October 2015 Bewitching Book Tours Magazine Vol. #38

tress, Erin Hanson (played by the beautiful Sharni V inson) utterly dominates the movie, chewing bubble gum and kicking ass. To say the only contribution women have made for horror is to play the victim is a gross generalization. In movies where women are intended to be the victim, they survive. And then there’s the other side of the road, the villains. The creepiest characters and monsters of horror, in my humble opinion, have been women.

Consider Kathy Bates in Misery and you tell me if her portrayal as Annie Wilkes didn’t creep you the fuck out!

Let’s all be honest here guys, put aside our egocentric macho bullshit and come clean. Let’s admit it, women have done more for horror in recent years than men. Boom. I went there. As a writer of dark fiction, the role women play in my stories are typically strong albeit human roles. In my recently published novel, Reinheit, Rebecca Moss is a kind, gentle, comedic woman. She’s not perfect though, as no one is. Rebecca weakness is in her stubborn belief people can change. She suffers the wrath of her husband because, well, despite loathing his boiling temperament, she fundamentally loves him. However, as the story continues, we see more of the positive potential in Rebecca, the courageous spirit of the suffering hero. When facing impossible situations, her strength blossoms.

Writing Rebecca was extremely fun as it was tragic. There is a laundry list of fictional characters that I molded Rebecca from, most of which have come from my love of horror and strange television. Here are a few of my favorite women in the genre.

Lina Leandersson as Eli in Let the Right One In released in our most desperate hour, during a very strange and scary time for vampire tropes. I hate to mention it, but it needs to be said, in 2008, vampire lore had been polluted with Twilight-esk glowworm sparkle people making me want to scream! And thank Zeus those days are over. Let the Right One In was a welcomed breath of fresh air, an absolute amazing horror flick. And Lina Leandersson playing the century’s old vampire Eli was magnificent. She was so innocent until she wasn’t. The best scene has to be at the pool when Oskar is confronted with some rather violent bullies. You do not see her inflict the carnage, but when Oskar comes out of the pool and you see all the gore surrounding this small adolescent girl, it is an utter chilling moment in horror history. Her portrayal as his protector was totally believable. The American remake was decent, but I have to go with the original Swedish version. It was by far the superior.

Next, there’s Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully in The X -Files (1993-2003, 2008). What can really be said about our favorite doubting Special Agent? The X-Files had a huge impact on my life growing up.

And the show is still good. Better than most of what passes as TV nowadays, not to sound like some bitter old man. Gillian Anderson’s portrayal as Dana Scully is interesting. She’s the yin to Fox Mulder’s yang (not to sound dirty). She was the rational part of the relationship, Mulder was the wide eye dreamer who jumped at any and all shadow that spelled conspiracy or extraterrestrial or both. She was a skeptic, sure, but she had to be to level out Mulder’s eccentricism. She was also the scientist, the doctor, the brains of the operation. Her portrayal is interesting because it’s a role typically played by men. Are men not the more rational? DON’T ANSWER THAT! (Cough-cough, wink-wink).

Then we’ve got Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in A liens (1986). Though the first time Miss Weaver portrayed Ellen Ripley was in A lien (1979), she did not feel to me as strong of a character as she was in its sequel, A liens. She was a survivor, for sure in A lien, but in A liens she kicked some major xenomorphic ass! In James Cameron’s epic sci-fi horror, Ripley was easily the strongest character not only because of what she did, but the fact that she did it while struggling with PTSD, struggling with the memories of the traumatic events from the first film. She was a protector when at times you felt she was the one needing protection. Hell, she came out on top while every single one, save Hicks, of the supposedly badass Marines gets bush whacked! She even goes toe to toe with the “get away from her you bitch” queen bee! A liens is an excellent movie for many reasons, but the best parts are watching Ripley transform from traumatized survivor to tuff-as-nails She-Ra! Next on my favorites list is Jane Levy as Mia in The Evil Dead (2013). I have no idea what some nerds have against this movie. It is absolutely fantastic. It wasn’t a reboot, it wasn’t a remake, it wasn’t a continuation; 2013’s The Evil Dead was simply another cabin-in-the-woods movie cast in an Evil Dead universe. The mood from the very beginning is grainy and dark, given the subject matter of Mia’s rehabilitation with drug addiction.

And it just gets darker. And her struggles felt real. And when the table turns and her inner-demon, as they say, comes out…her creep factor goes sky high! It was fun watching Mia start off playing the victim of the demon that had taken hold of her, and then in actuality becoming the monster (and a scary one at that!). And it was satisfying seeing her, by the end, transform into a person willing to literally and metaphorically come out swinging. Mia