50 Great Scream Queens Part 2 of 4: The Character Creators

  

 

 

50 Great Scream Queens Part 2 of 4: The Character Creators

          In the last installment of this piece we discussed the phenomenon of the Scream Queen and spent some time paying homage to the Scream Queens of continental Europe. In this part, the focus is on those actors who have given the genre some of its most memorable and important characters.

            Some of these women had long acting careers but their horror career was limited to a specific franchise. Some had careers mostly in horror but are remembered primarily for one part.  For those actors, type casting was a double edged sword. It ensured a lifetime of fame and generations of adoring fans, but also severely limited their career prospects. 

            But whether they were successful mainstream actors who gave us a favorite franchise, or someone whose resume was comparatively small, they gave us some of the best loved (sometimes feared) characters of the genre.

            As before, many Scream Queens can fit into different categories. If you don’t see your favorite here, she may be in the last installment or showing up in the next one.

Jennifer Tilly- Considering that Jennifer has one of the more voluptuous figures in movies, perhaps it is ironic that she is best known to many for her voice. Some know her as the voice of the perpetually pregnant Bonnie on the cartoon, Family Guy. She has also done other voice work including Monsters Inc. and The Simpsons. Her introduction to horror came in the flesh, however, in the racy Embrace of the Vampire in 1995.

A few years later she would return to horror with what has become a kind of signature role for her in the 4th volume of the Child’s Play franchise, Bride of Chucky. She played Tiffany Valentine, former girlfriend of Chucky (before his soul was transferred to a doll). Tiffany was a serial killer in her own right and an amateur occultist. Jennifer began the film in her own beautiful body but, as befits the franchise, soon ended up with her soul trapped in a doll.

 Tiffany Valentine was a much needed character, infusing some new blood into what was becoming a worn shtick.  The Child’s Play franchise always had humor but Tiffany Valentine added bizarre to the menu, such as when the dolls have sex or at the ending of the film when Tiffany gives birth. In a truly meta move, later in the series Jennifer plays herself then plays herself possessed by the soul of Tiffany!

Kiernan Shipka- Kiernan is obviously best known as the lead character in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the Archie comic of the same name. If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend it. It is irreverent and clever, blending horror, comedy and teen drama in equal parts. You’ll have to wade through a fair amount of 90210 intrigues but it’s worth it for all the great Satanic imagery.

But Sabrina isn’t Kiernan’s only horror credit. She did a horror movie for Netflix, Silence,  that came and went without much fanfare. But she also did a wonderfully dark Satanic suspense film, The Blackcoat’s Daughter. She was only 14 when the film was shot but she showed her acting maturity holding her own in a cast of older, more experienced actors.  Sabrina is ending soon and who knows what’s in Kiernan’s future. She may dodge future horror projects to avoid typecasting, but I hope not. She is an excellent talent.

Elsa Lanchester- Has there ever, in the history of horror, been a more famous face? The Bride of Frankenstein is one of the most iconic characters in horror. People who have never seen the movie, people who don’t even like horror movies, know the character. The Bride doesn’t actually show up until the end of the film, with disastrous results, giving us only a few minutes to enjoy the site of Elsa in the outfit.

However, Elsa appeared in the beginning of the film as well, playing Mary Shelly, Frankenstein’s creator, giving us a kind of bookend. Elsa had a busy career, which included an Oscar nomination, but didn’t do any more horror until toward the end of her career.  She appeared in Terror at the Wax Museum, an episode of Night Gallery, Williard, and the mystery comedy Murder by Death.

Julie Adams- Like Elsa Lanchester, Julie is famous in horror circles mainly for one role; Kay, the beautiful scientist who is menaced by The Gill Man in Creature from the Black Lagoon. Julie was probably wearing the sexiest one piece in history.  Like Elsa, she was busy throughout her acting career and, like Elsa, she didn’t do much more horror until toward the end of her career. Like Elsa she also appeared in an episode of Night Gallery. She also appeared in episodes of Kolchak The Night Stalker, Lost, The Incredible Hulk, Sliders and the 1975 film, Psychic Killer.

Sarah Michelle Geller-Sarah is the poster girl for late 90s / early 21st century horror. For about a decade she seemed omnipresent starring in Scream 2, I Know What You Did Last Summer, both Grudge movies and she starred as Daphne in both of the live action Scooby Doo movies. Oh yes, and she also starred as the title character in 145 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy was a pop culture and genre hit and the popularity of the TV show outshined the movie that it was based on.

Linda Blair- Linda’s breakout role as the possessed child in The Exorcist was a mixed blessing. It’s one of the best roles in all of horror. She won a Golden Globe for her performance and was nominated for an Oscar. It ensured that, for the rest of her life, everyone would know who she was. Not surprisingly though, it incredibly pigeon holed her. It probably didn’t help that she revisited the role in the (unfairly) maligned Exorcist 2: The Heretic. Most of her career in the 80s was in exploitation films like Savage Streets or Reform School Girls. She also starred in 1995’s Sorceress with another B movie queen, Julie Strain.

Heather Langenkamp- Heather will forever be known as Nancy, the heroine of Nightmare on Elm Street. Though Robert Englund’s maniacal murderer would become more prominent in later installments of the franchise, in the first film he was used sparingly which put the weight of the film squarely on the shoulders of its protagonist and Heather totally sold it. She came back for two more installments of the franchise. In the 21st century she has transitioned to behind the scenes working in special effects. While the quantity of her horror contribution is rather small compared to some of other Scream Queens, the quality is undeniable. Her character of Nancy Thompson is probably the best “final girl” in horror after Laurie Strode.

