Action Heroine versus Horror Heroine – What’s the Diff?

Notice that it’s horror heroine and not horror chick. A film can have a sorority’s worth of horror chicks, but only one horror chick gets to be the Final Girl, that heroine who outlasts all the rest.

Our action heroine Action Flick Chick under her codename @actionchick raised the issue in twitter.

actionchick: action heroine vs. horror heroine – how do they differ? #vschicks

And the discussion ensued. Now just because she didn’t argue with some particular remark does not mean she necessarily agreed with it.

GregorioLoco: The action heroine kicks all the ass & has a plan. The horror heroine runs & screams. She kills the monster by luck nor by plan
scpereira: Action heroine doesn’t have Scooby Doo
VivaDorkmaster: Action= awesomeness that kicks ass and deserves the honored heroine title, Horror= screams alot and drive people to drink
shaneandrew82: Action heroine is usaually a badass to begin with. Horror heroine is usually soft spoken & gets through with blind luck.
actionchick: Horror heroine: With enemy down, run away so he can come after her again. Action heroine: Try to get him while he’s down. (He gets up too.)
Marshy00: Action heroine “grew up with brothers”, Horror heroine has bigger boobs
Purplegrass: Action heroine = usually strong role model; Horror heroine = usually damsel in distress
Meljusenr: Horror heroine looks back when being chased. Action heroine looks ahead for sharp object then chases back. XD
Meljusenr: horror chick can’t run in high heels. Action chick uses high heels as weapons!
VivaDorkmaster: Action- Kick ass (with matching kick ass weapons, etc)Horror- Scared of everything (too cliche)
Meljusenr: horror heroine hides behind horror hero. Action hero has trouble keeping up with action heroine. XD
Mindsetdefect: Action heroine typically get’s cooler weapons. and that rules
uberthegeek: Action H fights ninjas & soldier while the Horror H fights zombies, vampires, mask wearing nutjobs, escaped mental patients
dannyson1: The horror heroine really never really tries to fight back. By the time she does, she is eliminated. i.e. Halloween
Trader_Bob: action heroine works out more at the gym than horror heroine – action heroine is more buff than horror heroine.
Trader_Bob: action heroines are good w guns, horror heroines are good with whatever is handy at the time.
OnyxSparrow: By the division in the terms, an Action Chick fights directly, a Horror Chick fights indirectly or through coincidence.
swiv: being a victim who is called into being a heroine vs. a heroine who already has the tools
KanUDig_It: Finding strong female horror characters is harder than finding action ones. Hollywood doesn’t really swing that way.

Sex Life

ddoginsidefilm: one of them will gladly take their top off without having been told.
actionchick: The heroine? Which one?
ddoginsidefilm: heroine? NO.the horror chick of course
actionchick: Ah, but you see, that’s why I said horror heroine rather than horror chick. Most horror chicks are victims. Only 1 gets to be the Final Girl. The Final Girl (horror heroine) generally does not take her top off. In terms of the actual heroines, the action heroine takes her top off a whole lot more than virginal horror heroine.
Slickriptide: Horror Chick: Punished for sexuality. Action Chick: Sex is a weapon.
quicksilverwest: Female Action Hero: Offense – Sexuality, Weaponry and Body. Female Horror Heroine: Defense – Sex, Coyness, Naiveté
MarcyChen: Action heroines rarely get caught in the rain with a very thin bra, horror heroines do.eg: Jlo in Anaconda vs. Jlo in the Cell.
KanUDig_It: To be fair the thin shirt/wet bra combo is a metaphor for the vulnerability of the character. It’s totally needed.

actionchick: Geeky guy who pines for horror heroine dies. Geeky guy who pines for action heroine serves as tech support. {This remark got retweeted quite a bit.}
cybeam1: Note to self: never pine for horror heroine! #vschicks

Screams

karlmageddon: The amount of screams and heavy breathing per scene
Meljusenr: horror heroine screams for help. Action heroine screams to intimidate the enemy!
actionchick: AUUUUUUHHHHHH!!!!!
actionchick: Horror scream higher pitched.
cybeam1: That somehow rather sounded like she wolf!
actionchick: Not enough R’s.
cybeam1: Pretty simple: knock the enemy out while he’s waiting for your scream! Totally bad a**! 😉

Fate

scpereira: Horror heroine nearly always dies at the end. Action heroine sleeps with male lead always True story.
KanUDig_It: Horror chicks survive. Action chicks thrive. And they use more ammo.
FreeMountaineer: The horror heroine makes too many dumb decisions, yet still survives, for some God-unknown reason.
jeremyhyler: horror heroines kill in the heat of the moment… tpically at the very end. later they are so mentally distraught.
Lpex: The 1st would sacrifice herself 4 the second if need be

Can’t We Have Both?

swiv: is it a situation that a horror heroine is automatically an action one & not all action heroines are horror ones?
actionchick: Horror heroines do not all become action heroines.
Zombiephile: I wouldn’t say all horror heroines are action chicks. Take Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, for example. Not much action.

Terminator/Terminator 2
Slickriptide: True Lies raises the ? – Is there amovie where the heroine begins as horror chick & finishes as action chick?
actionchick: Terminator.
Slickriptide: Re: Terminator – Oh, duh! /facepalm
Quixote74: Horror heroine: Linda Hamilton in The Terminator. Action heroine: Linda Hamilton in T2. I’ve heard T1 described (maybe even by Cameron) as a slasher movie where the villain just happens to be a robot.
actionchick: Yeah, normally a diff between action & horror is that action has a lot of enemies. Suspense, thriler, horror can have single antagonist. Action generally (I only said generally) does not. T2: They take on all the cops, not just the T1000.
JimmyMiz: Sarah Conner only got physically strong in T2 after she had gone from horror to action chick.
mhictire: Did someone list Linda Hamilton from the original Terminator as action? Personally I don’t know that I would label Terminator as a horror film. Sci-Fi/Action, sure.

jeremyhyler: action heroine seem to be physically stronger. ie sarah conner. Ellen Ripley.

