Top Ten Movie Screamers
Doctor X directed by Michael Curtiz (top); Janet Leigh in Psycho (bottom)
Halloween Time. So, here’s my list of the Top Ten Movie Screamers of All Time.
Well, at least the Top Ten Movie Screamers of All Time That I Can Think of Right Now.
You won’t find any new movies here because I tend to avoid most recent horror movies — partly because most of the recent ones I’ve seen are total crap; partly because there’s enough horror in the world out there and I see no need for me to go looking for more at the movies.
Also, most of the screaming newcomers don’t have the vocal flair of their predecessors. Even Naomi Watts, a really good actress, pales next to Fay Wray in the vocal cords department. Wray helped to turn the 1933 King Kong into a bona fide horror movie; Watts makes the unscary 2005 remake watchable merely because she’s in it.
And finally, you won’t find any screaming guys here because the vast majority of movie heroes suffer from emotional constipation: they’re too cowardly to demonstrate fear, pain, passion, lust, etc. etc. Their loss; and really, ours as well.
Top Ten Movie Screamers of All Time
10 – Mary Philbin in The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Okay, so this is a silent film. Universal star Mary Philbin’s screaming was all in my head. But it worked. Lon Chaney is the pretty guy in the picture.
9 – Patricia Owens in The Fly (1958)
Wouldn’t you also scream if you saw a fly named Andre — who happens to be your husband, no less — coming straight at you?
8 – Denise Cheshire in Jaws (1975)
Few people know the name of the (soon-to-be shark-breakfast) swimming woman in Jaws, but just about everyone knows her scene, one of the — deservedly — most famous sequences in film history. The first time I saw Jaws I was a kid. To this day, I worry about shark fins even in swimming pools.
7 – Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda (1948)
Once again, the screaming was all in my head, but Jane Wyman’s Oscar-winning performance as a mute young woman who gets raped remains one of my favorite of the ’40s. Jean Negulesco directed this underrated drama.
6 – Claire Bloom and Julie Harris in The Haunting (1963)
I first saw Robert Wise’s The Haunting when I was a little kid. Debbie Does Dallas wouldn’t have been ok for me to watch because of the graphic sex, but this psychological horror drama (with a strong sexual undercurrent) was. I had nightmares for weeks. What am I saying? I’ve been traumatized for life. Every time I see a locked door I wonder if some powerful, evil force is waiting for me on the other side. Debbie and her much more benign pals would never have had that same effect on my young and impressionable psyche.
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Tags: Claire Bloom, Classic Movies, Denise Cheshire, Horror Movies, Jane Wyman, Jaws, Johnny Belinda, Julie Harris, Mary Philbin, Patricia Owens, The Phantom of the Opera
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Fay Wray is the once and future Queen of Scream Queens. I think PSYCHO has so much to do with being there at the time, just like Carol Burnett’s Gone With the Wind parody (I get why it’s funny but I don’t find it funny).