Greetings Nerds and Geekgirls, it’s time for the official
Halloween countdown to begin. Last week
we talked about Zombies and this week I want to move in the same general scary
direction but talking about that most delectable of horror movie archetypes: the
Scream Queen.
Down through the ages – as long as there have been horror movies, there have been scream queens. Usually with one raining supreme with lesser scream queens – scream princesses? – filling the sidelines (rather than give examples here, I’ll discuss the biggies in a moment down below).
Early scream queens tended toward damsels in distress types, needing rescued by the films “knight in shining armor” or even falling under the knife, not surviving the film. Later, the slasher film’s Final Girl replaced the classic model, more often saving themselves than waiting for a rescuer – most outlived their romantic interests.
So here are my Top Ten Scream Queens (With a Few Honorable Mentions), presented in chronological order based on years of reign. Criteria is based as much on importance as anything else; however, hotness and coolness – which often come hand in hand – are both factors.
1. Mary Philbin (1903-1993) Reign: Silent Era - Mary Philbin wasn’t necessarily the first of the “silent screamers” , but she is by far the most notable. Everyone remembers the “red” of the blood in the Psycho shower scene, and everyone remembers the “sound” of Mary’s Phantom of the Opera scream. Not her only foray into horror, she also appeared notably in The Man Who Laughs.
2. Fay Wray (1907-2004) Reign: 1932-1934 - Also appearing in Doctor X, The Vampire Bat, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and The Most Dangerous Game, Fay Wray is best known as a scream queen due to her high decibel appearance in King Kong as the love interest of a giant ape.
3. Evelyn Ankers (1918-1985) Reign: 1941-1945 - The disputed queen of Universal Horror, Evelyn Ankers starred, usually – but not always – opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., in classics ranging from the Abbott and Costello comedy Hold That Ghost to Captive Wild Woman to Mad Ghoul and appeared along with the Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s Monster (in Ghost), Dracula (in Son), and the Invisible Man (in Revenge).
Concurrent to Evelyn (1940-1944) and also mostly at Universal, Anne Gwynne (1918-2003) is our first Honorable Mention. She appeared opposite Lugosi and Karloff in Black Friday, shared screen time with Evelyn in Weird Woman, and tangled with Dracula but neither the Wolf Man nor the title monster in House of Frankenstein.
4. Julie Adams (b. 1926) Reign: 1954 - Though her only significant horror role was The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Julie Adams legacy as a sci-fi/horror icon lasts well into the present and her place as scream queen is insured by that performance. Though not groundbreaking – all of our previously mentioned scream queens played to same “Beauty” to the monster’s “Beast” role – Julie set the tone for all the other short lived screamers of the 1950s Atomic Age Sci-Fi/Horror films.
5. Janet Leigh (1927-2004) Reign: 1960 - Like Julie Adams before her, Janet Leigh was a one scream wonder, but oh, what a scream. The star and heroine of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Janet - SPOILER ALERT! - dies a third of the way into the film in a blood bath (blood shower?) that is one of the first “graphic” scenes of violence in movies. SPOILERS END Janet’s scream is among – if not the – most famous screams in motion picture history.
6. Tie: Barbara Steele (b. 1937) Reign: 1960-1969 and Ingrid Pitt (1937-2010) Reign: 1964-1973) – Two British scream queens, one an export more famous for her Italian and American films, the other the ultimate Hammer Girl. Barbara Steele stole the crown from Janet Leigh as it was still settling on her head and she and Ingrid Pitt have overlapping claim to it for most of the high of their careers. Barbara starred notably in Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, Roger Corman’s The Pit and the Pendulum, and Honeymoon with a Stranger, alongside Janet Leigh. Ingrid appeared in Hammer’s Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula, Amicus’s The House That Dripped Blood and The Wicker Man.
Honorable Mentions: It’s hard to narrow a list like this down, and it’s hard to decide who counts. Linda Blair (b. 1959) for example was only 14 when she starred in The Exorcist, the role that most qualifies her for scream queen status, but that seems too young to wear the crown. Marilyn Burns (b. 1950) seems like the next choice to replace Steele/Pitt, but like Julie Adams and Janet Leigh, her contribution of only one significant film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a drawback – as significant as the film is, Marilyn role isn’t that significant as a scream queen. I don’t mean to say Marilyn wasn’t a scream queen, but she just wasn’t one of the greatest, in my humble opinion.
7. Jamie Lee Curtis (b. 1958) Reign: 1978-1984 - If only one name had been mentioned in this blog, only one scream queen named, this would be she. Jamie Lee Curtis: The Scream Queen. It almost feels cheap to bother naming her films: Halloween and Halloween II, The Fog, Prom Night, and Terror Train.
The 80s were the age of the scream queen. Brinke Stevens, Adrienne Barbeau, Michelle Bauer, Julie Strain, picking the greatest is enough to make someone scream themselves. But…
8. Linnea Quigley (b. 1958) Reign: 1984-? - Linnea Quigley, the ultimate – disputed – scream queen of the 80s. Her numerous films – including Return of the Living Dead, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (best B-Movie name of all time?), and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers to name but a few – are genre classics, she even briefly appears in a Freddy Kruger movie.
9. Drew Barrymore (b. 1975) Reign: 1991-1996 - In what I expect to be the most disputed name on the list, Drew Barrymore’s horror films are limited but significant. Her earlier films included E.T. (though not horror, a very significant Sci-Fi film and like other Sci-Fi film before it – The Day the Earth Stood Still comes to mind – a major influence on horror movies to come), Cat’s Eye, and Firestarter (both from works by Stephen King). She became a scream queen thanks to film like Poison Ivy and was significant enough to be offered the lead role in Scream which she passed on choosing instead to be SPOILER ALERT! the “First 15” victim SPOILERS END.
