Five awesome new school scream queens (and five old school)
By Carla Davis
You simply cannot talk about Scream Queens without mentioning Jamie Lee Curtis, who was only 19 years old when she made her film debut in John Carpenter’s iconic 1978 film Halloween. That’s right, she instantly became a horror legend in her very first film. And instead of using her fame to branch out into more “serious” film genres, this Scream Queen continues to embrace horror fans (while still acting in dramas and comedies as well).
In 1980, she appeared in a trifecta of horror classics: The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train. 1981 brought us Roadgames (a lesser known film, which you can currently stream on Shudder) and Halloween II, and she even gave an uncredited voice performance as a telephone operator in Halloween III: Season of the Witch in 1982.
Over the years, Curtis kept her Scream Queen status intact, appearing in multiple horror / thriller films, including Mother’s Boys, Halloween: H20, Virus, Halloween: Resurrection, the Scream Queens series, Knives Out, and of course the newest trilogy of Halloween films.
She has also managed to earn (and keep) the respect of horror fans. When her recent film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once won multiple Academy Awards recently, was there a Halloween fan among us who didn’t delight in her obvious joy?
While Jamie Lee Curtis has proven her eternal right to the Scream Queens crown, we hope she continues to at least dabble in horror for the foreseeable future.