Terrifying Facts About Cinema's Greatest Scream Queens
Horror might be the only film genre where women, as a whole, have more screen time than men. Now, some of the screen time might be as the naughty coed who swiftly gets killed off, but some of that screen time belongs to the scream queens. A “
scream queen” is the title given to an actress known for starring in horror films, giving audiences that perfect moment when she spots the killer, opens her mouth, and gives a scream that lands her immediate legend status.
After all, the emotion and drive and pull of the film doesn’t necessarily come from the creepy murderer so much as it does his fearful yet ready-to-fight prey.
An alternate term for the scream queen that’s come into favor in the last few years (even spawning a namesake movie) is the “final girl”—as in, the last woman standing when the credits start to roll.
Here are 42 ear-piercing facts about scream queens.
Cinema's Greatest Scream Queens Facts
42. Khaleesi
Jamie Lee Curtis is considered one of the definitive Hollywood scream queens, largely due to her debut role as Laurie Strode in the Halloween franchise. Curtis’s mother was also a scream queen, playing Marion Crane in 1960’s Psycho. Curtis actually owes her casting to her mother’s connection, since director John Carpenter thought of her casting as the ultimate tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. Carpenter also used the family connection to generate interest in the film, using a side-by-side shot of Curtis and her mother screaming in their respective roles—effectively creating the beloved scream queen trope.
41. Long Line
1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is considered one of the first slasher films, and its protagonist is also considered the first “final girl.” Sally Hardesty, played by Marilyn Burns, survives Leatherface and his cannibalistic family, riding off into the sunset in the back of a pickup to escape death.
Wikipedia
40. Chaste
Early films like the original Halloween (1978) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are credited with crafting the stereotypical rule of horror: Have sex and you die. While the female being the last survivor can come across as empowering or feminist, that message can be canceled out by the fact that chastity is necessary to live.
Halloween writer Debra Hill said this was unintended, arguing the sexually active characters didn’t die because of their sexuality, necessarily. There are even theories that Laurie Strode’s penetration of Michael Myers with objects like knitting needles is a metaphorical purging of sexual frustration.
Wikipedia