those to who decides to interfere in her Machiavellian plans.
5 Mallory Knox
Film(s): 'Natural Born Killers'
Year(s): 1994
Director(s): Oliver Stone
Actress: Juliette Lewis
Personality: Quentin Tarantino was inspired by the real killer, Caril Ann Fugate, who, along with Charles Starkweather killed eleven people at the end of the 1950s. Mallory and her partner, Micky (Woody Harrelson), feel that they were born to kill and that they can do nothing to control the dangerous fury that runs through their veins.
Victim/s: All who cross their path.
6 Beverly Sutphin
Film(s): 'Serial Mom'
Year(s): 1994
Director(s): John Waters
Actress: Kathleen Turner
Personality: An exemplary mother fascinated by biographies of fictional assassins, Beverly Sutphin is actually a ruthless psychopath in this hilarious black comedy that serves as a criticism to the American nuclear family.
Victim(s): All who annoy her.
7 Brenda Bates
Film(s): 'Urban Legend'
Year(s): 1998
Director(s): Jamie Blanks
Actress: Rebecca Gayheart
Personality: Driven insane by the death of her boyfriend due of the staging of an urban legend, she takes a few years to plot a brutal revenge against those who killed his beloved.
Victim(s): Her main objectives are Natalie (Alicia Witt) and Michelle (Natasha Gregson Wagner), those guilty of the death of Brenda's boyfriend. In addition to these two, some of her friends and colleagues of the University of Pendleton will be victims of the ruthless killer. In an ironic twist, Brenda herself stages all of the killings to look like urban legends. Jared Leto, Tara Reid, Michael Rosenbaum, Danielle Harris, Joshua Jackson and Robert Englund were all in the crosshairs of Brenda, but only a few were saved from the edge of her axe.
8 Tiffany
Film(s): 'Bride of Chucky', 'Seed of Chucky' and 'Curse of Chucky'
Year(s): 1998-2013
Director(s): Ronny Yu; Don Mancini
Actress: Jennifer Tilly
Personality: The only dream in Tiffany's life was to marry and live what she believes would be the most beautiful day of her life. So much so that she decided to recover the remains of her beloved, Charles Lee Ray, whose soul has remained inside the Chucky doll. However, things go awry, and he ends up in the body of a doll, too. Now immortalized, the two embark upon a killing spree and live their lives together.
Victim(s): All that who stands between her and Chucky.
9 Asami Yamazaki
Film(s): 'Audition'
Year(s): 1999
Director(s): Takashi Miike
Actress: Eihi Shiina
Personality: After a childhood and adolescence marked by ill-treatment and torture, the beautiful Asami grows up with the sole intention to find someone who loves her exclusively. The abuse has turned her into a real sociopath whom cannot suffer anyone loving anyone else, and feels the need to inflict horrific tortures on others.
Victim(s): Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) suffers all the atrocities that Asami is able to imagine.
10 Lola
Film: 'The Loved Ones'
Year: 2009
Director: Sean Byrne
Actress: Robin McLeavy
Personality: Lola is one of the quieter girls at her school. Plucking up the courage to ask the handsome Brent (Xavier Samuel) to prom, things go awry after he calmly declines due to the fact he has a girlfriend. She doesn't take this well. To appease her, her beloved father (John Brumpton) kidnaps the young man so his daughter can have the perfect date.
Victim(s): All those who dared to reject Lola, and others besides. Including her mother.