20 Scariest Female Horror Villains

Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young (Image via Lionsgate Films)

9. Amanda Young (Saw II)

I’ll readily admit that I’m not a huge fan of the Saw film franchise. Too often, it’s simply an excuse for gore and torture porn, without enough thought to back it up. However, there are some truly compelling characters and situations throughout the series, if you’re patient enough to wait for them. One such character is Amanda Young.

Amanda first shows up as a victim of Jigsaw, the serial killer at the center of the franchise. Well, “victim” isn’t quite right, as she is the only known survivor of the killer. She escapes a gruesome, painful death by cutting the key to her trap out of a heavily sedated cell mate, thereby killing him.

As a villain, however, Amanda Young really comes into her own in the second film, Saw II. Throughout much of the movie, viewers are led to believe that she is yet another victim. However, in a twist ending, Amanda reveals that she is in fact Jigsaw’s apprentice. Jigsaw, who is actually a man named John Kramer, is dying from cancer.

Thanks to their ersatz father-daughter relationship, Amanda promises to carry on his work after his death. It’s dark as anything else in the movie and certainly nothing to emulate, but Amanda’s transformation makes her an interesting villain, if nothing else.