20 Scariest Female Horror Villains

The Alien Queen (Image via 20th Century Fox)

2. The Alien Queen (Aliens)

Despite the close-to-home terror of Misery, sometimes you need something a little more cosmic. The unearthly horror of the alien xenomorphs in the Alien franchise fit the bill nicely.

First of all, they’re utterly strange, with their sleek, almost synthetic perfection. Artist H.R. Giger’s alien design unsettles you by accessing some animal subconscious you didn’t know you had. Looking at the xenomorphs, you start to wonder how a prey animal might feel as a hawk approaches. Plus, the aliens are apparently locked into one mission only: kill. Where other horror villains can sometimes be distracted or reasoned with, there is no such escape with the xenomorphs.

Now, given that the aliens are so alien, it’s not entirely fair to assign gender to them. During the first film, no one bothers to ask if the xenomorph terrorizing the crew of the Nostromo is a “she”, “he”, “they”, or otherwise. They’re merely interested in surviving, with varying levels of success. Indeed, it’s only during the second film, Aliens, that someone mentions the Alien Queen.

By this point, the creators behind Aliens had reached the conclusion that audiences needed a more focused villain, rather than an diffuse evil represented by many aliens. Hence, the Queen. She is inspired in part by the structure of Earth-based insect colonies, such as termites, ants, and bees.

Like the queens in these species, the Alien Queen is especially large and angry. She’s also produced hundreds of eggs. This proves to be a big problem for our hero, Ripley, and the space marines accompanying her, though at least it produces some effective, alien villainy.