1998 – Rie Inoue – Ring

In the late 90s, I had the opportunity to cover Montreal’s FanTasia Festival as a journalist for a couple of years for the late (!!!) lamented (?) AstroneF Magazine, thus viewing around 75 titles in a month-long event. At first, the organizers’ intentions were to share the discovery of many eccentric Asian movies with North American viewers, in a time when the names of Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat, John Woo or Michelle Yeoh were not widely recognized and the availability of these productions on home video was still confidential. With time, FanTasia’s programming began to evolve into more international entries, prizes were quickly awarded, guests that we couldn’t meet were invited, so it began to loose its shine for me, especially in recent years. I won’t use the word “pretentious”, far from it, preferring the term “self-satisfied” to describe the whole yearly affair. Truth be told, I mainly lost my patience in waiting in endless line-ups sandwiched between cult movie enthusiasts, people whose behavior, speech patterns and clothing choices got on my nerves. That’s what you can call GRUMPINESS, I guess, and I won’t even hold a grudge if you do.

Regardless, I had tons of fun in FanTasia’s first five years, let’s say, enlarging my cultural horizons and discovering new and fascinating movie people. I fell in love with Maggie Cheung, among many other craziness, and once proclaimed on a television show where I was a colorful movie critic that she was the most beautiful person in the world. Yes, I did that. But I digress. I also saw a beautiful copy of my personal favorite Godzilla adventure, Destroy All Monsters, and some Santo movies, these later being midnight showings that were greatly enjoyed and turned into carnival-like events, complete with amateur costumes and enthusiastic mock battles. During a friendly Ultraman key episodes retrospective, a guy accompanied by his young son was laughing so hard at the unlikely appearance of some ridiculous giant monster that he actually fell off his theater chair, pissed his pants and lay sprawled on the ground, between aisles, unable to get up, shaking with laughter. His kid was starring blindly at the screen, presumably bored (and/or ashamed?) out of his mind. Myself and many others witnessed this with great delight. Actually, a stuntman dressed up as Ultraman was also running around the Imperial Cinema that memorable Saturday matinee.

But FanTasia’s 1999 edition promised a Japanese movie that would knock our socks off, that was the last word in Movie Fear. Now, how many times have I heard that? How many movies had literally scared me, anyway? Really scared? I’m not talking about being merely disgusted by gross effects and surprised by jump-scare tactics. Well, I admit that my first viewing of The Exorcist (on its first broadcast television premiere back in 1980, I think) left me devastated. The circumstances of seeing the original Night of the Living Dead for the first time in an almost empty theater on a dark autumn night in a strange neighborhood was quite unique also. But on that hot 1999 summer night, me and hundreds of others, now all veterans of FanTasia and no strangers to odd viewing habits, got an eyeful, if I may employ the term.

Of course the film was Hideo Nakata’s Ring and I was never prepared for that kind of experience. Close to 10 years after its premiere, Ring and its mythology of many sequels, remakes and copies is now well documented and kind of diluted. Hell, the concept of a vengeful ghost girl with long dark hair is an old convention in Asian legends and many movies before Ring had proposed that particular visual. But I can still remember the collective gasp of the audience when we all saw what is in my opinion one of the most frightful sight in movie history: a close-up of Sadako’s eye, more or less obscured by hair, looking downward in a most intense way. We all lost it.

Ring tells the tale of a haunted video that eventually kills whoever views it. There’s a link with a murdered misunderstood young girl with psychic powers but I’ll let you discover it for yourself, if you hadn’t yet the pleasure. That ghostly girl is played by Rie Inou, who retook the role in the sequel Ring 2. Rie was born in 1967 and was chosen for the part because of her Kabuki theater background, especially her involvement in Ban’yuu Inryoku, a stage technique where you exaggerate your movements and take odd postures to convey different emotional meanings. These gestures were utilized in the most creepy way possible, and that’s why it’s so effective here than in any precedent Japanese vengeful ghost story filmed in previous years. Movie history was immediately made for this unique character, a most tragic and still monstrous figure that couldn’t be more adequately played. I don’t even remember being scared in a movie theater since, so it’s impossible not to salute that tremendous performance. But I barely drag myself to go out and see new films anymore!

