The first horror movies that truly “scared the shit” out of Maika Monroe
Maika Monroe is making a case for herself as the definitive horror ‘scream queen’ of her generation.
The term scream queen tends to be associated with actresses best known for a specific role in a franchise, such as Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Neve Campbell in Scream, and while Monroe may not have that one defining role, but she’s appeared in a handful of the best horror films of the past decade, with her breakout role in It Follows, about a supernatural entity that takes the form of a sexually-transmitted disease.
Despite its contemporary elements, It Follows had strong parallels to the classic horror films of the ‘80s, specifically the work of John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, and then she appeared in the wild psychological thriller The Guest, the dark comedy Villains, the horror film Watcher, and the controversial serial killer thriller Longlegs, which seemed to divide fans within the horror community, even if there was unanimous praise for both her performance and that of Nicolas Cage as the titular murderer.
What’s refreshing about Monroe’s choices is that she hasn’t swung toward contemporary trends such as found footage, ‘elevated horror’, or self-aware satire that irritate hardcore fans of the horror genre, for simply being in straight-up, very scary films from directors with a passion for the genre’s history has been beneficial to her career. She is also someone who clearly is aware of the lineage she is in, and expressed admiration for the horror films that scared her the most, citing The Shining and A Nightmare on Elm Street as being two personal favourites.
“Both those movies scared the shit out of me,” Monroe said.
“I remember totally not being able to sleep after watching them and having nightmares”.
Every generation might have horror films that speak directly to them, but Monroe has cited two classics that have withstood the test of time, which, although have had sequels and remakes, The Shining and A Nightmare on Elm Street are classics that might not ever be topped.
The former was notable as being the first time that Stanley Kubrick stepped directly into the horror genre, even if he had included some terrifying moments in previous films like Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, but The Shining was infamously criticised by author Stephen King, who hated the changes the director had made to his novel. Nonetheless, it has held up over four decades now, and still inspires cinephiles to conduct their own studies on the secret messages that Kubrick had hidden within the background.
A Nightmare on Elm Street took the popular slasher genre that had been born out of Black Christmas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and added a supernatural component that ensured that even the subconscious could be creepy. Wes Craven’s original film turned Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger into a haunting, unstoppable force of terror, even if the sequels eventually made him into a more comical character.
The franchise has been dormant since the terrible 2010 remake, which had Rooney Mara taking over the role of Nancy from Langenkamp, and should New Line Cinema ever risk rebooting it once more, Monroe would be the best person to call when looking for a new actress to play the final girl.
