My 10 favourite horror heroines.

In association with women in horror month, and a follow up to my Top 10 villainesses list.

Dishonourable mention: Mary-Sue Swan (Kristen Stewart; Twi-shite/New Moan) Surprise surprise, Bella fucking Swan isn't on this list or even anywhere near it.

10. Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan; Planet Terror) - Okay, so the machine gun leg might be a bit of a rip off of Ash's chainsaw hand, but I'm still a big fan of Rose McGowan's brand of one-legged awesomeness. While we're on the whole Grindhouse thing, Tarantino's Death Proof girls deserve a mention too; if only for achieving the rather admirable feat* of making Kurt Russell cry like a baby girl.

* no, Quentin, not that kind of feat.

9. Milla Jovovich in Anything (Milla Jovovich; literally, Anything) - Yes, I'm an enormous fan of the Jovovich, even in shitty movies like the Resident Evil sequels. Maybe it's because she gets naked a lot, or possibly because I think she's a good actress. Mostly the former, but also the latter. If this list has proved anything, it's that there's a dearth of proper female roles in our horror, hence that obvious bit of filler on this list.

8. Tracey (Jennifer Ellison; The Cottage) - If it weren't for the psycho farmer running round murdering people, Jennifer Ellison's Tracey would probably be The Cottage's villain. She starts off as kidnap victim, but is anything but passive or helpless. Whether it be breaking Reece Shearsmith's nose (whilst tied up and gagged, no less) or effin' & a'blinding like a trooper, she's by far the movie's most malevolent - and perhaps its best - character. Impressive, when you consider she's played by an ex-Brookside cast member.

7. Jody (Brittany Murphy; Cherry Falls) - RIP Brittany Murphy. Never made enough horror movies for my liking. The movie may not have been great, but Brittany Murphy was. She turned the idea of the virginal Final Girl on its head, oozing pure Sexy as she did.

6.Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton; Terminator) or Vicky (Linda Hamilton; Children of the Corn) - Never mind the character, Linda Hamilton. So tough that I never could buy her being bullied around by Arnie Schwarznegger; let alone a bunch of children in Children of the Corn. I'd have liked to see her smash that ginger fuck kid's face in, but there you go. Again, doesn't make enough horror flicks for my liking.

5. Kate Fuller (Juliette Lewis; From Dusk Till Dawn) - Like Milla Jovovich, I'll watch Juliette Lewis in anything. She was awesome in Natural Born Killers and is similarly ace offing vampires in this. Again, it's hard to see her taking shit from the likes of George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino though. I'd make a joke about her telling Tarantino to stick his foot fetish up his ass, but he'd probably like that sort of thing.

4. Sarah (Shauna MacDonald; The Descent) - It being my favourite horror movie of last decade, The Descent's Sarah was bound to be on this list. Not only does the poor woman have to contend with seeing her hubby and child die violently in a rather grisly car accident, she's forced to put up with a shitty friend, a caving accident and a bunch of naked cannibal mutant types trying to eat her.

3. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis; The Halloween series) - Michael Myers' sister and the woman who managed to lop his head off, before being ignominiously dispatched herself in Resurrection. An iconic lady of the genre. And I'm talking the Jamie Lee Curtis version of the character, needless to say. The Laurie as posited in Zombieweiner is just another tired cut-and-paste Final Girl jobbo.

2. Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) - Sure, she's not given much to do aside from run around screaming and be tied up screaming, but for me, Marilyn Burns is the quintessential Scream Queen. She did the same again in Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive, but to somehow lesser effect. Perhaps it was the lack of jumping through windows and less opportunity for eardrum-shattering shrieking. It's a shame Burns didn't make a few more movies, but given her treatment at the hands of Hooper and his ropes, it's understandable why she wouldn't want to...

1. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver; The Alien movies) - Marilyn Burns may be my favourite Scream Queen, but there's no denying Sigourney Weaver's proper badassery. Ripley is a woman who makes tracksuit bottoms look hard; a woman who looks more suited to a skinhead haircut than long hair; a woman that beat the shit outta Ron Perlman without breaking sweat. Also: looks surprisingly hot as a ten-foot-tall blue alien. Really.