This concludes Cult Sirens’ 13 Favorite female performances in horror movies. I proposed this feature in the first days of this blog and I can proudly say that it contributed to the success of this corner of the world wide web. These 13 performers and their roles are to be forever part of movie legend and it was an honor to write a little something about them in this format.

1993 – Melinda Clarke – Return of the Living Dead 3

The most sexiest zombie ever? Probably. Known at this point in her career as Mindy Clarke, the then 24-years old actress made quite an impression on the horror scene as an attractive but still deadly zombie, who seemingly can keep a bit of her wits as she’s still attracted to her boyfriend regardless of her sorry state.

Born in California in 1969, Melinda Clarke began acting in the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives and then got her start in movies that gravitated around the sci-fi/horror genre. She was seen in Spawn, the bizarre Spanish horror movie Killer Tongue and on Xena: Warrior Princess. Offered a part in Scream, she declined, preferring to distance herself from fantasy projects. Her most recent high-profile work was as a regular in The O.C. TV series. Of course, she has the most amazing pair of pale green eyes.

As the third in the Return of the Living Dead series, this 1993 movie dropped the comedy angle and remained true to director Brian Yuzna’s bizarre vision of messy body modifications, following Society and Bride of Re-Animator. Intense and quite bloody, this episode follows a teenage couple who decides to fool around a secret military base, where strange experiments with the dead are being conducted. Yes, the army is trying to reanimate dead tissue! When young Julie suffers a motorcycle accident, can her boyfriend really decide to take her back to the base… and try the serum that could get his love back on her feet? But what kind of hunger she would try to fight off? Human meat for sex or… for food?

With this intriguing premise, we have Melinda Clarke as a deadly punked-up Gothic lass with a body jewelry fetish. Actually, piercing her cold flesh with pointy object is a temporary solution to calm her zombie appetite. This turns about to be a an unexpected and touching love story, take my word for it, with an amazingly tragic ending. With a of lot of parallel zombie action, don’t worry about the amount of gore content, which is plentiful.

So what make this movie intriguing is the basic premise that works its way around some basic horror conventions and the impeccable work of a young actress who reached some levels of despair and of ferocity in her performance like as if she has been doing it for decades. Her Julie Walker character walks about like the sexiest nightmare ever, so she successfully gave all kind of chills to the fanboys in the audience. I know, I was one of them, when the picture was released around Halloween of 1993 and I met one of the best female movie monster of all time.

Our next and last installment: The face that… no, the hair that launched a thousand shrieks.

1987 – Clare Higgins –Hellbound: Hellraiser II

One of the few, few, few movies who actually made me ill in a theatre remains Hellraiser, first and best of an unending franchise. My main problem was when the father character played by Andrew Robinson got his hand pierced by a forgotten nail when moving a mattress. Quite a classic horror stereotype. Could have lost my lunch right then and there, on a near empty viewing room of the now closed and forgotten Atwater Cinema. Yeah, there are skinless ghosts walking around, some resolute S&M demons looking for fresh victims to brutalize, a diabolic Rubik’s Cube is turning reality on its head… but I was close to fainting by a simple nail. That hit closer to home, I guess.

There was also something quite amazing in Hellraiser: the presence of a gravely beautiful actress named Clare Higgins, who portrays a kind of repressed wife beginning an affair with her hubby’s brother (a resurrected skinless cannibal corpse brother, to be precise). Well. You though you had problems with your brother-in-law George? Does George needs to eat your flesh to reconstitute himself? Or is he just stealing your hockey cards and drinking all your Drambuie?

