Faculty of Horror

We here at the Faculty of Horror know we’re pretty lucky that we’ve got some of the most engaged, thoughtful and funny listeners who take time out of their day to listen to us. Recently, we partnered with Mongrel Media to do a giveaway for Jonathan Glazer’s new film Under the Skin. If you haven’t had a chance to see it, go now! It’s strange, hypnotic and completely unforgettable.

For the contest, we asked our followers on social media to enter by letting us know who their favourite dangerous woman in horror is. We received some great entries and interestingly, two names kept popping up – Alice (played by Milla Jovovich in the Resident Evil series) and Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver in the Alien series). Now, we mentioned the possibility of doing something with the Alien franchise in our Assessment episode which is still percolating (though we’ll probably stay far away from Prometheus which we both loathe), but Resident Evil could be a fun episode. Perhaps something about horror films based on video games? A Resident Evil/Silent Hill comparison mayhaps? Let us know in the comments!

In the meantime here are some of the great entries we received:

“Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in Misery.”
          -Kalen A.

“Debbie Rochon gets my vote for sure.”
          -Amy J.

“Halle Berry in Gothika.”
          -Sahana P.

“My favourite dangerous woman in horror is Carrie from Stephen King’s 1974 novel.  The whole movie spooked me when I saw it for the first time. “
          -Bons L.

“My favourite dangerous women in horror? The first person who immediately popped into my head was “Elvira”. I remember watching her back in the early 90s on TV as a “Horror Hostess” when I was a kid and I became obsessed with her and wanted to be just like her.

She was different then all the other hosts on television, and I loved that and the dark persona that she displayed! I collected the comic books that she was in, movies, dolls, and till this day I still have a poster that I had hanging on my door back in the 90s! My parents thought I was crazy for idolizing “that vampire lady” (as my parents would call her). She defined “horror” and I loved it!”
          -Melissa S.

“I’d say my favorite dangerous woman of horror is The Borg Queen (if we’re taking the view of Star Trek: First Contact as a techno-zombie flick).

Few zombie-type villains get the benefit of retaining their reasoning faculties and the long con she plays against Picard (including the horrific corruption of Data through inverting her usual zombie assimilation tactics-ie giving him skin and human parts rather than infecting humans with technology) has always made her one of my favorites. Plus, her constant bemused smirk is amazing. A great counterpoint to the drones she controls.  She’s a refreshingly scheming, physically imposing, and generally awesome zombie leader, the likes of which we rarely see.

Unconventional, perhaps, but I’m hoping you’ll find resistance to my argument futile…”
          -Tom M.

Thanks to all who entered! Stay tuned for more contests courtesy of our friends at Mongrel Media!