09 October 2023

FRIGHT FLASHBACK What is horror without the Scream Queen?

 . .And just what exactly makes a Scream Queen? It usually starts with the Final Girl – the girl who lives until the very end of the horror movie and usually ends up slaying the killer. If they’re iconic enough (or have survived enough sequels), they’re crowned as a Scream Queen. 
But Scream Queens have gone way beyond just those who survive. Some of the ladies on this list didn’t survive their run-ins terror, but because their performances are so damn iconic and memorable (or simply because of how many horror movies they’ve been in), they still get to hold the title of Scream Queen. Here are the seven best Scream Queens in horror history, some you will already know, but a few you might not expect. 

Who is horror’s best Scream Queen?


1. Jamie Lee Curtis – The Original Scream Queen

Jamie Lee Curtis hides behind a door in Halloween
Blumhouse
Notable Films: Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween H20, Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends, Prom Night, Terror Train, The Fog
Yes, call it cliché or predictable, but Jamie Lee Curtis is the ultimate and the best Scream Queen. She’s also the original. 
  • Yes, her mom Janet Leigh had a small (but extremely iconic) role in Psycho, and yes, Marilyn Burns survived Leatherface four years prior, but neither had the impact on horror that Curtis did.
  • It also needs to be remembered that at the start of her career, Curtis was popping out horror movies like crazy. In just four years, from 1978 to 1981, Curtis starred in Halloween, its sequel, The FogProm Night, and Terror Train. She was an unstoppable force who single-handedly carried tons of horror movies and played a massive role in creating the slasher subgenre.
When speaking to Variety, Curtis also opened up about how easy it was to make the original Halloween. In an era before the slasher genre was even a thing, and before films created franchises, Curtis said that making the movie was surprisingly low-pressure.
  •  “We had nothing to lose,” the actress said. 
  • “We didn’t know that we had anything to gain. 
  • We were just so happy to have this gig. 
  • The original Halloween was made in 17 days with like 12 people 
  • … Everybody was young. 
  • There was magic happening and none of us, not one person — I would dare say even John Carpenter and Debra Hill — I don’t think anybody knew.”

2. Neve Campbell – The Scream Queen who redefined the rules

Neve Campbell holds a knife in Scream 4
Dimension
Notable Films: Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Scream (2022), The Craft
Thanks to an endless number of sequels in the Friday the 13thHalloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises throughout the ’80s, by the ’90s horror was virtually dead – and the slasher subgenre had completely vanished. People were bored, and rightfully so. The later films in all three franchises were absolutely awful. But in 1996, Scream premiered and changed everything.
  • Somehow, director Wes Craven managed to create a movie that was both smart and witty, often poking fun at the horror genre, while simultaneously being an actual scary horror movie. 
  • That is not an easy tightrope to walk on and it could have gone wrong, never finding the proper balance. 
  • One of the reasons it worked so well was because of our new Final Girl, Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell.
She was a true ’90s girl and even broke some of the traditional slasher rules, like needing to remain a virgin to survive the movie. 
  • What was even better though was watching Prescott’s character grow throughout the franchise
  • As the films go on, she becomes both more paranoid and isolated, but also stronger and more prepared to fight back, really embodying the impacts of trauma on a person.

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