What is a Scream Queen?

The "scream queen"—a term that’s been floating around in the world of horror since the early days of cinema—is more than just an actress who can deliver a blood-curdling scream. She’s the character that draws our gaze and grips our nerves, the relatable character that we are desperate to see make it to the end of the movie, against all odds.

First coined back in the 1930s, it originally referred to legends like Fay Wray in King Kong or Janet Gaynor in The Phantom of the Opera, but the scream queen as we know her didn’t fully take shape until horror’s big revival in the ’70s and ’80s. This was the age of the “final girl,” the one who, against all odds, faces the horror head-on.

The final girl trope was pioneering by Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, closely followed by Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and soon became synonymous with the horror genre These actresses didn’t just scream; they transformed their characters, were survivors, fighting back with pure determination. The scream queen wasn’t simply a victim or a pretty face any more—she was a force.

Then came the ’90s and early 2000s, and with them, a shift in the final girl trope. Enter Neve Campbell in Scream and Sarah Michelle Gellar in I Know What You Did Last Summer—characters who weren’t just tough but complex, layered, and unapologetically empowered. The scream queen was evolving, breaking away from her role as the panicked prey and morphing into something far more dynamic.

Today, the scream queen isn’t limited to just film. She’s on TV, streaming platforms, even YouTube—anywhere the genre can reach. These modern scream queens are challenging the boundaries of horror, expanding the role into something beyond fear. They’re icons of horror, fearless and unforgettable, cementing their legacy in a genre that is, quite literally, to die for.