Female Slasher Queens – where are they?

We all know of Freddy, Jason, Myers, Pinhead, Chucky and a slew of other pleasant guys who knows how to dismember a body, making us squirm in the process.

But, they’re all men, don’t you found that a little bit strange? Where are all those psycho bitches with a severe case of PMS, hacking and slashing like there was no tomorrow, making the reels drip of blood?

Everyone knows that an angry, betrayed or hurt woman is not to be trifled with, which is something every man or boyfriend can vouch for.

So why aren’t there more female killers in horror?

Are we so trapped in the antic and stereotypic gender roles that dictate how we should behave i.e., men should be hunters? Or is it the suits at the big companies that are narrow-minded and afraid that they would sacrifice all men’s ego; if they let loose a ravaging woman on the silver-screen?

Come on, that’s Stone Age!

I also don’t think it’s because people are afraid that a female slasher wouldn’t pay off, because they would. Take a really good actress, with the right badass attitude, give her a well carved character with unique and preferably supernatural abilities, as well as a riveting plot, and then let her loose on a rambunctious killing spree in. I cannot speak for all of us, but I would happily walk down to the theater to see it.

It would be interesting to know what all the female horror fans think about the lack of female killers in horror. When you sit there, in a dark theater, watching a male killer making the characters go like hot cakes, what goes through your mind, wouldn’t you rather see a female killer up there?

Of course, female killers do exist, but they’re rare and does not compare with the big slasher kings, though.

For instance, we have Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother that chose a tad unorthodox way of expressing her motherly feelings in “Friday the13th”.

A movie that proves that a hurt woman is a very dangerous creature is “Happy Birthday to Me”, from 1981, directed by J. Lee Thompson (“Cape Fear”). Here we see the gruesome effects of a tormented college girl. The movie is similar to “Carrie”, but contains way more gore than Stephen King’s masterpiece.

In Curtains from 1983 a group of young actresses auditioning for a movie role at a remote mansion are targeted by a severe case of female jealousy.

Diablo Cody’s “Jennifer’s Body” is a fairly recent movie that depicts a possessed Megan Fox munching on cocky college boys, with a decent result actually, much thanks to the dialog.

Then we have all those bloodcurdling young girls staring innocent at you before they send you off to the hereafter, like the ones in “Case 39” and “The Orphan”, but I don’t think that they fit into the slasher category, though. The same goes for “Monster” that tells the story of the real life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, that’s not fiction – that’s frigging reality, which is way more scarier than any slasher movie I know of.

As I see it, there isn’t a real slasher queen in horror, which can match any of the big slasher kings. I can only think of one and that’s Alice from “Resident Evil”. Even though she’s fight for the good side, smashing up zombies all day long, she’s the closet we get to a slasher queen, thanks to her cold badass attitude.

After all it is Sunday, which means that I can have missed a prominent and much deadly female character or two, so if you know of anyone, please enlighten me in the comments below.

Also, it would be interesting to find out what you – a real horror fan – think about this. Therefore, I decided to devote the weekly horror pool for that particular question. So feel free to cast your vote, whether you want to see more female killers in horror or not, below.

[poll id=”2″]