Scream Queens: Snakkle Catches Up with the Women Who Shriek in the Night

Heather Langenkamp Nancy Thompson nitghmare on elm street movie photo

Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Young Heather Langenkamp faced off against the nightmare devil Freddy Krueger in three A Nightmare on Elm Street films. The bane in the serial killer’s undead existence, Nancy tried her best to survive the nightmares and she failed.

Austin Gorum/WireImage

Heather Langenkamp

The Elm Street mythology was altered for A New Nightmare and Langenkamp returned to the role and franchise that made her famous. Guess who won the dream battle this time?

Janet Leigh Psycho movie photo marion crane

Janet Leigh as Marion Crane in Psycho (1960)

Considered the queen of modern horror, Janet Leigh earned that honor by experiencing the worst shower ever. As the dark fatale in Hitchcock’s Psycho, Leigh played shifty Marion Crane who steals money from her work, sleeps with a married man and gets it in the end as she’s stabbed to death in her hotel shower by Norman Bates.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Janet Leigh

The actress says she never took showers again after shooting Psycho, but she did return to the horror genre. She appeared with her own scream queen daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, in The Fog and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

Naomi Watts as Rachel in The Ring (2002)

Mainstream American audiences finally got to know Aussie actress Naomi Watts in her role as Rachel, the distracted mother in The Ring. When her character’s son watches the cursed videotape that dooms him, Watts perfectly amps up the tension from scene to scene... and made us have an unhealthy fear of wells for the rest of our lives.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Naomi Watts

Watts returned for The Ring 2, but she really jumped into the darker side of the genre starring in the remake of the terrifying film, Funny Games in 2007.

fay wray king kong movie photo still ann darrow

Fay Wray as Ann Darrow in King Kong (1933)

A silent-era actress that transitioned into talkies, Wray was the heroine to a great big ape in the seminal horror classic, King Kong. While she initially screamed in the palm of his hand, Wray’s Ann Darrow came to see the sadness in the over-grown gorilla. Alas, he fell for her hard…literally.

Bowers/Getty Images

Fay Wray

Wray remained a busy actress until the mid-1950s, but none of her roles every surpassed the legacy of King Kong. She died in 2004.

Jamie lee curtis halloween movie photo still laurie strode

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978)

Jamie Lee Curtis followed in her mom, Janet Leigh’s, horror footsteps landing her first film role as Laurie Strode in Halloween. Stalked by psychopathic murderer Michael Meyers over five films, Curtis truly embraced her niche in gore cinema.

John Shearer/Getty Images for Pink Party

Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee has had an extremely diverse career since her scream queen days; busting out of the genre with roles in A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies and Freaky Friday. She's also known as the most "regular" star in Hollywood after years of endorsing Activia probiotic yogurt.

mia farrow rosemary's baby movie photo still rosemary woodhouse

Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse in Rosemary's Baby (1968)

With her pixie haircut and vulnerable ways, Mia Farrow was the perfect actress to play the naïve mother-to-be that’s unknowingly impregnated with the devil’s child. Surreal and disturbing, Farrow’s freaked out face when Rosemary discovers the truth is a horror shot classic.

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Mia Farrow

Farrow moved away from the genre for decades acting in more comedies and standard dramas until she decided to play the demonic Mrs. Baylock in the 2006 remake of The Omen.

Rose McGowan scream movie photo still tatum

Rose McGowan as Tatum in Scream (1996)

Wes Craven’s Scream was Rose McGowan’s first horror film but her saucy turn as Neve Campbell’s BFF that meets the wrong end of a garage door made her seem like a natural in the genre.

Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Rose McGowan

McGowan one-upped her Scream role 11-years later playing Cherry Darling, the machine gun-legged femme fatale in Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse film, Planet Terror.

Tippi Hedren The Birds movie photo still melanie daniels

Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels in The Birds (1963)

In only her first leading role in a film, actress Tippi Hedren was hand-selected by Alfred Hitchcock to play the strong, socialite Melanie Daniels. Visiting the home of her possible beau in Bodega Bay, Melanie is attacked by a seagull. Not long after the whole town is attacked by every kind of bird in a terrifying exploration of what would happen if nature finally decided to turn on man.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Tippi Hedren

Hendren also did the film Marnie with Hitch, but she’s most remembered for her run from the birds. Now she’s an avowed animal lover with a refuge in Southern California.

Sarah Michelle Gellar The Grudge Movie Photo Still Karen

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Karen in The Grudge (2004)

On TV, Sarah Michelle Gellar slayed demons for seven years on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but she played against her small screen persona in the film The Grudge. She starred as Karen, a nurse working in Japan, who is terrorized by a nasty spirit in the home of one of her charges.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Sarah Michelle Gellar

Big screen directors and producers all wooed Gellar to their horror films during her TV show’s hiatus or after the series ended. She obliged by appearing in Scream 2, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Return. She’s was last seen in the TV series, The Crazy Ones.

shelley duvall the shining movie photo still wendy torrance

Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in The Shining (1980)

A popular actress in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Shelley Duvall achieved a whole other level of fame playing Jack Nicholson’s nervous, eventually brutalized wife, Wendy, in The Shining. The scene everyone remembers? Nicholson’s wild-eyed “Here’s Jack!” entrance as poor Wendy cowers with a huge butcher knife in the bathroom. It’s almost as traumatic as the Psycho shower scene.

Shelley Duvall

Duvall shifted away from acting and went on to become an incredibly successful and well-respected writer, producer and composer for television. Now she acts occasionally.

Shawnee Smith Saw movie photo still Amanda Young

Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young in Saw (2004)

A popular character actress in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Shawnee Smith was best known for TV roles in The Stand and Becker, but her career reoriented to the horror genre with Saw. She played a survivor of the Jigsaw killer’s horrific games.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Shawnee Smith

Smith became an integral character in the Saw franchise and stayed in the genre with appearances in Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Grudge 3 and 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust.

sissy spacek carrie movie photo still carrie white

Sissy Spacek as Carrie White in Carrie (1976)

In only her fourth film, Spacek hit the big time playing Carrie. Her harrowing turn as Stephen King’s shy, telekinetic teen that gets brutally teased and humiliated by her nasty peers—via a bucket of pig’s blood at the prom—made school bullies everywhere give pause.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Sissy Spacek

Spacek won the Academy Award playing Loretta Lynn in A Coal Miner’s Daughter just four years later. She didn’t return to the horror genre until 2005 when she took a role in the sequel, thriller The Grudge 2.