Clive Barker became an even more mainstream name with the success of this movie, which he directed himself. I briefly spotted Clive at his private party at the 2005 FanExpo in Toronto and boy did he not look well. Let’s see what the Internet Movie Database’s plot outline of Hellraiser has to say: “An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover, who’s being chased by demons after he escaped from their sado-masochistic Hell”. Quite tasty. Don’t forget these fun-loving Cenobites, otherworld pain freaks whose ranks include the charmingly named Pinhead, the major force behind the following episodes of the series, always played with chilling accuracy by Doug Bradley. Included in the cast was Clare Higgins, a then 32-years old British actress more known for her theater work (from which she has received many awards). Hellraiser was her first leading role for motion pictures, in a part that grew more and more monstrous as the plot ascended to its horrible conclusion. Yes, she played along with her gooey-looking lover, bringing him victims to dispose of for his imminent revival.

For Hellbound: Hellraiser II, her character of Julia Cotton came back, this time trying to return to life in the same fashion as her ill-fated lover in the first installment: slowly eating unsuspecting victims to gradually grow back her physical organs. My favorite scene remains when she’s in a state where she looks like a walking bloody steak, at a stage when only her skin is missing and when can enjoy seeing her walking around with her shiny musculature showing. She even fatally kisses a male protagonist in that state, sucking up his insides as an afterthought. Talk about a wet kiss! Playing the ultimate bitch from hell in a most convincing manner in these eccentric plot twists, Clare Higgins made us all fall in love with her. Well, a little bit. Often bandaged like an mummy princess with only her piercing eyes visible and wearing an elegant cocktail dress, she remains one of the most memorable female monsters in movies.

Clare will be next seen on big screens for The Golden Compass, an ambitious fantasy film starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

Coming soon: The most beautiful female dead person ever. Yes, ever.

1977 – Daria Nicolodi – Shock

More often than not overlooked as a mere schlock movie (often known in North America under the incredibly boring and misleading title Beyond the Door II), this remains maestro’s Mario Bava final masterpiece. Distancing herself from then-partner Dario Argento’s body of work, Daria Nicolodi stands on her own to deliver an haunting portrayal of a woman slowly driven to the point of madness. As Dora Baldini, a young wife psychologically tormented by the suicide of her ex-husband, Daria goes off the deep end in a most provocative manner. Just watch the unfortunate progression of behavior her character suffers through: from sweet mother to hysterical harpy. But what’s really the matter with her young son (played with clunky creepiness by David Colin Jr., star of Beyond the Door, a 1974 Italian horror film about possession… hence the bad Beyond the Door II title)? Why does he fool around with razorblades and cuts up his mom’s panties while she’s in the shower? Is Dora having genuine hallucinations about evil forces or is she just disturbed in her own cranium?

This film has not many characters and is surely not a globe-trotting visual experience. Of course, it adds value to our feelings of claustrophobia, shared with the unfortunate Dora. After the success of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, the early 70s saw some other works dealing with possession and/or demonic children. Shock follows that route, but with its director’s typical flair. This is without a doubt Daria Nicolodi’s best performance of her entire career, she who had more often than not been a supporting player in other pictures. Here, she carries the whole project on her shoulders, a feat that in the hands of a less capable actress would’ve sink the entire production. Oddly, it would be back to mainly secondary roles in her subsequent parts.

This remains Bava’s last directorial project; he would supply some special effects and photograpy work for a couple of later movies (notably Dario Argento’s Inferno), then pass away in 1980. For Shock, there remains the old master’s magic touch, particularly an effective jump scene at the end that does justice to the film’s title. His son Lamberto Bava also directed many scenes, as the father felt that it was time to pass the torch. Oh, and watch out for that bit when Dora’s hair moves by itself!

Next: They say that beauty is only skin deep… but what if you have no skin? Ask this actress.

