Femme fatales have existed since the dawn of narrative art. This intoxicating female archetype is known for her alluring sensuality and dark habit of causing harm or destruction to any man who falls into her grasp. From the sirens of Greek literature and Shakespeare’s Lady MacBeth to the vamps of the silent film era and gangster movie gun molls, femme fatales have continued to change with times.
A surge of classic examples arose in pulp literature and the subsequent film noir heyday of the 1940s and 50s – possibly a response to shifting gender roles in the wake of World War II. Many consider Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson to be the prototypical film fatale of the silver screen. In Double Indemnity, this magnetic blonde seduces a hapless salesman and convinces him to kill her husband in order to cash in on the titular insurance policy.
Despite her classical origins, the femme fatale has evolved through the ages. As women gain more independence and autonomy, her ability to act on her own behalf increases and she is less beholden to the whims of a man. With expanding definitions of sexual and gender identity, she no longer targets only men. Anyone she can use to her advantage is fair game and the threat she poses is just as palpable.
Anne Hathaway stands poised to become the next great femme fatale as the glamorous Rebecca in William Oldroyd’s adaptation of the Ottessa Moshfegh novel Eileen. The new educational director in a boys reformatory, Rebecca works her way into the life of meek secretary Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) and encourages her to break out of her own prison of feminine docility.
With altruistic intentions and revenge on her mind, Rebecca represents a modern iteration of the femme fatale. The new generation of powerful seductresses have set their sights on avenging male misdeeds that have gone unpunished for far too long. With her entrancing performance, Hathaway follows a long line of fantastic femme fatales rising to power in the 21st century.
Here are but a few that come to mind…
Amy Dunne – Gone Girl
While many femme fatales turn out to be quite sympathetic, Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) has ice in her veins. Proving that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, this former socialite tries to frame her husband Nick (Ben Affleck) for murder after he moves them out of Manhattan to rural Missouri. He further seals his own fate by cheating on her with his much younger student.
Having created an elaborate plan to fake her death, Amy willingly sacrifices her own body to this devious mission. When her plan backfires, she reaches out for help only to find herself trapped in another kind of domestic hell. In order to escape, she must use her intelligence and impressive tools of manipulation to overpower yet another man who thinks he can lock her down.
Based on the bestselling novel by Gillian Flynn, Amy Dunne is a new kind of female killer, one who will use patriarchal norms to her advantage. Her inspired understanding of the “cool girl” archetype shows that she is willing to exploit male ideas of feminine helplessness and use their own limiting beliefs to take down the men who would try to control her.
Jennifer Check – Jennifer’s Body
Of all the glossy teen horror films of the new millennium, few have been so polarizing as Jennifer’s Body. Karyn Kusama’s film centers around the gorgeous Jennifer Check, played by the stunning Megan Fox at the peak of her fame.
When a night out at a local club goes disastrously wrong, Jennifer runs afoul of a sinister boy band hoping to make a deal with the devil. They attempt to sacrifice Jennifer in exchange for fame and fortune, but wind up transforming the terrified teen into a powerful succubus. Having crawled out of the woods, Jennifer returns to school with amped-up sexuality and a hunger for the flesh of boys. She stalks her prey through the high school halls, devouring them with her newly extendable jaws.
Maligned upon release, it’s likely Diablo Cody’s script was simply ahead of its time. Failed by a marketing campaign built to capitalize on Fox’s physical appearance, Jennifer’s Body has gone on to become a cult favorite and a powerful examination of recovery and revenge, consumption and consent.
Dawn O’Keefe – Teeth
When we first meet Dawn (Jess Weixler), she seems destined for a life of trad wife banality rather than one of sexual danger. The sweet girl is a staunch advocate for abstinence only sex education and shields herself from any mention of erotic impropriety. Believing she’s finally met her Prince Charming, Dawn goes on a romantic date with Tobey (Hale Appleman), only to realize he’s not so dedicated to maintaining his virginity. A heartbreaking sexual assault awakens a dangerous element of Jess’s anatomy – a set of razor-sharp teeth lining the walls of her vagina – and reveals the hypocrisy in her chosen identity.
Mitchell Lichtenstein‘s darkly humorous film uses the classical myth of vagina dentata to explore female monstrosity and the pervasive nature of rape culture. In the wake of this traumatic event, Dawn begins to explore her sexuality and finds an empowerment she never knew she possessed. As male after male tries to abuse her, Dawn becomes a warrior, leaving her old life of idealistic purity behind to rid the world of abusive men.
Ginger Fitzgerald – Ginger Snaps
Born with the century, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is an uninhibited femme fatale with a vicious bite. The Canadian teen has an obsession with the aesthetics of death and, along with her younger sister Brigette (Emily Perkins), stages a series of suicide-themed photo shoots that further ostracize them from their suburban neighbors. When Ginger gets her first period, she begins to mature and the outcast sisters slowly grow apart.
Complicating matters is the fact that Ginger has been bitten by a mysterious beast hunting the neighborhood and seems to be transforming into an animalistic killer. She begins to show aggressive sexuality and viscously attacks anyone who stands in her way. Fearing these lycanthropic new traits, Brigette reaches out to a drug dealer named Sam (Kris Lemche) for a tonic that might break the werewolf’s curse before it takes her sister’s life.
Director John Fawcett’s tragic film has become a cult classic and a powerful examination of female sexuality awakened. The two sisters watch each other from across an invisible line of pubescent maturity in this coming-of-age horror story bathed in menstrual blood.
Ava – Ex Machina
Alex Garland’s directorial debut features a fascinating femme fatale with the power to change the world.
Ava (Alicia Vikander) is a humanoid robot with advanced AI programming capable of learning and interacting with humans. Her creator Nathan (Oscar Isaac), a billionaire tech genius, keeps her confined to a glass cell while she gets to know Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a coder participating in a landmark Turing Test to evaluate her ability to pass as human. While Caleb asks his condescending questions, Ava longs for freedom. She watches the world outside her window and fears that Nathan will never allow her the freedom of full humanity or the ability to experience authentic life.
Garland’s film is a stunning achievement in special effects technology as well as a fascinating exploration of patriarchal control. As the men get to know this incredible woman, the sinister heart of Nathan’s intentions begin to show and Ava must use all the tools at her disposal to escape her glass prison into an unsuspecting world.
Tiffany Valentine – Chucky Franchise
First introduced in 1988’s Bride of Chucky, Tiffany Valentine has become one of horror’s favorite female villains.
Devoted to her serial killer boyfriend Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), Tiffany uses a voodoo ritual to resurrect her lost love in the broken body of the iconic Good Guys doll. But there’s trouble in paradise and Chucky uses Tiffany’s relaxing bubble bath to trap her soul in a glamorous blond figurine.
Sometimes appearing as herself, sometimes in the form of a doll, and sometimes inhabiting the body of her real-life counterpart Jennifer Tilly, this blond bombshell has become a staple of the Child’s Play franchise. She’s killed for Chucky, betrayed him, bore his child, and sworn him off for good all in the name of unholy love and the hope that these two crazy dolls can somehow make their relationship work.
This femme fatale can currently be found heating up the screen on the Syfy series Chucky as Tiffany continues to smash and sizzle her way through this horrifically humorous world.
Eileen is currently playing in select theaters. Get your tickets now.
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