The Babes of Horror Movies

Babes in horror movies is a role that has transitioned quite a bit over the decades. For the early years of horror movies women played predominantly one role in horror movies. They were the victim that had to be rescued by the hero. We have seen this role over and over again. It usually goes like this: A beautiful woman is kidnapped by some hideous creature and she has to be rescued by our hero. Sound familiar? Yup, movies like king kong, creature from the black lagoon and even the Phantom of the Opera.

This role started to change as our cultural values changed over the decades. Women started to become more of a person that was tormented in the horror movies purely for the shock value. A good example of this is Psycho. A woman in this kind of movie tended to be more vulnerable which heightened the scare factor for the audience.

All of this changed with the movie "Halloween" starring Jamie Lee Curtis. This movie at first appeared to be much like is predecessors in that a young woman was being tormented by ultimate evil - but instead of being rescued by a hero, Jamie Lee finds the strength to battle and overcome the evil on her own. This shift in the perception of the role of women in horror movies was also closely paralleled in science fiction movies and the changing point for science fiction movies was the first Terminator flick with Linda Hamilton as the heroine.

I Still Know What You Did...

Today in horror movies the gender roles have blended and women play the victim, the vampire, the culprit, the detective, the strong character, the weak character, and all the variety of roles imaginable. The horror genre has become quite complex and the role of the babe in it has also become complex. But underlying it all is still the fact that the babes in horror movies are always drop dead gorgeous except maybe for Kathy Bates in Misery.

Here is a short list of some of the babes in famous Horror Movies:

Jamie Lee Curtis - Halloween
Linda Blair - The Exorcist
Janet Leigh - Psycho
Heather Langenkamp - Nightmare on Elm Street
Fay Wray - King Kong (1933)
Naomi Watts - King Kong (20050
Mia Farrow - Rosemary's Baby
Sissy Spacek - Carrie
Margot Kidder - the Amityville Horror
Jenny Agutter - An American Werewolf in London
Jodie Foster - the Silence of the Lambs
Sharon Stone - Basic Instinct
Jennifer Love Hewitt - I Know What You Did Last Summer

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