Women screaming their lungs out has been a staple of the horror genre since its inception. Yes, at its worst, stylized violence furthered the male gaze already saturating cinema. But the beauty of horror is how often our heroines rise above the tropes to become icons. Think of ’70s slasher queens Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) in “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in “Halloween”; ’80s figure Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkemp) in “A Nightmare on Elm Street”; and ’90s sweethearts Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in “Scream” and Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) in “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
That’s the thing about horror and its scream queens—they endure, and they evolve. Now, we’re living through yet another fright flick renaissance. With an unsure summer slate largely influenced by strike delays, entries like Ti West’s “MaXXXine” and Oz Perkins’ “Longlegs” have emerged as surprise hits. It’s the latest sign of a new horror era, one embodied by its own set of scream queens who are done being victims.
David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows” shook up the horror world when it debuted in 2015. The slow-burn supernatural thriller deconstructed the concept of the “final girl” (a character who survives because they’re the only one remaining “pure”) with a story of a demonic entity passed between victims through sexual activity.
In her breakout role, Monroe plays lead character Jay Height as a subversion of the quiet and shy high school girl trope. A large part of what makes “It Follows” work is the way Monroe communicates Jay’s journey to accepting herself; this is a girl literally being chased by her decision to lose her virginity.
‘Longlegs’ Star Maika Monroe on Meeting Nicolas Cage in Character: ‘A Day I’ll Never Forget’ “It Follows” was both an influential hit—a sequel is due to start shooting in 2025—and a springboard for Monroe to become one of the industry’s most reliable indie horror actors, later starring in Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s violent black comedy “Villains” (2019) and Chloe Okuno’s incredibly tense “Watcher” (2022). In 2024, she leveled up even more with “Longlegs,” playing FBI Agent Lee Harker on the trail of a devil-worshiping serial killer (Nicolas Cage). As Agent Harker, Monroe demonstrates a natural progression of her “It Follows” performance—it almost feels like Jay grew up to get into crime-solving—and provides audiences with a “The Silence of the Lambs” for a new generation.
Concurrent with Monroe’s rise was the emergence of Weaving, here to splatter the blond-haired, blue-eyed girl-next-door image. On the surface, both Monroe and Weaving hark back to the ideal “Hitchcock blond”—the legendary director’s fair-haired heroines who existed to be tortured. Where Monroe brought the image deeper, Weaving made it more deranged. In back-to-back blood-covered 2017 features, the actor tore her way through business executives in Joe Lynch’s wild “Mayhem” and led a crew of teenage occultists in McG’s “The Babysitter.”
But it was Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s “Ready or Not” in 2019 that truly cemented Weaving’s genre status. Following the story of a newlywed trying to survive her rich in-laws’ deadly hide-and-seek ritual, the film dresses Weaving in the quintessential purity outfit: a white wedding dress. Weaving scratches, claws, and lets out some of the most unique screams in horror history in order to bring that image down to dirty places.
Even the most successful horror leads run the risk of being typecast. Goth has used the genre to prove one thing: She’s got range.
Goth has led West’s trilogy of “X” (2022), “Pearl” (2022), and “MaXXXine” (2024) in two separate roles navigating three different time periods and subgenres. In the “Texas Chain Saw Massacre”–inspired “X,” she plays an adult film actress, Maxine, who will do anything to find fame; and she portrays an elderly housekeeper, Pearl, who’s determined to take that future away. In the prequel, “Pearl,” a technicolor “Wizard of Oz”–style nightmare, Goth goes to unhinged places. Just watch Pearl’s monologue explaining her descent into madness—combining a soullessness with so much passion and anger—or the 1 minute and 51 seconds–long, detached smile that ends the film. The recently released “MaXXXine” transports the title character to neon-lit 1980s L.A., six years after the events of “X,” where Goth’s trilogy-capping performance truly challenges the idea of a gentle, innocent, or even morally good female lead.
In addition to West’s series, Goth has starred in Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of the iconic witch coven movie “Suspiria” and Brandon Cronenberg’s trippy 2023 sci-fi horror “Infinity Pool.” Goth’s unpredictability has made her one of the most singular screen presences working today.
Created by Wes Craven in 1996, the “Scream” franchise has always been a place to evolve the genre. Craven played with tropes he helped create, and his original final girl, Sidney Prescott, survived despite going against the established “rules.” So it’s no surprise that the return of the franchise brought about new standouts: Ortega and Barrera.
Ortega shadowed Goth in “X,” and before that, she briefly appeared as a child actor in 2013’s “Insidious: Chapter 2”—but she truly came into her horror supremacy starting with 2022’s “Scream,” directed by Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin. From frame one, Ortega’s Tara Carpenter broke the rules—she’s the main focus of the film’s opening scene, a spot usually reserved for a surprise kill. But Tara survives the onslaught (and the film, returning for the sequel “Scream VI” a year later), and Ortega’s performance primes audiences for what came next: Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s “Wednesday.”
Melissa Barrera on ‘Abigail,’ Acting, and Her Outlook on the Industry Post-‘Scream’ Debuting on Netflix in Nov. 2022, the series caught up with the sardonic “Addams Family” daughter, Wednesday, revived by an endlessly entertaining Ortega. “Wednesday” broke the Netflix record for most hours viewed in a single week, got renewed for a second season, and stamped Ortega’s place as horror royalty.
Barrera is right there next to her. Alongside Ortega, the actor played older sibling Sam Carpenter, a character that comes with a twist: She’s the daughter of original “Scream” killer, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). This gave Barrera the opportunity to play layers—fighting guilt, parental trauma, a sharp rage, and elder sister syndrome. While neither Carpenter sister will return for “Scream VII,” Barrera has also kept close to the genre. She re-teamed with Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin for this year’s gore-covered vampire tale “Abigail,” and she’ll follow that up with Caroline Lindy’s creature rom-com “Your Monster” in October.
