Cautionary Women

Don't be fooled by her passive aggression. Mama will sting you like a bee.  Imagining herself above the laws of a secular, civilized world, Sister Summersisle leads a community of neo-Celts who take kindly to, among others, human sacrifice.  Ellen Burstyn brings Summersisle's shaky morality to fiery photo-reality in The Wicker Man , the 2006 remake of the film of the same name. Christopher Lee made a killing as the male imagining of the character in the original , released in the same year as The Exorcist , which starred Burstyn.  Once a horror queen, always a horror queen...

Disney's foulest female fowl, Magica de Spell, is the scourge of Scrooge McDuck, Darkwing Duck, and pretty much all righteous citizens of Duckburg and St. Canard. She can cast evil spells, goddamnit. That not bad enough? Wait till she throws her signature smoke bombs. So what to get a witch who has everything? Gold, gold, and more gold. For all her magical brains, Magica has yet to master the finer nuances of alchemy. She covets Scrooge's Number One Dime, which she believes could grant her the mythical Midas Touch. Stylistically, Magica de Spell is less Madame Mim (her BFF and housemate, incidentally) than Morticia Addams . Her illustrators and animators pay homage to Italian screen sirens like Gina Lollobrigida and Tura Satana. (Perhaps they give good duckface.) Not coincidentally, Magica lives on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy. With her foiled attempts to steal Scrooge's cherished coin and abortive terror plots in St. Canard, Magica offers more ...

As a trope, if not a reality, mean girls are supposed to fester in high schools everywhere. But for someone to continue her mean streak all through the 10-year high school reunion ? Christie Masters flies the flag high for this level of stasis.