A Tribute To Jamie Lee Curtis, The Original Scream Queen

Before Buffy, before Neve Campbell, and, even before Jamie Lee Curtis, there was Janet Leigh. A revolutionary actress, Leigh was a trailblazer for women on screen, most notably in Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic Psycho. In addition to being one of the first protagonists to be killed killed off in the first act of a film, Leigh was also the first woman to have a man filmed alongside her in bed, while donning just her bra and underwear. She also allowed Hitchcock to film her using the bathroom, giving way to that controversial flush because, apparently until 1960, it wasn’t common knowledge that women were capable of urinating.

Though Leigh’s stint as Marion Crane was famously short-lived, it was the actress’ unorthodox leap into Hitchcock’s graces that unofficially solidified her place in cinema as a contemporary scream queen — despite audiences not yet knowing how to categorize this complicated, more badass version of the familiar damsel in distress trope. Leigh’s contribution to the advancement of horror’s seductive, yet tactical female lead may have been overshadowed by her prolific career outside of the genre, and just two years before Psycho, Leigh and her Hollywood hubby Tony Curtis welcomed baby girl Jamie into the world, passing along the innate ability to shriek and slash while looking drop dead gorgeous.

Jamie Lee Curtis, like her parents, started her career early, signing as Laurie Strode for John Carpenter’s Halloween at just nineteen and giving way to the modern horror honey. A variation on the damsel in distress (made universally famous in the ’30s by Fay Wray in King Kong), the scream queen is seen as both desirable by her male peers and appetizing to villains as a way of reifying that sleeping with her and killing her would trigger the same, euphoric satisfaction. Though notoriously sexy, the scream queen has brains to accompany her beauty, often outsmarting the forces — typically a man — who are out to kill her. She’s a sexualized and sensual trope but also, when done right, a brilliant critique of horror as a whole (see Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods or David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows). Of course, the scream queen would have taken much longer to establish herself as an integral facet of horror had it not been for Jamie Lee Curtis.

In addition to running from Michael Myers in the Halloween franchise (and being a notable survivor and exemplifying the “last girl” trope — that is until Myers offed her in Halloween: Resurrection), Curtis starred in Carpenter’s The Fog (alongside her mom), Paul Lynch’s revenge slasher Prom Night, followed by Terror Train and the incredibly creepy Road Games. She wasn’t pidgeonholed, however, taking on comically sexy roles in ’80s classics Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda and winning a Golden Globe for her role in James Cameron’s big-budget action-adventure comedy, True Lies.

Now, by starring in Ryan Murphy’s new ensemble camp comedy, Scream Queens, it seems as if Curtis is acknowledging her legend and passing it on to those on the rise. As Dean Cathy Munsch, Curtis is poised to play a no-nonsense campus overlord who forces the elitist Kappa House sorority to open their doors to all aspiring pledges Wallace University — not just those with trust funds. This sends Kappa leader Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) into a fit of rage, but little do they all know, a mysterious masked killer known as Red Devil is out for the sisters of Kappa and plans to rid the campus of them, one slash at a time.

While Curtis’ appearance in Scream Queens is certainly meant to be ironic, her role as Dean Munsch conceives that the next generation of the horror goddess is in the best of hands. Whether or not they want to stick with horror in the long run, Emma Roberts, Keke Palmer, Skyler Samuels, and the rest of the series’ sorority sisters, all have Curtis to thank for the horror genre’s showcase of smart, strong women at its forefront as it continues to evolve.

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Photos: Everett Collection