Most Overused Misnomer Ever: 'Scream Queen'

I agree completely.

I might add Carline Munroe to that list, but I agree, too. If you've done one and a sequel because you're just trying to get your career started, you're probably a scream lady-in-waiting.

As for young women who can maybe inherit the title, the only two that come immediately to mind are Angela Bettis and Danielle Harris. Not only are they fans, but their body of work is largely in horror, and they seem to have a natural affinity for it.

yes... There are also women like Dee wallace and karen Black who were largely in horror only, but the moniker 'Scream Queen' seems to embody something different. Caroline Munroe might be one to add as well, but her career took place largely before the term was invented.

jamie Lee curtis, Adrienne barbeau, ... there are a few others, but their movies seem almost too 'high budget' in general to be included. I don't know, we'll have to come up with a real definition of the term.

Anyone want to throw out a few requirements? We'll come up with the official definition and put it on Wikipedia and 'make it truth'.

Good point about Caroline. I guess we'd need to find the first instance of a bonafide scream queen and use that year as a benchmark. Who would be the first? Stevens, circa Slumber Party Massacre (1982)? I would definitely consider the 80's the official start of the era of the Scream Queen.

Establishing other criteria plays like one of those Jeff Foxworthy "you might be a red neck" routines:

If you're a LOT smarter than how you're portrayed in your movies, you're probably a scream queen.

If you've developed a high tolerance to the smell of magic markers, you're probably a scream queen.

If you've happily whored out your image to over a million horny nerds for $15 a pop, etc.

If your movies need to be clumped together with a few others in order to warrant a DVD release, etc.

If you've been in a scene that has required an extreme close-up of both a cleaver and your cleavage, etc.

:^P

Hmm...I might have uncovered a controversy. In order to better define a scream queen, we may have to decide whether a major role in a huge, iconic hit qualifies you as a scream queen, or many roles throughout your career in mostly shit.

Case in point: Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween (1978)

Though Jamie did also appear in Halloween II, The Fog, and Terror Train...

Ahh, true...but is it enough? Wiki will destroy us if we're hasty.

Wikipedia is a commodities market where people with no social skills vote on what constitutes reality.

Okay Okay - so, the woman probably needs to have made her fame exclusively through horror movies - in that she does not do other genres of film OR that she is unknown for these other movies not in horror.

This will eliminate Curtis, and also Karen Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar, thankfully. Also no Fay Wray. And Sissy Spacek. And

Now, the woman needs to have made more than one movie, as well. Probably more than 5, I would think.

This leaves Adrienne Barbeau and Dee Wallace to deal with. Would we include them as 'Scream Queens'? I would say definitely not Dee Wallace. Why? I think the movies have to be exploitative on some level of her sexuality. this is not true of any of Wallace's movies.

Barbeau, though... she's still in the running at this point.

How can we summarize these points nicely so far?

So,

This eliminates Tippi Hedron and Fay Wray,

Totally agree about Dee. She was also in E.T. which almost categorically DQ's you from SQ status. Barbeau and her barbeaus are definitely in. I'm still wondering about Curtis, though. Halloween is just such a huge staple of the genre. Maybe she gets in by virtue of some royal technicality, or is that just opening up a can of worms? In other words, wouldn't that open the door for her mother to be eligible? She might be the most famous actress to ever scream in a horror film outside of Wray.

It could be that if you've done your share of conventions, you're SQ material. Curtis wouldn't be caught dead at one, although I wager she'd be cool in person.

Another issue involves those women who have done a lot of really crap films just cause they need to do something during the day to supplement their stripper income.

This is a good point - Monique Parent, for instance, did just that when she worked for Corman.

http://www.uniquemonique.com/

and Maria Ford as well - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0285768/

Yeah, those women qualify for a couple things I can think of, but none of them are scream queen. The puns on Monique's site are simply unforgivable, and Maria, even by the most modest horror actress standards, is little more than a soft-core, baby-cham dumpster*.

*Wiki that, m-f'rs.

I think what we're looking for is women who have made a professional career out of appearing in horror films, and weren't just doing horror until something more mainstream came along.

I wouldn't refer to myself as a horror filmmaker even though I've shot 3 forgettable horror features because it's not all that I do. I've shot all sorts of forgettable features in different genres - thriller, comedy, film noir, urban, GLBT, drama, romance, etc.

Jessica

I agree with you, Jessica. My only sticking point are those actresses who have been in huge, iconic hits. They're kind of royalty in a sense, but perhaps better left as progenitors of the mold.

And not related at all, but in regards to your "forgettable" filmmaking career, I thought you might find this interesting.

that's a fucking great littls story! Congrats to the filmmaker. I think that's very awesome. And very risky on the part of the distributor, but hey! I'll bet they acquired it for about the price of one lunch meeting.

Okay, Scott - which women who are in the major movies that are 'royalty' are we dealing with? Its very important that we come up with a real definition of the phrase 'scream queen' for reasons that I think are obvious... you know. Because.

I've seen this story before. On the one hand I think it's great that someone shot a $75 zombie flick that got picked up by a distributor, but on the other hand I dread the unintended consequences of that quick success: a spate of severely underfunded and poorly shot dogma style zombie flicks that will choke off more deserving projects and ultimately lead the zombie subgenre downfall.

(Or in other words, cheap will triumph over good which in turn will lead to a bunch of really crappy zombie flicks causing to get sick of them.)

Jessica

I think you mean 150$, don't you? That was 75 pounds - and you know how little our dollar is worth these days. 150 dollars is 100% higher of a budget so - that changes everything!

Also, I think with the recent appearances of: Diary of the Dead, Automaton Transfusion, Zombie Honeymoon, Gay Zombie, 28 Weeks Later, Day of the Dead 2: Contagium, Resident Evil II & III, Quarantine, and about 900 others, the lame zombie movie genre is already proving that we're quite sick of them. So no worries there!

Heh, exactly. Okay, this is my "royalty" list:

Slasher Class
Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween franchise, etc.)
Adrienne King (Friday the 13th franchise)
Heather Langenkamp (Nightmare on Elm Street)

Demon Class
Linda Blair (Exorcist)
Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby)
Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

Classic Class
Janet Leigh (Psycho)
Far Wray (King Kong)
Susanna Foster (Phantom of the Opera '43) (?)

Foreign Class
Soledad Miranda
Barbara Steele
Barbara Shelly (?)

That's off the top of my silly head. Discuss.

I have always understood a scream queen to have two equal meanings, first, an actress whose role in a horror film has become iconic, such as Janet Leigh, Psycho or Fay Wray, King Kong and then the second meaning, which is a more generic term for a "lead" actress who has appeared in three or more horror films of any type and any budget, usually within a few years of each other, i.e., Jaime Lee Curtis or Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I do agree it's an overused term and very confusing.

It never ceases to amaze me how this topic generates such huge discussion any time it's brought up.

What are the requirements to be a "Scream Queen"?

You have to be:

A) Brinke Stevens
B) Linnea Quigley
or
C) Michelle Bauer

If you are not one of these three, then you either acted in multiple horror movie roles either before or after the home video boom of the 1980s and there is some other term for you.

D) You have to have released a horror themed workout tape in the 80s

Jessica

Or have attended a hot tub party?

Would that include Eddie Murphy as James Brown?

Roxanne Kernohan (bottom left) died in a car wreck in 1993.

I had no idea until I listened to the "Scream Queens Hot Tub Party" commentary.

Andrew = the kind of guy who buys DVDs like that for the secondary audio track.