20 Scariest Female Horror Villains

Liz White as Jennet Humfrye (Image via CBS Films)

12. Jennet Humfrye (The Woman in Black)

While Japanese culture has a name and folklore all set up for vengeful ghosts, it isn’t the only storytelling tradition with angry spirits. In fact, dig deep enough and you’ll likely find the angry dead in nearly every culture. With British storytelling, though, sometimes you only need to scratch the surface.

Jennet Humfrye is the titular “Woman in Black” in the story of the same name. Originally a novella written by author Susan Hill, it was later turned into a television film in 1989 and a theatrical version in 2012. While the story follows Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer, it really centers on the tragic, yet obscure tale of Jennet Humfrye.

See, young Mr. Kipps is sent to clean up the legal affairs of Alice Drablow, a reclusive widow who has recently died. While sorting through her documents in Drablow’s remote home (appropriately named Eel Marsh House), Kipps comes upon the story of the Woman in Black, a spirit who is said to haunt the local town and take the townfolk’s innocent children.

Alice’s sister, Jennet, becomes pregnant with a son. Because Jennet is unmarried, and because this section of the tale takes place in repressive Victorian England, she is forced to give up her child. Alice and her husband take the boy, Nathaniel, for their own. Jennet lives with the family, though she must never reveal that she is Nathaniel’s true mother.

While traveling back from town, a carriage holding Nathaniel crashes and sinks into the marsh, killing everyone on board. Jennet helplessly watches her son’s death from the windows of Eel Marsh House. After she dies, the rage and grief that consumed her lives on as the malevolent Woman in Black.