On a personal note, I thought the Ring was the scariest movie EVAR and I cried like a little girl through most of the Grudge, so maybe I am too wimpy to be talking about horror movies

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Although it depends, I'd say the "strange girls" almost always have an actual personality, a past or history to overcome, and are usually given agency through the narrative when they're the main, arguably heroic character. When they're an ancillary character, or the "enemy" they usually have way less in terms of agency or characterization, and are either victims seeking revenge and hence bad (The Ring) or just victims.

Carrie is an interesting example because she can be read very differently, depending on the film or book version...and even the film has some ambiguity. In the book Carrie is a strange and conflicting mix of sympathetic and irritating. She's victimized in a way that suggests the "hive mind" of mobs...find the weakest and attack. Only she ends up finding some agency, but takes her revenge too far, so she's punished with her eventual death.

To me, the problem is less the archetype and more the lack of exploration of the archetype. Same with stereotypes. You can effectively use any stereotype if you're willing to explore it and use it as a base to be built on. The problem is when the character is only the archetype or stereotype, with no fleshing out.

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Here, the strange girls are somehow presented as powerful through their secrecy and preternatural understanding of the supernatural. Thus, they arise above the "medicority" and "normalcy" most teenage girls (and hell, some adult) fear.

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What do I gotta to do be "strange", damnit? Conduct photosynthesis?!

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I concluded that:

"Male protagonists, whether alienated or alienating, are righteous ... pure, and noble, and the company they keep is unworthy of them. Flight is their only hope and salvation. Like Stephen Daedalus, they must loose the binds that tie them to others—and to human society—in order to gain this measure of salvation, truth, justice, call it what you will.

Carrie is malevolent. In fact, and this is sort of the point, the takeaway seems to be that when society brands a girl unwholesome, society is always right."

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