Fear is serious business.
So, it makes sense that anyone with serious screaming skills might turn out to be pretty
good at showcasing enough of a range of emotions to become a "somebody" in Hollywood.
Here are a few scream queens who became A-listers.
Charlize Theron
For her role as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003's Monster, actress Charlize
Theron won an Oscar.
Her loyalty to hair-raising Hollywood pictures is perhaps due in part to the fact that she
got her start in the horror genre with a small role in 1995's Children of the Corn III: Urban
Harvest.
Jennifer Aniston
Long before Jennifer Aniston became America's Sweetheart as Rachel Green in Friends, she
made her feature film debut in the 1993 comedy-slasher flick Leprechaun.
She plays a teen who has to survive a maniacal leprechaun, hell-bent on recovering his stolen
treasure.
Once Aniston established herself as a rom-com regular, though, she mostly steered clear
of any bone-chillers.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
She’s probably best known for her starring role in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series,
but Sarah Michelle Gellar easily parlayed her role as a monster-fighting TV heroine
onto the big screen.
As her career started taking off in 1997, Gellar starred a pair of slashers, playing
doomed beauty pageant winner Helen Shivers in I Know What You Did Last Summer and sorority
sister Cici in Scream 2.
"Do you wanna die tonight Cici?"
Sharon Stone
Throughout her career, Sharon Stone has proven she has a basic instinct for selecting solid
starring roles.
But before she was a star, she was just another struggling actress.
Take, for example, her theatrical debut in 1981's Deadly Blessing, a Wes Craven production
that might've seemed like a sure thing, given that the director had already established
himself with some solid horror movie credits.
The pic was both panned and ignored by audiences, but it did nothing to stop the eventual Oscar
nominee from ascending to a higher profile a few years later.
Mila Kunis
Her most celebrated role to date came as the unsettling ballerina Lily in the eerie 2010
thriller Black Swan, but Mila Kunis’ first true terror role came courtesy of the 1995
remake of Piranha.
It wasn't the last time she'd try her hand at thrillers, and it may not have been the
worst; she also appeared in the critically-eviscerated American Psycho II: All American Girl, and
the 2007 straight-to-DVD dud Boot Camp.
Renee Zellweger
She might've had everyone at "hello" in her breakthrough role in the 1996 hit Jerry Maguire.
But before Renee Zellweger started tugging on heart strings in rom-coms like Bridget
Jones' Diary, she did a stint in the horror house.
Her role in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation was filmed long before she shot
to recognition, but released shortly after her career started to flourish.
"Aaaahhh!!"
Yikes.
Drew Barrymore
After her memorable role in Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, tiny scene-stealer
Drew Barrymore followed her breakout success with back-to-back Stephen King adaptations:
1984's Firestarter and 1985's Cat's Eye.
Barrymore's career cooled later in the '80s, but she returned to the thriller and horror
genres while building a comeback, starring in the early '90s efforts Poison Ivy, No Place
to Hide, and Doppelgänger.
Her opening cameo in Wes Craven's Scream offered an obvious nod to her significant scream queen
credentials.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Like her mother, Psycho star Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis is probably best known for
her considerable horror movie roots.
In fact, Curtis’ first silver screen appearance is pretty much what launched her career.
In 1978, she starred as Michael Myers' tortured sister in John Carpenter's Halloween, the
first of four times she'd appear in the role over the course of the franchise until 2002.
Most recently, she appeared in Fox's cheeky small-screen slasher satire Scream Queens
as a bit of an homage to her own status as a lady legend in the field.
Outside of the genre, Curtis has also garnered plenty of recognition—she's a Golden Globe
and BAFTA-winning actress—but in spite of her many subsequent accomplishments, she'll
always probably be known for the closet scene in Halloween.
Really, how do you ever top that?
Demi Moore
Just before Demi Moore became a member of the '80s hit-making squad known as "The Brat
Pack," she appeared in a little-known, critically-despised 1982 sci-fi horror flick called Parasite.
"It must kill to survive.
They will unleash the ultimate predator."
"Aahh!"
It wasn't her only stint with the otherworldly.
She also starred in the 1988 apocalyptic thriller The Seventh Sign and the 1990 supernatural
romantic drama Ghost—and she went on to accrue her fair share of acclaim in non-genre
efforts.
Obviously, despite initially unfavorable reviews, her turn in Parasite didn't gnaw away at her
career prospects.
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