20 best badass women of horror movies

17. Edith Cushing (Crimson Peak)

Contrary to first impressions, gothic horror is bursting at the seams with female badasses. Yes, some early examples of the genre have women falling down in a faint at every opportunity (see The Mysteries of Udolpho or Frankenstein, for example). They are also sometimes pawns of sinister characters, like an older uncle or scheming housekeeper.

But that doesn’t mean strong women don’t have a place in gothic fiction. Look at Jane Eyre, who fields all the strangeness of Thornfield Hall (not to mention her attractive yet creepy boss, Mr. Rochester) with aplomb. You surely won’t see Miss Jane Eyre fainting anytime soon.

Now, you may see Edith Cushing dealing in some of that nonsense at first. Edith (Mia Wasikowska) first appears as something of an idealist. She’s an aspiring novelist who deals in stories of ghosts the macabre. When she’s confronted with all of the classic signs that she herself in a creepy tale, however, she crumbles a bit. Who can blame her though? The mysterious Lord Thomas Sharpe is magnetic and very, very handsome. Even his menacing sister, Lucille, isn’t enough to warn Edith.

After her father is tragically murdered, Edith agrees to marry Thomas and follow him to his crumbling estate, Allerdale Hall. There, she’s confronted by a series of grotesque phantoms and mounting evidence that her husband is worse than he seems.

For all of her initial mistakes, however, Edith soon learns to fend for herself. She’s compelled to discover what lies beneath the surface of Allerdale Hall. Even Lucille’s strangely bitter tea isn’t enough to put her down for too long.

In the end, Edith is forced to confront both the dead and the living in order to survive. She communicates with ghosts, researches the Sharpes despite her growing horror, and battles a murderous Sharpe sibling in the driving snow. She even turns the tables and rescues another character in the process. Don’t let the fanciful dreams or mutton-leg sleeves fool you — Edith Cushing is a true badass.