1977 – Jessica Harper – Suspiria

Still considered one of the 10 best horror movies of all time and director Dario Argento’s best work ever, Suspiria doesn’t seem to age one bit. The contribution of American cult actress Jessica Harper is part of its appeal, as she played wide-eyed ballet student Suzy Bannion, poor soul trapped in an intimidating and foreign place. Suzy comes from the United States to enroll in a famous dancing academy in Germany, the Tanz Akademie. Upon her arrival, murder and mystery is afoot and the reception is quite cold, from her fellow students as from the officials. Suzy’s suspicions of strange going-ons will soon found reality, as this prestigious house of learning is probably a coven of witches, led by one of the Three Mothers, cruel and powerful diabolical entities! Everyone on your knees and beg forgiveness!

Argento first offered the main lead to Tina Aumont, who couldn’t do it. Then he saw Phantom of the Paradise and the rest is history. Born in 1949 in Chicago, Jessica Harper had only just an handful of previous movie credits before this project, including Phantom of the Paradise and Love and Death. From Brian De Palma to Woody Allen to Dario Argento… quite a spectacular run. But oddly after 1982’s My Favorite Year, Jessica gradually disappeared from high-profile projects to guest-star here and there in quieter roles, mainly on television. Maybe directors didn’t quite know what to do with her, as she was not a sex-symbol but a more modest presence. So on her way to stardom, it seemed she got derailed by her own personality, her own projected aura. But Jessica found a second wind in writing children’s book and music (sometimes performing with her two daughters). She even have an official site, more geared towards her creations towards the young.

Her big round eyes and innocent looks couldn’t be more adequate for this character, who will eventually display inner steel. Looking quite fragile and almost melancholy, Jessica Harper seemed to pop out of a fairy tale, and what better way to play an endangered waif than in the home country of the world’s best known Fairy Tales, Germany? We effortlessly share her feeling of alienation in a strange place, with danger all around. That was the natural acting gift of Jessica at work, creating a sympathetic young character amongst all these annoying, self-possessed or hysterical female dance students.

Suzy Bannion’s last shot in the movie finds her apparently laughing in the rain, finally relieved to escape this insane inferno (wait… isn’t Inferno the more or less sequel/companion to Suspiria? sure is). This is quite a refreshing image after being assaulted by terrifying scenes in the previous 95 minutes. When was the last time that a horror film heroine has come out smiling at the end of her ordeal?

Next: An horror icon who was then-companion of another horror icon, being directed by a legendary horror icon (as she was a new mother of a future horror icon)… in her best performance ever.

1971 – Virginia North – The Abominable Dr. Phibes

A most unique role in the history of cinema, Dr. Anton Phibes’s sidekick remains to me a pure delight each time that I revisit this amazing movie, a masterpiece of black humor. You see, the good doctor (disfigured and brilliantly played by Vincent Price) wants revenge on a bunch of doctors who failed to save his beloved wife after an accident. Now, using the nine Biblical plagues as a theme, he finally puts his horrible revenge in motion. He’s assisted by a gorgeous and mute young woman, named Vulnavia. It’s never explained how she got this job, what’s her relationship with the doc and why her morals are not shaken by what will be going on in terms of bloodshed. Is she a clone, a fabricated creature, an artificial human being? Maybe the idea of wearing such fabulous clothing (the story is set in the 1920s) is her real motivation? Actually, in an early draft of the script, she was supposed to be an automaton, like the enthusiastic band players in Phibes’s hideaway (the unforgettable Clockwork Wizards).

Without speaking a single word, Vulnavia’s impact on the whole story is quite important. She gets the work done, without any hesitation. Not a mere zombie, she’s quite aware of everything that’s going on, and doesn’t hesitate at all to obey her master. In a way, she can be seen as a precursor to Edward Lionheart’s daughter in Theatre of Blood, another Vincent Price triumph. Plus, once again, her colorful wardrobe! Prepare to be dazzled by these funky head wears!

