Scream Queen Legend
Many Scream Queens are known for having multiple roles in horror films, usually B-movies, and perhaps one or two of the major horror franchises. Some only need one film to be dubbed a Scream Queen. A select few, however, manage to star in multiple major horror franchises, happily take on lesser roles in B-movies so that the film gains “name” recognition, and do it successfully for decades. Today’s Scream Queen, Dee Wallace, is one of those select few.
I’ll rattle off just a few of the films that Ms. Wallace, sometimes credited as Dee Wallace-Stone in some films, has appeared in over the years: Cujo (1983), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), The Frighteners (1996), Critters (1986), Halloween (2007), and The Howling (1981). That’s just a short list of the major horror films that she’s appeared in over her career. She has also appeared in a ton of B and direct-to-video horror films as well. Here are a few of them: Abominable (2006), Headspace (2005), Hansel & Gretel (2013), The Nest (2021), and Ejecta (2014). That’s pretty impressive.
Oh, and I didn’t even mention that she’s also appeared in a number of non-horror box office hits like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and 10 (1979), and has a long and successful career on television as a guest star on shows like CHiPs, The Twilight Zone, Starsky & Hutch, L.A. Law, and Simon & Simon, and had a starring role in two television shows as well. Ms. Wallace is definitely no slacker!
As much success as she’s had outside of the genre, Wallace just seems to be the perfect fit for horror films. She often played the young mom or single mother in many of her early horror roles. As she got older, she shifted to playing roles that were often the scared older woman or the wicked older lady. Rob Zombie has cast her in four of his films, the most recent being The Munsters (2022) as an announcer. He also cast her in The Lords of Salem (2012), 3 From Hell (2019), and Halloween (2007).
Wallace is an amazing actress. She literally has too many film and television credits (272 at the time of this writing) to list them all. She’s not only a prolific horror actress. She’s also a prolific actress in general. For horror fans, I recommend her work in The Howling, Cujo, Critters (and Critters Attack from 2019 for nostalgia purposes), and Halloween. I also recommend checking out Abominable. She isn’t in the film for very long but it’s one of the best Bigfoot flicks you’ll ever see!
Thanks for checking out today’s post. Dee Wallace is one of my favorite actresses and I am forcibly cutting myself short with this post so that I don’t ramble too much! Thanks for checking it out. I’ll see you tomorrow with another Scream Queen and the next entry in The Year of KISS!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 