Four Unsung Female Characters of Horror

It looks like someone might be declaring February as Women in Horror Month, I thought it was Black History Month - well, what do I know.  Be that as it may, I wanted to take a few minutes and highlight several female characters who are hardly ever sited by anyone when discussing horror/slasher/thriller films...submitted for your approval: Four Unsung Female Characters of Horror:

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) in Dressed to Kill:  Not since, Marion Crane met her demise at the Bates Motel has one woman had such a bad day.  Frustrated by her husband's lack of sexual prowess, rejected by her shrink when she comes on to him, stalked by a guy at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, going home and fucking said guy, discovering that she probably caught VD from the guy, and then getting hacked to ribbons by a crazed, cross dressing killer in an elevator - Kate, we salute you!

Sharon Spencer (Kitty Winn) in The Exorcist:  When Sharon took on the job as personal assistant to actress, Chris MacNeil, she probably had no idea that she was signing on as a babysitter for a demonically possessed little girl.  Geez, she even stays  with little Regan when no one else is home (OK,  leaving that drunk director to babysit  while she ran to the pharmacy was a pretty stupid move, but what the heck).  That she avoids most of the demon's wrath means she was damn lucky, or managed to stay out of harm's way for the most part - Sharon, we salute you!

Hortense Daigle (Eileen Heckart) in The Bad Seed: This depressed, drunken mother who has just lost her son is as pathetic as she is funny.  It's hard to tell if she's drinking to dull the pain of losing her child, or if she's just always been a boozy slattern.  Nonetheless, it's apparent that she might just be one of the few people who knows the truth about little Rhoda Penmark, and if given the chance, she'd probably grab the little homicidal brat by her pig tails and hang her from a telephone pole - Hortense, we salute you!

Beverly R. Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) in Serial Mom: It does not matter if she's making obscene phone calls, disemboweling a guy who breaks her daughter's heart, committing vehicular homicide on the teacher who is failing her son, or beating a woman to death with a lamb chop because said woman fails to rewind her video tapes upon returning them; Mrs. Sutphin is always impeccably dressed, and her domestic skills rival those of Martha Stewart.  When the chips are down, and she's hauled into court, she even acts as her own defense attorney and wins!  Beverly, we salute you!