Born in England in 1945, Virginia North had a very short movie career: she appeared in exactly five movie projects between 1967 and 1971, these being The Long Duel, Deadlier Than the Male, Some Girls Do and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (so she’s a minor Bond Girl), plus The Abominable Dr. Phibes, the subject of her movie immortality. She probably retired to concentrate on her family.

Of course, The Abominable Dr. Phibes’s original tagline was Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Ugly, a clever play on words concerning the recent box-office and emotional hit Love Story!

For the sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again the following year, Virginia North could not reprise the role because of a pregnancy; actress Valli Kemp became Vulnavia (and how was she revived? or is she another person/creation with the same name? a complete and fascinating mystery). Some sequels had been planned, with a different actress for each Vulnavia parts. But Virginia North was the first, so I’m honored to welcome her on this list.

Next: This horror masterpiece didn’t make this actress the superstar she was supposed to be, even with a great performance. **Sigh**

1970 – Soledad Miranda – She Kills in Ecstacy

If Vampyros Lesbos remains for many the ultimate Soledad Miranda flick, I much prefer this disturbing portrait of revenge and madness. Many consider that the main movie in the new-bride-gets-revenge-on-the-scum-who-killed-her-hubby must be François Truffaut’s La mariée était en noir, based on the Cornell Woolrich novel. Here, busy Jess Franco proposed his own take on this kind of story, where a young woman must live through the shock of her doctor husband’s suicide, following the termination of his research on human embryos by a medical committee. While this is not the most elaborate script (remember, this is a Franco movie!), it’s just enough material to witness an amazing performance by Soledad Miranda.

She doesn’t say much but vengeful is she, as her character decides to seduce this quartet of experts and kill them. An obligatory lesbian scene is included, as one of the potential victims is a woman (played by another Franco regular, Eva Strömberg). Here sexy, disturbed and purposeful, Soledad Miranda was on her way to become a major player on the international scene. She sadly died in a car accident some months after filming this project, on her way to sign a star-making contract.

This was filmed during a very busy period in the director’s career, as he seems quite inspired by his acting muse, beautiful Spanish/Portuguese Soledad. These years saw the creation of his most classical work, the films that are still talked about today and will be for a long time. In She Kills in Ecstacy, Franco himself has a role as a doctor, rubbing shoulders with another frequent collaborator, Howard Vernon (of whom we can “enjoy” a glimpse of his manhood at some point in the proceedings). This motion picture could be an opportunity to begin exploring Franco’s world and of course being acquainted with a great actress, without whom this film would probably remain a footnote in an obscure encyclopedia.

Next in line: a key mute role in a film where ugliness was the main publicity point (sorry).

1965 – Catherine Deneuve – Repulsion

I actually walked alongside Catherine Deneuve for a couple of minutes some four or five years ago, here in Montreal, as she was casually shopping on rue Saint-Denis. A very intriguing woman. In 1965, at the age of 22, she gave a star-making performance in Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, one of the most convincing descent into madness ever put on screen. When an attractive young girl goes nuts, seems that it’s more profoundly disturbing than some morbidly obese lass…

But what’s wrong with Carole, anyway? She’s a young French girl living with her sister in swinging London, she has a nice job in a high-class beauty salon and an attractive guy is courting her… So why has she so much trouble being around men? When her sibling goes out for a short vacation with her lover, Carole will find herself alone in their apartment, with a skinned and uncooked rabbit in the kitchen counter as silent companion. What is pushing her over the edge? And what about that razor blade that she wields when some unknown intruder knocks on her door?

Polanski’s first English-speaking feature has not lost one second of its power to disturb. Thank God that this film is NOT in color! The repressive atmosphere works much better in icy visuals, are we’re not always sure what’s reality and what’s perverse fantasy. This masterpiece should be studied in film class, without a doubt, with its amazing cinematography and use of sounds.

