13 Horror Movie Heroines That Kick Butt

Rachel Keller (Naomi Wa in The Ring (Image via DreamWorks)

13.) Rachel Keller (The Ring)

The 2002 remake of the Japanese film, Ringu, doesn’t start well for women. A high school girl watches a frightening VHS tape, receives a scary call, then meets a gruesome end.

In another movie, this would be the point where a male protagonist – maybe a grizzled police detective or a mourning brother – would step in to solve the mystery and defeat the evil. Instead, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), a reporter and aunt of the deceased teenager, becomes wrapped up in the investigation. As she is drawn deeper and deeper into the story, Rachel discovers that the disturbing tape causes the death of anyone who watches it, all within seven days. Thus begins a desperate race to discover the truth and save both her life and that of her son (who watched the tape, naturally). Keller eventually discovers that the spirit of an angry and abused girl, Samara Morgan, is at the root of the savage goings-on.

In clumsier hands, Rachel Keller might become helpless halfway through, paralyzed by the horror of what she is experiencing. She might be rescued by Noah, her ex-boyfriend, or denounced as insane and locked away to wait helplessly for disaster.

Instead, The Ring allows her to be taken seriously and to undertake the gruesome work necessary to end the destruction. While this movie doesn’t shy away from putting its heroine in terrifying situations (what horror movie worth its salt wouldn’t, after all?), Rachel manages to both survive and ultimately defeat the evil that has forced itself into her life.