Dear Maika Monroe: Please Be The Scream Queen This Generation So Desperately Needs

Dear Maika Monroe,

First of all, congrats on Independence Day: Resurgence. Anyone born after 1990 has always wanted Bill Pullman as their hot father, and you’ve achieved such a feat. Bravo! Now that’s out of the way, I was wondering if I could politely ask — as a fan, I suppose — if you could find it in your heart to only make horror movies for a little while.

I know, you’re probably like, “Listen, chick. I don’t know you. I have other stuff going on besides horror flicks. Who do you think you are? And gosh, I’m really in the mood to kiteboard.”

Maika, I just want to let you know I get it. (Except the kiteboarding part, because I live in New York and sit at a desk all day long.) Your career is taking off and you want to try all these different things. It’s cool! But the bit parts that got you to your big breaks with Adam Wingard’s The Guest and David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows should be fond memories, while the roles you have on the horizon seem interesting. But if I may say so myself, your most intriguing characters (not to mention your best performances) were in those two films.

I can even try to help you whittle down your busy schedule so you can make room for more scare fare. Oh, please. It’s nothing. Think of it as my Halloween gift to you. For instance, I see that you have a short called Burned coming out. You can definitely nix that one, because the Bradley Cooper-starring Burnt premieres soon and we can’t have too many cooks in the kitchen. Then there’s what looks like a supernatural romance, Bokeh. I’m not entirely sure how to pronounce that, so you should probably just ditch that one, too. Then I see there’s something called The Scent of Rain & Lightning, and I smell a potentially boring novel adaptation.

OK, OK: I’ll stop, I’m sorry. I’m sure all of your upcoming projects are really important to you. It’s just that I feel so many things when I see a tough, young broad dominate a horror thriller, and you did that not just once, but twice in the last year.

A little context for my outcry: I watched It Follows alone. In my Brooklyn apartment. On a dark and stormy night. (No, really, there was a thunderstorm outside.) I didn’t make it out to see it while it was still in theaters because, and I know it sounds odd, but watching a horror movie is a very personal experience for me. Partly because I grew up sneaking around watching them — switching out the VHS tapes for Halloween, The Shining, and Night of the Living Dead and disguising them in my Disney clamshell covers (until my dad caught on, handed me Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and told me it was cool if I slept with the lights on). The first time I saw Scream, however, I became aware of what a scream queen was in Neve Campbell’s Sydney Prescott (even though she’s, like, the most basic scream queen ever). Then I went back and re-watched Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween and Prom Night before switching over Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street. And even though I was scared to death and slept with the lights on for a solid three months (give or take), I loved every second of it.

Long story short: when I saw It Follows, it reminded me that my — excuse me, our – generation lacks the most definitive muse that horror has to offer: a scream queen. And you could be that scream queen. I know I’m not the first to bring it up, either. You can read here, here, here, and here about how you’re the “new indie scream queen” and the “feminist scream queen icon we deserve.” I know that probably seems like a lot of pressure, being an icon and all, but as a lady among my Internet brethren of young feminist horror fans who enjoy a good scare, you have to understand where we’re coming from. There aren’t nearly enough tough horror heroines we can latch on to before they’re off to the next non-fright-flick project. And it’s only for a little while! Jamie Lee Curtis indulged as a scream queen for four years or so!

OK, so maybe four years is seems like a long time. But, Maika please: in between the Independence Day sequels and the dystopian romances and passion project shorts, can you — for the ladies — make some more horror movies? Because, like it or not, you’re kind of destined to be our scream queen.

Sincerely,

One member of your selfish fanbase

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