I stumbled upon a curious fact: seems that Repulsion included the first depiction of female orgasm (but by sound only!) to be passed by the British Board of Film Censors! Coming out of the big success of Les parapluies de Cherbourg, Catherine Deneuve confirmed her presence in European films with this character, a brilliant turn coming from a young actress. However Carole behaves, she always remains oddly sympathetic in our eyes. Of course, Deneuve would become a movie legend two years later for Belle de jour, one of the most amazing female performance of all time.

Soon: This Angel of Vengeance passes away before becoming a great international star… a project coming from cinema’s most prolific director.

1964 – Nobuko Otowa – Onibaba

She was born on October 1, 1925, and played in more than 125 movies in Japan. Her name was Nobuko Otowa and you probably don’t really know who she is. Well, she was cast as one of the biggest female monster ever to be seen on film, as the mother in Onibaba. See, she and her daughter-in-law, living in poverty in medieval Japan, have come up with a devious trap to survive: luring and murdering passing samurai to eventually sell off the belongings of their victims. Since they live in a small hut near a swamp, there’s not many witnesses around. But the youngest woman begins a relationship with a neighbor, much to the distress and anger of her elder, whom will begin a game of terror that is must seen to be believed. You want sexual rejection? Great hysterics? It’s all here, with the most amazing demonic mask face to ever grace the screen. Symbols abound and it would be a shame to tell more.

The murdering force of Nobuko Otowa’s performance is simply astonishing. This is a list about female performances in horror films, but it should be included in any general listings, without regard to a particular genre. The black & white photography, the oppressive landscape, the grim composures of the characters, all play to create a hellish universe, a kind of merciless purgatory. This is one movie that can still produces nightmares, without any kind of fancy special effects.

Nobuko Otowa had made her film debut in 1950 and she continued to work until 2000. She won many acting awards in Asia, even at the Venice Film Festival in 1979 for Kôsatsu (charming English title: The Strangling). Here’s a career they should be urgently (re)discovered.

The demon mask actually inspired William Friedkin for The Exorcist, as he included subliminal shots of a similar grim face at some key points in the story. Halloween night is coming soon, right? I can’t more recommend a movie to send chills down your back.

You’ll see below an international poster that implies more exploitative sex content that is actually displayed in the final product:

Next: One of France’s greatest actress struggles with a… rabbit?

1960 – Barbara Steele – Black Sunday

Even if possibly not Barbara Steele’s best performance, this remains her star-breaking role and a glimpse of things to come for the British actress (and for some comediennes soon following). Her presence here in contrasting dual roles remains a chilling visual experience in icy Black & White.

Black Sunday was the first “official” directing job for Mario Bava, who had begun his career as a cinematographer and had filmed bits and pieces of scenes for some years, sometimes replacing original directors in troubled productions. Barbara was initially chosen by the producers looking at some publicity pictures, as she was a “strange type”, according to Bava. Inexperienced and a bit naive, her lack of solid film background became an asset, playing it very raw for the role of the evil witch Asa Vajda and doubly sweet as her descendant Katia. There was an out of this world quality in Barbara’s physical presence, as she looked plucked straight out of the year 1630, where the action takes place. And, oh, that pair of eyes…

In a way, Barbara Steele became film’s first official Scream Queen, as the following years saw her working in mainly horrific projects and gaining a status nearly equal as that of male counterparts Vincent Price or Boris Karloff. To this day, she’s still best remembered for these movies and also as a model for many actresses that followed in her bloody footsteps.

The opening scene remains one of the best in the horror genre (the torture and execution of Asa) and is rightfully being displayed on the cover of Tim Lucas’s labor of love concerning Mario Bava’s life, All the Colors of the Dark, finally available after decades of research.

Next: She’s mean, she’s ugly and she wants to trap you and kill you… in a way, the ultimate female movie monster (gasp, more than the Bride of Frankenstein!?!?).