WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PLOT
TWISTS, CHARACTER
FATES, AND SURPRISE ENDINGS LURK.
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10.
DODGER
(Cry_Wolf)
Lindy Booth
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Sure, "Cry_Wolf"
was craptastic, it was crapalicious, it was craptacular,
and boy was it boring. But Lindy Booth. My, my. Lindy
Booth... Booth has ventured into the horror genre with
films like "Wrong Turn" in an utterly
forgettable role, and as a useless third wheel Nicole in
"Dawn of the Dead", but in "Cry Wolf" she's the ultimate
femme fatale, and Booth's talents for the sexy and the
sultry are put to good use finally. Dodge is the alpha dog in a prep school filled with
students so bored and over achieving they engage in
games where they tangle themselves into lies and attempt
to discover who is telling the truth and who is fibbing
pure and simple, and, Dodger, who invented the game,
plays it best.
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But when
they create a fake serial killer called The Wolf, he comes to life
from the internet and into a
lame knife wielding psychopath who never actually hacks
anyone up the entire time on-screen. Though "Cry_Wolf",
best thought of as brain dead Agatha Christie that's not
quite slasher and not quite mystery, shouldn't be
deserving of any spot in any list of "Best" anything,
Lindy Booth's performance as a sort of neo-noirish
seductive socialite makes "Cry_Wolf" watchable
and mildly entertaining. From her
red hair, low husk, and the schoolgirl outfit, and then
devil costume, she wears throughout the entirety of the
film, she's a force to be reckoned with, and the only
fully developed complex character within this
snore-a-thon. And director Wadlow keeps that old adage
that the best femme fatales are always red heads.
She is the
awfully mischievous love interest whom you can never be
sure her intentions are, but in the climax when her
intentions are finally revealed in an illogical and
rather absurd explanation that insults the intelligence
of the audience, Dodger comes out unscathed because
she's really sly about it, and wraps up her deceitful
little scheme with the surefire assertion that, though,
she's guilty, and enjoyed her acts, there's no way in
hell you'd be able to prove she did it. For a gutless
horror crap-a-minute, the grim climax sure is ballsy and
forms its only well developed character with icing on
the cake.
But could it have been pulled off were it not for the
sex appeal and performance of Booth? Hardly. |
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9.
JULIE WALKER
(Return
of the Living Dead 3)
Melinda
Clarke
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Sadly,
the utterly mind-numbingly sexy Melinda Clarke who
is just a fantasy wrapped in a wet dream, vowed
never to do another horror movie after the miserable
experience, and the failure of the third installment
of the "Return of the Living Dead" franchise. Though
it may not be the most popular, or perhaps not even
the most exciting, I enjoy "Return of the Living
Dead 3" as one of the few zombie flicks with
character focus. I mean, sure, I won't question how
the character Julie and her boyfriend were able to
sneak into a high security facility and watch
experiments being done that were supposed to
be top secret, and I'll ignore the pretty ridiculous
climax, but there's heart to this.
And then
there's Julie Walker who was hot enough as the
girlfriend of the lonely young biker, but when she
dies, and is brought back by the gas, she's somehow
even hotter. I know that necrophilia is illegal in
many states and considered gross by basically
anyone, but for Julie Walker, I'd sort of
re-consider it. And I'm
not ashamed to say that. Julie with her shards of
glass embedded in her skin, and her costume that
maintains the punk rock themes in the first two
films, makes her one of the most memorable and
awkwardly sexy characters in the genre.
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You know
technically she's supposed to be a brain munching
carnivorous cannibalistic zombie whose sole
intention is to munch on the gooey innards in our
heads, but you notice the curves and the torn up
clothing, and you find rigomortis is not only in
dead people. Clarke's portrayal as Julie who wants
to keep her hunger at bay, even when her boyfriend
is the only food source nearby is watchable,
especially when she eats others and hates herself
because of it. Julie is not only the ultimate
compulsive eater of the franchise, but she's very
much of a compensation for Thom Matthews in the
first two films who didn't mind being turned into a
zombie, pleaded for brains, and convinced his
girlfriend to let him eat her brains as a commitment
to their relationship. Julie was the human side of
the walking dead, the girl who gladly dispensed of
gangsters, refused to eat her boyfriend, and burned
to death with him in horror hell. |
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8.
NANCY
DOWNS
(The Craft)
Fairuza Balk
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I
underestimated "The Craft" when it first appeared into
theaters. The late nineties were a time of teen oriented
horror
movies that took off from the same formula that made the
mediocre "Scream" such a smash, but being a fan of the
witchcraft genre, I found myself pleasantly surprised by
it. It's not your typical teen horror film. It beings a
bit melodramatic and obvious but then suddenly delves
into material that ended up being rather violent, intense, and very adult.