Ashley Laurence-  Like Heather Langenkamp, Ashley Laurence is forever linked in horror fan’s minds to a particular franchise.  Ashley played Kirsty Cotton, the protagonist in the first 2 Hellraiser movies.  She had to navigate a murderous step-mother, an incestuous uncle returned from Hell, not to mention Pinhead and his crew of sadomasochistic demons. Ashley has starred in several other horror films and came back to the Hellrasier franchise later in one of its (many) lesser sequels. But she will always be remembered as the plucky protagonist that bested Pinhead (and the uncle and the step-mother) in the first two films.

 

Neve Campbell- Neve’s first major horror appearance was as one of the witches in the 90s classic The Craft. But she is best known (at least to horror fans) as Sydney Prescott, the protagonist in the first 4 installments of the Scream franchise.

The Craft is a kind of cultural touchstone of the 1990s. It’s one of those movies, like The Crow, that is just weaved into the consciousness of young horror fans of that era.  Likewise, Scream was the most popular franchise of that decade. The relevancy of Jason and Freddy had declined and Pinhead was relegated to cameos in straight to video sequels. Scream picked up the big screen slack.

Kate Beckinsall- Kate is certainly not generally thought of as a horror actress having starred in very mainstream films like The Aviator and Pearl Harbor. But she has also created one of the best characters in the last 20 years of horror; Selene, the leather clad, gun totting vampiric death dealer in the Underworld franchise. She has starred (so far) in 4 of the 5 films and her character is instantly memorable. She also starred in another vampiric action film, Van Helsing, only as the vampire killer. I hope Kate has at least one more performance as Selene in her before she hangs up the leathers.

 

Shawnee Smith-Shawnee’s horror career began when she was still a teenager, starring as the cheerleader love interest of Kevin Dillon in the excellent 1988 remake of The Blob.  Next she starred as the vindictive Julie Lawrey in the TV adaptation of The Stand. That same year she made an appearance on The X-files.

Her position in horror, though, was cemented with her appearance in the Saw franchise. She began the franchise as a victim but then, through a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, joins the killer in the next few installments. During this timeframe she also appeared in a few other horror films and a series spin off of 30 Days of Night.

Mila Jovovich- Mila’s career in the public eye began as a child model. She permanently burned herself into many science fiction fans’ brains with her role as Leeloo in the beautiful film, The Fifth Element.  A few years later she took on her signature role of Alice in the zombie horror-action franchise, Resident Evil. Over the course of six films, Alice punched, kicked and stabbed her way through an army of zombies and mutants and zombie mutants. 

It seems like the torch is being passed and Mila has moved on. In 2019 she starred as the witch antagonist in Hellboy and her latest action-horror film, Monster Hunter, was set for a 2020 release but is currently on the shelf awaiting the end of the covid-19 pandemic.

Gillian Anderson- Gillian almost doesn’t fit the idea of a Scream Queen. Despite a long career, she really only has one horror credit to her name, but what a credit it is. In her role as Agent Scully, Gillian appeared in over 200 episodes of the X-Files not to mention multiple movies, giving us over a decade of Dana Scully. 

If you consider William Shatner to be an important part of science fiction, then you have to consider Gillian Anderson to be an important part of horror. She also created a new template for women in horror. She wasn’t the sexy, bloody, final girl. She wasn’t the hapless victim. She wasn’t the gun toting bad ass. Dana Scully was an intellectual. She used her brains. She was sexy but that flowed out from intellect and confidence, not cleavage.  With the X-files, Gillian created a character for the ages.

Sheri Moon Zombie- From what I can tell, horror fans aren’t ambivalent about Rob Zombie’s work. They either love it or hate it. Rob’s wife ,Sheri has appeared in all of his films. She had relatively small roles in his two Halloween films but she was the main attraction in his occult thriller, Lords of Salem. Sheri is most famous for playing Baby, the sexy psychopath in Rob’s Firefly trilogy; House of 1000 Corpses, Devil’s Rejects and 3 from Hell.

 

Amelia Kinkade-Amelia’s acting career spanned a little over a decade in which she made appearances in various recognizable 80s franchises; Mama’s Family, Knight Rider, Young and the Restless, even Breakin’ 2 Electric Boogaloo! Her entrance into horror came via a very low budget, and incredibly successful, Halloween favorite, Night of the Demons.

 Amelia played Angela, a creepy high school diva hosting a Halloween party in an old abandoned house. Unfortunately for all involved, an evil spirt lurks in the house, turning Angela into a demon, all decked out in her goth black prom dress! Night of the Demons is great all around; there’s not a bad part of the movie and myself and many others make it an annual part of their Halloween traditions. Amelia shines especially during her Bauhaus dance number (Amelia was a dancer before she was an actor). I think she even outshines her costar Linnea Quigley, if such a thing is possible. She went on to play Angela 2 more times, in Night of the Demons 2 and 3.

That’s all for this part of the list. In the next installment I will take a look at the meat of the industry, those actors who have kept the genre going but aren’t always the first actors that people think of when they think of Scream Queens.