Mission
"You can have all the special effects in the world at your disposal, but if there's not one pretty screaming girl somewhere in sight, you don't have a real horror movie", --somebody said (or should have said?!?!)
True or false?
The term "Scream Queen",
if I recall correctly, was created somewhere in the early eighties, by
someone in the media covering cinematic fantasy. That way, it helped categorize
and recognize the numerous actresses frequently hired for horror pictures.
More often than not, these women worked in awkward conditions and portrayed
characters in mainly decorative roles. The principal goal of this site
is to honor some of these brave souls, famous or not, and give some deserving
web space to more undeservedly obscure actresses. Are there many sites
are devoted to Jennifer Love Hewitt or Sarah Michelle Gellar? Many. Why
can't we find the same amount of quality information on Edwige Fenech,
Daria Nicolodi or Laura Gemser, all true Cult Sirens in every sense of
the word? I have no clue. So, I'll try my best here. And I named them
Cult Sirens, since the term "Scream Queen" was probably copyrighted long
ago. That way, we can cover horror, sci-fi, euro-trash, B-movies, Z-movies,
fantasy, etc.
To come up with such a list is as much entertaining as it is exciting, but always confusing. On which criteria should I make my selections? Beauty alone? Talent? The quality of the actress' filmography? Or the sheer quantity of it? Or again, why not select people with the most available pictures on the Net? Ah! Well, it was a tough choice. So I began by choosing my own favorite personalities in the many genres listed above, who luckily possessed all the qualities mentioned in that same paragraph. I was also aware that I was covering more than a hundred years of movie history, so I will eventually try to cover each decade properly. But since I'm 42 years old, I tend to favor starlets of the sixties/seventies. Sorry for now!
A couple of magazines
still cover the subject these days: Femme Fatales, Sirens
of Cinema, Draculina, Scream Queens (surely we
can't reproach these last guys of false publicity!). Seeing the popularity
of these publications, I could only react and propose such a site. Why
me? Because I always prided myself to be fair and just, with a sense of
duty and sacrifice. Hmmm.
So, there. Have fun. Frequent updates are planned. Sincerely, I created this with a lot of respect, but I won't hold it against you if your only interest is in seeing pictures... but be forewarned: there is no explicit graphic nudity in these pages (though some external links could contain some). What you will find is as follows: biography, appreciation of some key films, an exhaustive filmography and, of course, pictures!
So, prepare yourselves, because soon to be coming in these pages: Diana Rigg, Jamie Lee Curtis, Melinda Clarke, Acquanetta, Eileen Daly, Linda Blair, Ingrid Pitt, Brigitte Helm, Victoria Vetri, Veronica Carlson, Linnea Quigley, Nikki Fritz, Dee Wallace, Karen Black, Gloria Holden, Judy Geeson, Mary Woronov, Dyanne Thorne, Michelle Bauer, Moon Lee, Barbara Shelley, Joan Chen, Brigitte Lahaie, Karin Dor... and more! Any suggestions?