Alien/Aliens
Quixote74: Multiple defeatable enemies, rather than one (nearly) unstoppable one? Ripley in Alien/Aliens fits that better than T1/T2.
ThomasSpurlin: Interestingly, you can look at Ripley in Alien and Ripley in Aliens as a comparison between horror and action heroines.
AdamFrazier: Ellen F***in’ Ripley fights the monsters
jeremyhyler: ripley nuke them from orbit, self sacrificed, cloned to become more bad ass, kid her new born. nuff said.  – killed her new born alien i meant.
KanUDig_It: Aliens starts horror-ish, the chest burst, then Ripley becomes the take charge person and takes charge.

Resident Evil
SHADOWCOMMANDO: Some movies have action\horror chick like Alice from the RE series the combo chicks kick more ass
 johnny_williams: not sure if all action heroine’s are stronger….the horror heroine’s have Alice from Resident Evil
jeremyhyler: yeah but alice was genetically altered.
ThomasSpurlin: RE isn’t a horror movie. Didn’t give me the shakes or the squirms, and you’ve got to nail down one or the other for the genre.
jeremyhyler: jill was a cop first. its her job to be action packed. didnt she die(in the movies) in the game shes better.
actionchick: She did not die
redridinghood83: I love jill valentine. I’m a member of S.T.A.R.S!!! She’s awesome in Capcom
swiv: Alice from Resident Evil changed to one
jayess69: my fave is Alice in resident evil!!!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (with gun tangent)
johnny_williams: do horror heroine’s really fight zombies, vamps, etc…or do they just run from them?
Skookum86: Buffy NEVER ran!
johnny_williams: you are correct. my mind was limited to films….not tv…so in that sense, Faith never ran either.
KanUDig_It: Faith did run, in her first appearance she was running from Taquitos and Mr. Trick. They killed her watcher.
pyrosis: Would Buffy the Vampire Slayer count as action heroine, horror heroine, or both?
swiv: She improvises like a horror & fights like an action – doesn’t use guns however
swiv: Yup Buffy – does action mean using guns?
actionchick: It doesn’t have to, no.
KanUDig_It: Guns aren’t needed for action chicks. Look at The Bride. A Hattori Hanzo does just fine.
wyldride: Problem with Faith re: #vschick is she’s not a heroine. She did some heroic things, but also murdered innocent people.

Underworld
dksithlord: may i point out the ultimate action/horror heroine? kate beckinsale in Underworld
actionchick: She kicks ass beginning to end. action heroine throughout
swiv: Selene from Underworld – classic hybred
actionchick: They may be vampires & werewolves, but it’s like alien species. Underworld is not horror.
MarcyChen: Beckinsale? She’s cool and all, but I’m not sure she could lick Ripley’s boots 🙂
dksithlord: ok,the ONLY way ripley beats kate is with the exoskeleton.and THAT’S too slow
MarcyChen: Right, because walking into a crypt in the daytime with a grenade launcher is too hard.

Grindhouse double feature
ThomasSpurlin: Here’s one for you: Rose McGowan in Planet Terror. Action or horror? Plus, the girls in Ginger Snaps for “strong horror” girls.
actionchick: @ThomasSpurlin I was disappointed @RoseMcGowan got machine gun leg & started using it so late in the movie. http://3.ly/bbq
ThomasSpurlin: I’m actually glad it took as long as it did. Poster art promised the idea, and you watch waiting on pins-n-needles until then.
actionchick: Poster/ads promised me an action movie with an action movie heroine. Not much of Planet Terror gave me that. http://3.ly/bbq
swiv: Pam from “Planet Terror” is a horror heroine – not an action one

mhictire: I would also toss up Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, and Tracie Thoms in Death Proof. Horror heroines.
JimmyMiz: The only horror element in Death Proof is Kurt Russell’s mullet. And that close up of him eating nachos.
mhictire: Even with the initial chase given by Stuntman Mike, with Zoe Bell on the hood? I’d say their fear and trying to escape matches.

Others with a Bit of Both
KanUDig_It: Juliette Lewis’s character in From Dusk Til’ Dawn is a horror chick who ends up not just running but fighting back
SHADOWCOMMANDO: The Decent had a good mix of horrorchicks and actionchicks.
Zombiephile: For me, the ultimate horror/action chicks are the chicks from The Descent (Crawlspace). Bad-ass, tough, and sexy.
jayess69: ohh but such good screaming!!! More action chick in Halloween 2!!!
darksakura: Nightmare on Elm St 4
ebrown2112: Lisa Wilcox kinda changes from horror chick to action check in Nightmare 4. Then in 5 she’s pretty much all action.
darksakura: I was really referring to Alice, though, who started off frightened and quiet and turned into a total kickass Dream Master.
swiv: Would we consider River Tams from Serenity a horror heroine – reapers are like zombies after all
ThomasSpurlin: One last one for the road: Rose in Silent Hill teeters on the line between being weak and a strong, determined paternal heroine

Action Flick Chick

Shadowbat: While @actionchick is now an action hero, here she is in her younger horror days http://bit.ly/4BWFMP

Parts of this discussion got retweeted by outofsequences, jonfun, AllModConz, damana, ORIGINALGATA, epwait, cinemascribe, MaheshKukreja, solshine7.

External link
Term: “The Final Girl” – Final Girl Project