I’ve always been a weird child. I cut teeth on vampire movies, carried around a Wolfman doll I treasured (appropriately named ‘Wolfy’), and made ‘potions’ in the front yard when our new neighbors were moving in next door. The Universal Monsters have always been near and dear to my heart, and set a solid foundation for my love of the horror genre. But a big influence on my childhood and the girl I grew up to be were a handful of women, characters you could call them even, that my mother introduced me to at various points. I’d like to share the top five with you, starting with an honorable mention (aka, I snuck in a sixth person. Ha!)
Honorable Mention: Vampira
Although she didn’t quite make Top 5, she did deserve to be mentioned on here somewhere for being a role model for Little Angel.
5.) Morticia Addams
I alway wanted to be like Morticia…A true matriarch of her family, but also a little peculiar, but fiercely loyal & protective of her family & most of all she allowed her children to explore all kinds of ideas and curiosities so they could discover who they were and where they wanted to go. And all the while she remained supportive & available if any of her children needed her guidance. What a Mom! What a role model.
4.) Lily Munster
Pretty much what I said about Morticia. I looked up to and absolutely adored Lily Munster. She was so beautiful, and her hair was to die for. She’ll always be my hero.
3.) Wednesday Addams
This pretty much sums it up:
Morticia: Wednesday’s at that very special age when a girl has only one thing on her mind.
Ellen: Boys?
Wednesday: Homicide.
2.) Bride of Frankenstein
One of the most beautiful women, most tragic stories, most influential in imagery to my young mind… Just.. Yes. Frankenstein was one of my favorites (I adored the Universal Monsters, remember?), and when I saw Bride of Frankenstein… whoa buddy. I was in love. Definitely a role model to me, even to this day.
1.) Elvira
Mistress of the Dark. The Queen of Halloween. And one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met – Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira.
My mom has adored Elvira for longer than I’ve been alive, and was cosplaying her before that was really a thing:
That isn’t the best picture I’ve ever seen of my mom in her Elvira dress, it was just the only one I knew where it was at right now haha. But this was taken before I was born I believe. You could say, I was born to be the Queen of Halloween. Well, I guess I was technically a Princess. You get my point.
Anyway, my mother and I did get to meet Elvira, and it was pretty much one of the best mother-daughter moments we could’ve had. I wish I had the photo of the three of us scanned in. I do, however, have this:
I’m hoping to have a few more Women in Horror related posts for you before February is out. I’ve had a lot of health issues plus a trip to New Orleans to contend with, and I’m actually between procedures right now (had one on Tuesday, and due for another Thursday. Oh boy.)
Stay tuned, misfits.
~Angel
Misadventures of a Misfit 