JESSICA Alba has said that Western horror films victimise women, and she would rather take roles in Eastern remakes.

"A lot of horror movies that are made have girls running away from a guy who is torturing them or kidnapping them," said the star, whose latest film The Eye is out this week. "There's always much more a victim stance when it comes to the female character and it usually involves crying and screaming.

"Playing a blind violinist basically losing her mind was much more interesting to play for me than crying and screaming."

Alba, who says she is a fan of horror films such as Psycho, Rosemary's Baby and The Ring, says the first horror film she ever saw was Wes Craven's Nightmare On Elm Street when she was about four and-a-half years old.

"It gave me nightmares until I was 13," she said. "My parents didn't know, nor did they approve, obviously.

"I was a sneaky child, I hid behind the couch and watched the whole thing.

"I insisted on sleeping in bed with them, if I was going to be sucked into the bed I was going to be with them."

The actress, who says she learned braille and practised walking with a cane for the role as a blind violinist haunted by supernatural images following a corne transplant, says that she grew up around ghosts.

"My parents had a house that was haunted when I was a kid," she said. "I didn't see a ghost but in the middle of the night taps would turn on throughout the house, the front door and the back door would open, the televisions in the house would turn on to maximum volume.

"At first I thought it was my brother's friend playing a joke on us, but it happened so frequently that everyone came to the conclusion that it might be something supernatural."