10. Neve Campbell (b. 1973) Reign: 1996-c. 2000.
Down through the ages – as long as there have been horror movies, there have been scream queens. Usually with one raining supreme with lesser scream queens – scream princesses? – filling the sidelines (rather than give examples here, I’ll discuss the biggies in a moment down below).
Early scream queens tended toward damsels in distress types, needing rescued by the films “knight in shining armor” or even falling under the knife, not surviving the film. Later, the slasher film’s Final Girl replaced the classic model, more often saving themselves than waiting for a rescuer – most outlived their romantic interests.
So here are my Top Ten Scream Queens (With a Few Honorable Mentions), presented in chronological order based on years of reign. Criteria is based as much on importance as anything else; however, hotness and coolness – which often come hand in hand – are both factors.
1. Mary Philbin (1903-1993) Reign: Silent Era - Mary Philbin wasn’t necessarily the first of the “silent screamers” , but she is by far the most notable. Everyone remembers the “red” of the blood in the Psycho shower scene, and everyone remembers the “sound” of Mary’s Phantom of the Opera scream. Not her only foray into horror, she also appeared notably in The Man Who Laughs.
2. Fay Wray (1907-2004) Reign: 1932-1934 - Also appearing in Doctor X, The Vampire Bat, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and The Most Dangerous Game, Fay Wray is best known as a scream queen due to her high decibel appearance in King Kong as the love interest of a giant ape.
3. Evelyn Ankers (1918-1985) Reign: 1941-1945 - The disputed queen of Universal Horror, Evelyn Ankers starred, usually – but not always – opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., in classics ranging from the Abbott and Costello comedy Hold That Ghost to Captive Wild Woman to Mad Ghoul and appeared along with the Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s Monster (in Ghost), Dracula (in Son), and the Invisible Man (in Revenge).
Concurrent to Evelyn (1940-1944) and also mostly at Universal, Anne Gwynne (1918-2003) is our first Honorable Mention. She appeared opposite Lugosi and Karloff in Black Friday, shared screen time with Evelyn in Weird Woman, and tangled with Dracula but neither the Wolf Man nor the title monster in House of Frankenstein.
4. Julie Adams (b. 1926) Reign: 1954 - Though her only significant horror role was The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Julie Adams legacy as a sci-fi/horror icon lasts well into the present and her place as scream queen is insured by that performance. Though not groundbreaking – all of our previously mentioned scream queens played to same “Beauty” to the monster’s “Beast” role – Julie set the tone for all the other short lived screamers of the 1950s Atomic Age Sci-Fi/Horror films.
5. Janet Leigh (1927-2004) Reign: 1960 - Like Julie Adams before her, Janet Leigh was a one scream wonder, but oh, what a scream. The star and heroine of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Janet - SPOILER ALERT! - dies a third of the way into the film in a blood bath (blood shower?) that is one of the first “graphic” scenes of violence in movies. SPOILERS END Janet’s scream is among – if not the – most famous screams in motion picture history.
6. Tie: Barbara Steele (b. 1937) Reign: 1960-1969 and Ingrid Pitt (1937-2010) Reign: 1964-1973) – Two British scream queens, one an export more famous for her Italian and American films, the other the ultimate Hammer Girl. Barbara Steele stole the crown from Janet Leigh as it was still settling on her head and she and Ingrid Pitt have overlapping claim to it for most of the high of their careers. Barbara starred notably in Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, Roger Corman’s The Pit and the Pendulum, and Honeymoon with a Stranger, alongside Janet Leigh. Ingrid appeared in Hammer’s Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula, Amicus’s The House That Dripped Blood and The Wicker Man.
Honorable Mentions: It’s hard to narrow a list like this down, and it’s hard to decide who counts. Linda Blair (b. 1959) for example was only 14 when she starred in The Exorcist, the role that most qualifies her for scream queen status, but that seems too young to wear the crown. Marilyn Burns (b. 1950) seems like the next choice to replace Steele/Pitt, but like Julie Adams and Janet Leigh, her contribution of only one significant film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a drawback – as significant as the film is, Marilyn role isn’t that significant as a scream queen. I don’t mean to say Marilyn wasn’t a scream queen, but she just wasn’t one of the greatest, in my humble opinion.
7. Jamie Lee Curtis (b. 1958) Reign: 1978-1984 - If only one name had been mentioned in this blog, only one scream queen named, this would be she. Jamie Lee Curtis: The Scream Queen. It almost feels cheap to bother naming her films: Halloween and Halloween II, The Fog, Prom Night, and Terror Train.
The 80s were the age of the scream queen. Brinke Stevens, Adrienne Barbeau, Michelle Bauer, Julie Strain, picking the greatest is enough to make someone scream themselves. But…
8. Linnea Quigley (b. 1958) Reign: 1984-? - Linnea Quigley, the ultimate – disputed – scream queen of the 80s. Her numerous films – including Return of the Living Dead, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (best B-Movie name of all time?), and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers to name but a few – are genre classics, she even briefly appears in a Freddy Kruger movie.
9. Drew Barrymore (b. 1975) Reign: 1991-1996 - In what I expect to be the most disputed name on the list, Drew Barrymore’s horror films are limited but significant. Her earlier films included E.T. (though not horror, a very significant Sci-Fi film and like other Sci-Fi film before it – The Day the Earth Stood Still comes to mind – a major influence on horror movies to come), Cat’s Eye, and Firestarter (both from works by Stephen King). She became a scream queen thanks to film like Poison Ivy and was significant enough to be offered the lead role in Scream which she passed on choosing instead to be SPOILER ALERT! the “First 15” victim SPOILERS END.
10. Neve Campbell (b. 1973) Reign: 1996-c. 2000.
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