Hopefully by now you’ve seen the 888 Ladies Bingo list ‘the 13 scariest ladies of all time’. We certainly have, and it’s kicked off a LOT of office debate. Part of that is because – as nitpickers will be overjoyed to see – the list really is ‘of all time’. Taking in everything from Ancient Greece, through sixteenth century monarchs, to the modern day there are a LOT of contenders. There’s also a mix between the totally real and the completely fictional, with examples of both making the top five. For those who haven’t seen the list yet, it goes as follows:
#13 Bellatrix Lestrange (from the Harry Potter series)
#12 Medusa
#11 The Queen of Hearts (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
#10 The Blair Witch
#9 The Wicked Queen (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
#8 Alex Forrest (from Fatal Attraction)
#7 Queen Mary I
#6 The Grand High Witch (from The Witches)
#5 Annie Wilkes (from Misery)
#4 Margaret Thatcher
#3 The Wicked Witch of the West (from The Wizard of Oz)
#2 Regan MacNeil (from The Exorcist)
#1 Nurse Ratched (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
So what did we think to the list? Well everyone’s got their favourite scary lady, but it’s definitely a great mix of all the different factors that make someone scary. There’s a healthy dollop of respect for immediate fear factor – we certainly wouldn’t want to come face to face with many of these entries in a dark alley – but they’ve also taken into account the more familiar kind of horror we can all apply to our everyday lives. Finally there’s the nightmare factor – most of the entries on this list are still giving people sleepless nights long after they’re gone.
Characters like Medusa and the Grand High Witch obviously have a lot of immediate fear factor, whereas entrants like Nurse Ratched and Annie Wilkes could (and did) seem perfectly normal at first.
Other characters would be difficult to live with; Alex Forrest would always have something on the boil in the kitchen, whereas Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist would probably be fine as long as you stayed out of her room.
Some characters, however, are the stuff of nightmares. Characters like the Blair Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West still creep us out. That’s probably why so many entries on the list are children’s characters – the things that scared us most as kids never really leave us.
We reckon quite a few of their entrants would be happy to appear on the list. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was proud of her fearsome reputation, and Queen Mary I certainly didn’t worry what people thought of her.
In the end, though, there was general agreement that Nurse Ratched belongs at the number one spot. As scary as witches, monsters and psychopaths may be, there’s nothing worse than a nasty piece of work with too much power. We’ll never have to deal with evil queens or possessed daughters (hopefully) but many of us know the feeling of going in to work for our very own Nurse Ratched. She’s terrifying because she’s real, although we have to admit that she’d be even worse if she could rotate her head the full 360 degrees.
Now that you know who made our list and why, we’d love to hear what you think. Is there a terrifying woman they left off, or someone you don’t think fits the bill? Do you have any unique memories of anyone on our list? Get in contact with your comments, reviews and additions.
This article is brought to you in association with 888ladies