And who can forget
the scary hot performance by Fairuza Balk? Balk simply
helped bring "The Craft" into our memories as an above
average neo-"Lost Boys" take off. |
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Nancy was
the leader of a group of girls she wished she could be.
Which is what made her such an evil presence. She was
never as pretty as she wanted to be and the power of
Menon helped her gain some sense of fortune, yet her own
insecurities never granted her the satisfaction and
peace of mind that could make her the perfect girl in
her own mind. Even the power of a god wasn't enough for
her. Nancy then became one of the most threatening
villains in the horror world seizing her own powers and
rivaling with Tunney's character who attempted to stop
her at her game. Nancy became manipulative, and once her
powers were given she became psychotic and ultimately
murderous and she took great pleasure in eliminating her
foes.
Balk's
unorthodox sex appeal makes her one of the better female
villains of the genre taking glee in one final torture
on Tunney's character, all of which ends in a battle of
wits and magic. "The Craft" takes a turn for the sheer
grim and bleak as the two witches face off with
illusions and sanity, and Nancy comes out the loser
going basically insane in a freaky climax that only Balk
could have pulled off. With Balk you're guaranteed scary
sexy, and her performance in "The Craft" is just that. |
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7.
GINGER FITZGERALD
(Ginger
Snaps Trilogy)
Katharine Isabelle
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It's not
only that Katharine Isabelle is a pure fox, and it's
not just that as a villainous lycanthrope she's a
pure sexy beast, but as Ginger, Isabelle gives the
performance of her career, and it's a damn shame she
has yet to take off after it. Fans of the "Ginger
Snaps" series will notice that Ginger is one of the
more layered and complex characters starting as a
disgruntled teen who turns into a sex starved
monster, and then appears to her sister as a ghost
daring her to accept her werewolf nature, and then
as a subdued prostitute who takes great delight in
becoming one of the pack leading a raid on a
military fort. Isabelle with her ability to deliver
the F bomb with the best of them makes Ginger a
quite tragic figure. |
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One who
depends on her sister Brigitte to help her through
her newfound transformation. But "Ginger Snaps" is
less about the lycanthropy as an allegory for having
a period and more of how two sisters without
anything in their lives grow apart due to
circumstances beyond their control, and find they
can no longer grow together, or grow apart, so they
fight it and each other until the bitter end.
Isabelle and Perkins performance as the sisters grew
to different plains of depth and sheer focus
throughout the entire series, and Ginger, the title
character, remained a constant force that could not
be defied, crossed, marked. Ginger took every
advantage, and fell into her curses, and could never
leave her fate as a werewolf.
Whether it was in "Ginger Snaps" as the disgruntled
young girl who developed into a werewolf with sexual
starvation, and then as her sister's enemy, and as a
Horatio to Brigitte's tragic heroine, and then as an
ex-prostitute trying to save herself, Isabelle as
Ginger will be a cult character fit for the hall of
fame. Ginger is a gorgeous, clever, and incredibly
lethal character not to be fucked with, and she's
got a hell of a bite to her, one I'm sure many guys
wouldn't mind risking. |
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6.
CLAUDIA
(Interview
with the Vampire)
Kirsten
Dunst
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It took the
child-like mischievousness and guts of Claudia, the
victim of Louis' moment of weakness, to outwit and
nearly
kill the invincible Vampire Lestat. Claudia, a young
girl who could never grow into an adult found herself
hating Lestat
after an affair with Louis and gave every intention to
murder Lestat after she discovered he helped turn her
into the
demonic vampire child who'd go on to murder people at
every corner for a taste of blood. Dunst, in possibly
her best performance of her career, and surprisingly her
debut, is utterly engrossing as the devilish Claudia
who'd give even Damien the willies.
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Though
Damien would eventually grow into a man, Claudia was
cursed and gifted forever with the sensibilities and
strengths of an adorable child which easily allowed her
to get close to people and murder them without even
being noticed. Dunst's performance is a mixture of pure
vulnerability, an adult who can never leave the form of
her child because of the anti-aging effects of
vampirism, while conveying her demonic attributes and
sheer lust for blood in feeding on anyone and everyone
to where it became an annoyance equivalent to a child
picking their nose. In a humorous montage we view the
vampire Claudia taking utter delight in feasting on
innocent bystanders while also coming to the realization
that her fate remains embodied within a child's shell
regardless of how old she becomes, and she can never
enlist companions as she's much too weak to ever
recruit. Her dependence on Louis make her bitter and
sour, and her boredom with her bloodlust makes her
strike back at her mentor who follows them across the
world to get his revenge. Dunst's performance from
heartbroken village child to demonic vampire spawn is
memorable, and one of the many reasons to watch
"Interview with the Vampire".
-
Felix Vasquez Jr.
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