This week begins my tribute to some of the best known scream queens…at least on my list. To honor these fabulous ladies, I’m paying tribute to them all week long…maybe two and taking a look at some of their work. Now that I think about it, I will be looking at our scream queens for the rest of February. And to start things…right, there could be none other than Jamie Lee Curtis.
Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of legendary actors Janet Lee and Tony Curtis. She got her big break at acting in 1978 when she won the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween. Even though Jamie Lee Curtis went on to do a many other movies besides horror, she is truly America’s favorite scream queen. Some of the horror movies attributed to her fame are:
Halloween (1978) – A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets.
The Fog (1980) – A northern California fishing town, built 100 years ago over an old leper colony is the the target for revenge by a killer fog containing zombie-like ghosts seeking revenge for their deaths.
Prom Night (1980) – A masked killer stalks four teens responsible for the accidental death of a child six years earlier at their high school’s senior prom.
Terror Train (1980) – A masked killer targets six college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong years earlier and whom are currently throwing a large New Year’s Eve costume party aboard a moving train.
Road Games (1981) – A truck driver plays a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious serial killer who uses a young female hitchhiker as bait to lure victims on a desolate Australian highway.
Halloween II (1981) – Laurie Strode is rushed to the hospital, while Sheriff Bracket and Dr. Loomis hunt the streets for Michael Myers who has found Laurie at the Haddonfield Hospital.
Blue Steel (1989) – A female rookie on the police force engages in a cat and mouse game with a pistol wielding psychopath who becomes obsessed with her.
Mother’s Boys (1994) – Jude Madigan leaves her husband Robert and her three children without any explanation. Three years later when all think that she has already died, Jude returns and asks for pardon. But her husband Robert does not forgive but instead wants a divorce. As Jude does not give up this ends in war.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) – Laurie Strode, now dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle the Shape one last time and now the life of her own son hangs in the balance.
Virus (1999) – When the crew of an American tugboat boards an abandoned Russian research vessel, the alien life form aboard regards them as a virus which must be destroyed.
The Tailor of Panama (2001) – A tailor living in Panama reluctantly becomes a spy for a British agent.
Halloween: Resurrection (2002) – Serial killer Michael Myers is not finished with Laurie Strode, and their rivalry finally comes to an end.
With all these great horror and thriller movies under her belt, Jame Lee Curtis is my number one scream queen, hands down. She certainly blazed a trail through the years in the horror industry and has stood out among many as a top favorite. It would be great to see her in another really good horror or thriller. Given the right script, I’m sure she’d be up for the job.
Coming up this week, I’ll be giving some of these titles a tidy little review as we salute women in horror.
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