Femme Fatale

A femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art.

Her ability to entrance and hypnotise her victim with a spell was one of the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural; so the femme fatale is still often describes as having power for example being an enchantress, seductress, vampire, witch, demon or having power over men. The phrase in French means "fatal woman" and will achieve her hidden purposes by using beauty, charm and sexual allure. One of the most common traits of the femme fatale is the rejection of motherhood which is seen as "one of her most threatening qualities since by denying his immortality and his posterity as it leads to the ultimate destruction of the male." Femme fatales are typically villainous, or morally ambiguous, and are always associated with a sense of mystification and unease.

  Ancient Archetypes

This Femme Fatale archetype exists in the culture, folklore and myth of many cultures for example mythical creatures like sirens, the sphinx and Aphrodite and could be related to historical ecamples like Cleopatra and the biblical figures Delolah, Jezebel and Salome.

Salome in a painting by Franz von Stuck

Early Western Culture to the 19th Century

In Europe during the middle ages the femme fatale was a common figure in the middle ages and portrayed the dangers of female sexuality. The pre- medieval biblical figure of Eve could be an example and also the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The magic flute shows her muted presence during the Age of Enlightenment. 

During the Romantic period the femme fatale flourished with the works of John Keats for example "La Belle Dam sans Merci" and also through the rise of the Gothic novel, the monk featured Matilda, who was a very powerful femme fatale, and also appeared in Carmilla and the Brides of Dracula. Other considerably famous femme fatales were Isabella of France, Hedda Gabler of Kristiania and also Marie Antoinette of Austria. 

Marlene Dietrich. Film- Noir Femme Fatale

20th Century Film and Theatre

In the 20th century the femme fatale can be seen as a sexual vampire, her charms leech the virility and independence of lovers which leaves them in a shell of themselves. From the American film perspective the femme fatale often appears as foreign, as either eastern European or Asian origin for ecample the counterparts for actresses such as Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. In the film-noir era the femme fatale flourished in cinema for example Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. In modern day the femme fatale can be seen as Angelina Jolie in Original Sin.

Femme Fatale's in Horror

Julia Cotton - Hellraiser

Julia Cotton is one of horrors most twisted femme fatales, she seduces men and brings them home to feed Frank (her brother-in-law  but also ex lover) to help him become whole again. When Frank is almost human again, she brings her current husband Larry to him, and Frank proceeds to kill him and steals his skin for himself. 

She is a classic femme fatale in the way that she uses her good looks and charms to lure men back to her house and is deadly in the way that she has the ulterior motive to kill them for her ex lover.

Baby Firefly - House of 1000 Corpses 

Baby firefly appears in both the Devils Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses, in house of 1000 Corpses baby firefly kidnapped 5 cheerleaders and brought them back to their home where they were suspended from the ceiling and tortured. Later on in the film she was picked up by a group of youths when she was hitch-hiking , after taking interest in one of the youths who has a boyfriend and doesn't reciprocate her affections, she takes great pleasure in watching her brother dismember him. Baby is attractive and young and attracts people by how normal she looks, and lures them back to her crazed family who are very sadistic. 

Mrs. Voorhees - Friday the 13th

Mrs, Voorheers is the secondary villan of Friday the 13th, she is the mother of Jason and she swore revenge on the counsellors of  Camp Crystal Lake, and prevents the camp from re opening through murder, assassination, water poisoning and arson. Mrs. Voorhees is one of the ultimate femme fatles and shows how far women will go to protect their children. 

Femme Fatales in American Horror Story

Jessica Lange undoubtedly plays the best femme fatales in American horror story, the characters she plays are rich and diverse and also have different motivations, in 'Murder House' she plays a homocidal woman responsible for raising the Antichrist, in the second 'Asylum' she plays a deranged nun who administrates corporal punishment and electroshock therapy to the criminally insane, in the third season 'Coven' she plays a which who is selling her soul to an ancient voodoo deity and also in the final season 'Freak Show' a dominatrix who's legs were amputated in a snuff film before escaping and coming to work in a freak show. Lange says that even though all of these characters are different they all have a 'kind of desperation, a profound disappointment with life, as on- edge or neurasthenic as they appear to be they all have a spine of steel. its exactly the kind of complexity in a character that I love, that it appears to be one thing and is actually something else. For example, Elsa the domanatrix in Freak Show has the killer instinct and yet she was a wounded bird, so she is two extremes in one, she is stoic and cold hearted but in other ways she is barely surviving. 

Donnelly. M. (2015). Jessica Lange Reflects on Her 4 ‘American Horror Story’ Femme Fatales: ‘They Have a Spine of Steel’. Available: http://www.thewrap.com/jessica-lange-reflects-on-her-4-american-horror-story-femme-fatales-they-have-a-spine-of-steel/. Last accessed 27th March.

Ahlephia. (2012). Ahlephia’s Top 13 Femme Fatales. Available: http://www.trulydisturbing.com/2012/09/27/ahlephias-top-13-femme-fatales/. Last accessed 27th March.

Ursini, J & Silver, A (2004). Film Noir . Los Angeles: Taschen .