20 Most Badass Female Horror Characters Ever

Laurie Strode really launched the whole “final girl” cliche into the mainstream, and while she is definitely a victim who runs and screams a lot, she remains memorable all these years for one simple reason: Jamie Lee Curtis.

Laurie is a babysitter who has the misfortune of being related to Michael Myers, and he comes to murder her on Halloween. A lot of her dialogue with her friends throughout the movie is kind of dumb, but she still gets plenty of moments to shine in the final act. In the end sequence she stabs Michael in the neck, sticks him in the eye with a metal hanger, and then stabs him again with his own knife. Damn. Even though Dr. Loomis ends up being the one to shoot Michael, Laurie rises above your average damsel in distress. 

She finally gets her revenge and becomes a true badass in Halloween H20, a movie that might as well be called Michael Myers vs. Laurie Strode. In the perfect example of why Laurie is so great, after the fight Michael's body is being loaded into the coroner’s van, which would normally lead to the cliffhanger where he suddenly wakes up. But nope, Laurie comes out of nowhere, steals the van, drives it away and chops Michael Myers’ freaking head off. Now that's how you give audiences a perfect slasher heroine.