For decades, male horror film stars have been much admired and revered. Cults around Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are still going on strong. Since one of the main purposes of Cult Sirens is to share the accomplishments of overlooked actresses in sometimes ignored films, let’s make available this first list of excellence. Since I have a tendency to prefer more eccentric cinema offerings, I now propose my 13 Favorite All-Time Female Performances in Horror Films. I’ll post a couple of entries a week on this subject to stretch the suspense to its unbearable limit. Will this become ultimate proof that female roles in Horror are not always decorative? You be the judge.

Much consideration was given into this, and I’ve decided to mix regular roles that contained a normal amount of speaking lines with a couple of effective mute ones, resulting in an appealing match of seasoned performers with young unexperienced players. So, let’s start in chronological order, keeping in mind that the silent era is not included:

1932 – Kathleen Burke – Island of Lost Souls

This was Kathleen Burke’s first role, as she had won a nation-wide contest to find the perfect Panther-Woman for this screen adaptation of H.G. Wells’s 1896 classic novel. Surrounded by ugly animal-men on Doctor Moreau’s island, she can stir up trouble by her mere innocent presence. Innocence is the key word here, as Ms. Burke’s lack of acting skills is her greatest advantage playing somebody who’s completely clueless as how to behave around people in her limited vicinity. Contrary to her male counterparts, she displays perfect human physical attributes (i.e. no apparent fangs, body hair, etc.), but watch out for those claws! Moreau (probably in constant semi-erection mode) enjoys bossing her around, displaying her like some mere living trophy. So, we have a complete newcomer giving an absolutely erotic performance (for its time), without being aware of it! Pure movie magic.

Barely 20 years old at the time of shooting, Kathleen Burke is astonishingly beautiful as Lota, with crazy eye makeup and clinging jungle girl costumes. The actress would be a player in about twenty movies soon after and ended her career in 1938.

Along with Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi and the entire cast, Kathleen Burke’s haunting presence is a key point of one of the greatest horror films of all time, not having lost its power to shock. A motion picture which is, for unknown reasons, still not available on domestic DVD.

Dig that gorgeous Spanish language poster, with Kathleen billed simply as “La mujer pantera”:

Next time: our second lucky actress had the title role in the best horror film ever! No joke!