Since the advent of horror movies, specifically slasher movies, there have been final girls and scream queens that balance out the role of the killers. These characters go back to the start of horror cinema with Mina Seward (Harker) in the original Dracula. However, the final girl changed when the slasher movies arrived, and the final girl morphed into scream queens to create a new horror icon. These characters are often young women in danger from a killer or monster, but they often survive thanks to their strong will and tenacity.

It started with Olivia Hussey (Black Christmas) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween), and the 80s and 90s introduced a legion of scream queens. Names like Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Neve Campbell (Scream), and Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog) quickly rose to the top as the best scream queens in horror movies. The term gained even more popularity with the TV show Scream Queens in 2015, and the legacy continues today with new actors fitting into the role of modern-day scream queens, carrying on the tradition for a new generation.

Why Sophie Thatcher & Jenna Ortega Are Leading The Way For New Scream Queens

They Mastered Their Skills In Scream, The Boogeyman, and Heretic

Easily, one of the best ways to prove yourself as a scream queen is by taking the place of one of the most legendary. After getting her start in Insidious: Chapter 2 when she was 11, she went on to appear in The Babysitter: Killer Queen before she finally broke out in Scream, starring in the fifth movie alongside Neve Campbell, who played the scream queen Sidney Prescott. Since then, Ortega has made her name in horror, including roles in Studio 666, X, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Death of a Unicorn.

Add in the Netflix series Wednesday, and Ortega is the new face of female horror icons. When talking about horror movies, Ortega admitted that she loves everything about them. “I love running for my life, I love screaming, I love crying on set. It’s all very therapeutic and very fun,” she said (via Discussing Film).

Sophie Thatcher also proved she belongs in horror movies as a scream queen, playing characters who can realistically hold their own against any killer. She led the way in the 2023 horror movie The Boogeyman, where she had to fight a supernatural demonic threat, and then in Heretic in 2024, where she faced a more human monster in Hugh Grant’s Mr. Reed. It all started when she played a young Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist TV show, and she never looked back.

While Ortega has a huge background in horror as a scream queen, Sophie Thatcher is still relatively new to the role. Her most recent role came in a more tongue-in-cheek horror sci-fi movie where she wasn’t a scream queen but was the actual killer. In Companion, Thatcher plays a companion robot who gains sentience. Also, unlike Ortega, Thatcher doesn’t like being called a scream queen, saying (via Teen Vogue):

“This is the first phase in my career so far where I’ve actually realized that I’m being perceived, and that’s kind of f*cking me up, and I’m trying to distance myself from that and realize that I’m my own person outside of acting.”

Other Modern Scream Queens To Watch

Anya Taylor-Joy & Mia Goth

While Jenna Ortega and Sophie Thatcher have developed a reputation as scream queens in horror movies, they aren’t the only young stars carrying the iconic тιтle in their careers. Anya Taylor-Joy might be the most recognizable face to become a screen queen in her career. She broke out thanks to the horror movie Witch and then followed up with the M. Night Shyamalan film Split. Add in Last Night in Soho, The Gorge, and The Menu, and she has a group of horror films like no other.

Mia Goth played both sides of the horror spectrum in the same movie. After an early role in Suspiria, Goth took on her breakout role in X as Maxine Minx, the scream queen, and as Pearl Douglas, the killer. She then got to play the two roles again in different movies, first as Pearl in Pearl and then as Maxine in Maxine. With Frankenstein in 2025, Goth is sliding into her role as a modern-day scream queen.

Source: Discussing Film