10 Most Terrifying Women In Horror Movies

Unless you've been hiding under a rock these past few years, you can't have failed to note the surge in popular demand for greater female representation in cinema (not to mention a great many other fields).

One of the first and most vocal of such movements to emerge in the past decade has been the Women in Horror movement, calling for greater acknowledgement of female voices in horror, and greater appreciation of female contributions to the genre.

Women have of course always had a major role to play in horror cinema. While it often appears they're routinely served up as nothing more than victims-in-waiting and eye candy for lusty male audiences, studies from such academics as Carol Clover and Barbara Creed have identified that female characters are frequently the intended point of identification, rather than the male antagonists.

And of course, all of that being said, horror antagonists are not always male. There have been plenty of female monsters, murderers and mutilators on the big screen over the years, and plenty of them rank among the scariest characters in cinema. Who says there's a fairer sex...?

Hands up everyone who always thought that the main character in Clive Barker's Hellraiser was Pinhead. It's not an unreasonable assumption, given Doug Bradley's Lead Cenobite (the only name he is given in the 1987 original) dominated the poster/VHS art, and became the focal point of the long-running (though frequently subpar) franchise that followed.

However, watch the original Hellraiser again and it becomes clear that it's not Pinhead, nor the top-credited Andrew Robinson who is the real lead: it's Clare Higgins' Julia. Dissatisfied by her marriage to Robinson's Larry, Julia fixates on her fleeting affair with Larry's brother Frank - so she's naturally alarmed to find Frank barely alive in the attic of the old Cotton house, having been torn apart by the demonic Cenobites.

At Frank's urging, Julia turns black widow seductress, luring men home and feeding them to her lover to help him regrow his human form. While she may be compelled by feelings of love, the ease with which she slips into serial killer mode is unnerving.

However, while Julia may be in some respects a sympathetic, tragic heroine in Hellraiser, follow-up Hellbound: Hellraiser II sees her turn 100% pure villainess; understandable, given she's spent a bit of time in Hell by that point.