10 Most Terrifying Women In Horror Movies
9. Julie Walker - Return Of The Living Dead 3
While the original Return of the Living Dead and, to a lesser extent, its first sequel remain popular with horror fans, neither film would necessarily be considered genuinely scary. Both are very much horror comedies, playing the zombie format more for laughs than chills.
However, Brian Yuzna's third instalment changed the record. Largely a standalone film, it carries nothing from the previous films beyond the central macguffin of the 245 Trioxin gas that turns the living into nigh-on indestructible zombies, and plays things considerably straighter. Indeed, it proves a surprisingly poignant film, centred on the teenage romance of Melinda Clarke's Julie and J. Trevor Edmund's Curt, which takes a fatal turn when Julie is infected by the Trioxin.
Clarke's tragic turn as Julie is leagues ahead of your standard splatter movie female lead, with a palpable sorrow as she struggles to hold on to her humanity while her zombie instincts kick in, and adorns her body with nails, glass and the like in the hopes that the pain might help her reconnect with her feelings.
Even so, once those primal instincts take over and Julie gives in to her hunger for human brains, it's a truly creepy (if undeniably sexy) spectacle.