{"id":103285,"date":"2026-10-27T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/?post_type=cu_story&p=103285"},"modified":"2026-10-29T15:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:43:32","slug":"scream-queens-women-horror-films","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/scream-queens-women-horror-films\/","title":{"rendered":"The Female Scream Is Now an All-Powerful Cry in Horror Films"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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\n The Female Scream Is Now an All-Powerful Cry in Horror Films\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

As Halloween approaches and screen audiences are saturated with the sights and sounds of screaming women<\/a> in horror films and TV shows, it’s a great time to look at the women whose vocal artistry created genuinely effective screams on screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind every memorable cinematic scream lies a vocal performance<\/a> that is often reduced to a natural, unreflective outburst. But that assessment obscures the women behind its most powerful manifestations. For example, think of the work of Shelley Duvall in The Shining<\/em><\/a>, Janet Leigh in Psycho<\/em><\/a> or Toni Collette in Hereditary<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain screen actors have made the scream their calling card to fame and notoriety, under the designation “scream queen<\/a>.” These queens are the unsung heroes of the horror industry through their dedication to the vocal performance of the fear and terror in the many guises of horror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long live the (scream) queen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As onscreen horror proliferated in the 1970s, the term “scream queen” became popular, most notably through Calvin Beck’s 1978 book Scream Queens: Heroines of the Horrors<\/em><\/a>. Later, in popular culture, “scream queen” applied to “any female star who has made a career playing women who survive extreme trauma or peril<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollywood actress Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a> qualifies to bear the mantle of “scream queen,” alongside others like Lin Shaye<\/a>, Brinke Stevens<\/a>, Michelle Bauer<\/a>, and Linnea Quigley<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Curtis is well-known, the other actors may be less familiar even though they collectively have hundreds of film credits to their names<\/a>, predominantly in low-budget horror productions. Those films occupy a robust and commercially significant<\/a> segment of the film market. The market has shown remarkable resilience, even during the COVID-19 pandemic that saw a spike in people watching horror films<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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