20 Most Badass Female Horror Characters Ever

Barbara doesn't do a whole lot in the original Night of the Living Dead other than cry and scream. She's attacked at the beginning of the movie but luckily a man saves her, and then she spends the following 90 minutes freaking out until eventually being eaten. 

But that was 1968, and when the remake hit in 1990, Tom Savini made the wise decision to turn Barbara into the hero. Once all hell breaks loose, this time Barbara doesn't just sink into the corner. No, she kills plenty of people, using a crowbar and later a shotgun. She's brave enough to leave and find help, and in the end she's the only one to make it out alive. In an amazing final moment, Harry, who has been nothing but a jerk to her the whole movie and almost got her killed, is excited to see Barbara return, but without saying anything she shoots him right in the head. And he wasn't even a zombie.

There's a slight, pretty clever nod to Barbara's role in the original movie when in the remake she tells everyone to stop yelling at each other like a bunch of two year olds. It's a great change that shows the evolving role for women in horror, and it results in one of the all time great female protagonists in a zombie film.