The Queens of Scream

Today I would like to do a tribute to those women who help make the horror film what it is with their terrifying high-pitched banshee screams, loud enough to split our ears in the theatre yet somehow not loud enough to actually reach the ears of people that can help them. I would like to pay tribute to the Hollywood Scream Queen. Without the high volume wails and sometimes overacted "damsel and distress" methods of these women, Hollywood movies would not be as terrifying.

The only place I can think to begin is with Hollywood's oldest and perhaps most famous Queen of Scream, the lady herself, Fay Wray. Most famous as the screaming blonde in the original King Kong, Fay Wray echoed in our ears with her shrill cries of terror and earned herself the title of "The Queen of Scream". Fay Wray created the Scream Queen stereotype and ever after, each woman in a horror film always seems to fall short of Fay's performance.

There are many other noted Scream Queens who came after Fay Wray as stars of some of the Golden Age's most celebrated horror films. Elsa Lanchester starred in the title role of the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein, perhaps her most famous part, and created the cult image of the monster's bride with long pointed, streaked white hair. The illustrious career of actress Gloria Stuart included a screamingly good role in the 1933 production of The Invisible Man. Any 50s B-movie fan appreciates the work of Allison Hayes, the star of such films as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Undead, The Disembodied, Zombies of Mora Tau, The Unearthly, The Hypnotic Eye, and The Crawling Hand.

Hillary Brooke is the Scream Queen who appeared alongside comedic geniuses Abbot and Costello in such movies as Africa Screams and was a regular on their show, as well as one a few Sherlock Holmes movies and in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. A famous Hitchcock Blonde and one of the most famous Scream Queens is none other than Janet Leigh, who will forever be remembered for her paralyzing shower scene in Psycho. Of course, Hitchcock's slew of screaming starlets belong in a category all their own.

Love them or hate them, Scream Queens play an essential part in making a horror movie what it is. No matter if their screams echo your own or are just plain over the top, Scream Queens and horror films go hand in hand.