Countdown to Halloween: Michael Myers and the Messy Timeline Split

In 1978 John Carpenter and Debra Hill gave us one of the greatest indie movies of all time in Halloween. It has become a true classic, the theme music iconically representing the season, and the blank stare of the mask now synonymous with evil.

The story goes that on Halloween night, when he was only six, little Michael Myers killed his sister Judith with a butcher knife. He then spent the next 15 years institutionalized, and his parents died in a car crash, leaving behind his baby sister named Cynthia. At the age of 21, Michael escapes the hospital and returns home to murder the last remaining member of his family. The guy is thorough.

Countdown to Halloween: Our 15 Favorite Scream Queens

The definition of Scream Queen states that any actress who has become associated with horror films, either through an appearance in a notable entry in the genre as a frequent victim or through constant appearances as the female protagonist is a scream queen. While the definition is inclusive to a number of our favorite actresses in the genre, it doesn’t offer any criteria to select our favorites.

Is it just the quantity of horror films that denotes a scream queen? What about the scream itself? Do the sound and pitch of the scream itself play a factor? Can an actresses’ role in one film justify their consideration as a scream queen, even if that scream is an iconic portrayal of the trope? We’ll take a look at that today as we continue to celebrate the Countdown to Halloween with our 15 Favorite Scream Queens.

Some of the following clips may be NSFW, or graphic in nature.