Top 8 horror movie scream queens ranked by survival skills
A24Halloween has long gone, but there’s never a bad time to delve into the world of horror – so, here’s a round up of the top eight horror movie scream queens, ranked by their survival skills.
2024 has seen plenty of new entries to the genre so far, from horror-comedy Lisa Frankenstein to the Blumhouse newbie Imaginary.
While there are of ton of scary movies to choose from, some of the best ones have an iconic scream queen in their midst.
A scream queen is also known as an influential female character inside a horror franchise who usually survives the horrible events of the film. Since there a ton of scream queens in the genre, here’s our list of the top eight scream queens ranked by their survival skills.
8. Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh is one of the most notable stars of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960’s horror classic film Psycho, in which Leigh played Marion Crane, a young woman murdered by Norman Bates.
Unfortunately, though Leigh is considered one of the OG scream queens, her character in Psycho didn’t survive despite her best efforts, so she makes the bottom of the list.
7. Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar is one of the scream queens who came out of the ’90s/’00s pretty unscathed despite being featured in three different horror movie franchises.
Though you can see Gellar in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) to Scream 2 (1997) and The Grudge (2004), her characters didn’t make it through any of these films, Geller was always one to fight like hell all the way to the end.
6. Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp, like Leigh, is one of the horror genre’s OG scream queen as she appeared as the final girl in 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street.
However, though her character, Nancy Thompson, made it through the original and third film in the Elm Street franchise, she was eventually killed by her dream stalker Freddy Krueger.
5. Mia Goth
Mia Goth is pretty knew to the scream queen scene as she made her debut into the horror genre in the film X (2022).
Thanks to this role, Goth has been the headliner for two other films within the X universe — Pearl (2022) and MaXXXine (TBD). Goth survived in X but, in Pearl, she played the role of the murderess who hunted the young people in X down. And while MAXXXine is still in development, only time will tell if Goth survives the trilogy.
4. Samara Weaving
Samara Weaving has been quite a few horror movies as she can be seen Ready or Not and Netflix’s Babysitter duology.
Though she was the villain who survived in The Babysitter films, her real claim to scream queen fame came when she slaughtered a house of rich people trying to kill her in Ready or Not.
3. Jenna Ortega
Jenna Ortega is one of the youngest scream queens on this list as she appeared in the film X and several of the Scream movies.
Ortega’s scream queen status comes from the fact that she managed to make it through her Scream films with just some stabs wounds, though she wasn’t lucky enough to escape a tragic fate when it came to X.
2. Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis, like her mother Janet Leigh, is a scream queen thanks to her leading role in the Halloween horror movie franchise.
As girl-next-door Laurie Strode, Curtis was able to out maneuver her mortal nemesis Michael Myers for eight different movies where he would come back to haunt her. And, to this day, Laurie Strode still walks tall and proud.
1. Neve Campbell
Neve Campbell plays Sidney Prescott in the Scream franchise; a role she’s been playing non-stop since 1996.
Though she’s only appeared in five Scream films, Campbell is a step above Curtis because she was put through the absolute ringer throughout all of the movies. She’s been stabbed, shot, and continuously beat up at every turn. Sidney is a the ultimate scream queen and those who come after her could learn a thing or two.
For more horror, check out our list of the 30 best horror movies of all time. You can also dive into all the new movies and all the new TV shows hitting streaming this month if you need something fresh to watch.