The term scream queen has some positive and negative connotations to it. It can mean that you are prominent in the horror genre, but it also implies that you’re often cast as a victim, or at best a final girl. It certainly means that you do a fair amount of screaming your lungs out. Given that in these IP driven times, the only true safe bet when it comes to original filmmaking is in the horror genre, it’s no shock that a lot of actors find themselves returning more than once.
But in the modern age of scream queens one actress appears to be setting herself aside by her choices and the films she appears in – Georgina Campbell. Campbell might not be a household name (yet) but she deserves to be. Over the past few years the British actress has been setting herself up as one of the most interesting performers in film and television.
Campbell has been steadily working for about fifteen years, having made a big impression with BBCThree docu-drama Murdered by My Boyfriend. The British drama based on actual events, showcased Campbell’s ability to mix vulnerability with strength in a way that can make an audience really care. This was further shown by starring roles in third series of Broadchurch and the Black Mirror episode ‘Hang the DJ’.
But, post-pandemic Campbell has moved into films. The films in question, an interesting array of horror films, show the versatility with which she can perform and the way in which she subverts the traditional scream queen title. First was a role in the tense comedy-horror All My Friends Hate Me, a film that walks the very knife edge of cringe comedy and genuinely upsetting filmmaking.
But perhaps the most interesting was her big break in Barbarian. For those who don’t know Barbarian was the horror hit that saw Campbell rock up to an Airbnb that was already rented by Bill Skarsgård (we should all be so lucky) but as time wares on on she comes to realise the bigger threat might be lurking lower in the house. What set this apart from other haunted house movies is how smart and logical Campbell’s Tess was. She was in situations that appear to be ripped straight from classic horror stories yet she doesn’t act in the traditional manner.
Instead Campbell imbues Tess with a wit and charm that makes us root for her because she makes risky but understandable choices, and choices that she can think her way through. This has become a hallmark of what Campbell does in the genre. In works like Bird Box Barcelona, The Watchers and Cold Storage. She is in the genre but not acting in a stereotypical manner.
Away from Barbarian the best example of her interesting choices that present a woman in horror in an interesting manner would be Lovely, Dark and Deep a film that is an enigmatic as the title suggests. As park ranger Lennon, Campbell puts herself into a large wooded area when her past appears to be haunting her. Unlike Barbarian that was smart but very mainstream, this is a much more esoteric film. One content not to offer easy answers or ways out of it’s labyrinthian narrative.
What sets these works apart from other traditional women in horror is the level of strength and intelligence that she shows. Campbell wisely avoids the pitfalls of being both a person of colour and a woman in horror by taking roles of people that not only survive but survive of wit and emotional intelligence. It works best because it is never made obvious that she is subverting expectations. Her choices, and the way she plays the roles, allow us to believe she is in very real danger and yet, we do not have the immersion broken even as we see our expectations broken.
In a way this may be a reflection of the changing times and the way in which people will not accept stereotypical portrayals of women, but it goes deeper than that. Even choices like The Watchers or Cold Storage which play into more traditional genre tropes seem to have a subversive streak to them. Take Cold Storage for example, a film that appears to be a silly riff on the fungal zombie infection. And it is, but Campbell brings something deeper to the story. Her character, a single mother working a night job to support her young daughter has a wit that you might not expect from a single mother in a horror film.
These roles speak to a type of M.O. from the young performer that goes beyond the traditional damsel in distress. As Campbell continues to bring wit and invention to the genre it might not be appropriate to call her a “scream queen” and instead refer to her by the more appropriate moniker of “horror queen”.
She doesn’t do the screaming. We do.
