From Ash in The Evil Dead and Dewey and Randy from Scream to Fright Night's Charley Brewster, Tommy Jarvis from Friday the 13th and more, 411's Mike Gorman counts down the top 10 scream kings of all-time!
9 times out of 10 when a discussion starts about horror films and the characters that survive them, we eventually find ourselves recounting the adventures of the women who find themselves targeted by the monsters, aka the Scream Queens. This group includes some of the more famous like Jamie Lee Curtis whose Laurie Strode has long battled her brother Michael Myers in the Halloween films. This Halloween I thought it might be more interesting to see if a gender switch is possible when it comes to these characters. Do Scream Kings exist? I think so and this week I bring you ten (well technically twelve) male characters who I think qualify.
Let's kick this list off with the true legacy Scream King, John Tate. John lived most of his life unaware that Michael Myers was his uncle. That's right, Tate, as played by Josh Hartnett, was the son of Laurie Strode. When the 20th anniversary of Myers' original attack rolled around he decided to come to the private school John attended and of which his mother was an administrator. Subsequently John and his friends find themselves under siege; it is then we see that John has a lot of his mother within him when it comes giving us some good screams.
Many times in a horror film, the villain can be seductive to the hero, sometimes until it is too late. This is definitely the case when it comes to Arnie from Stephen King's Christine . Arnie is the proverbial 98lb weakling who finds purpose and strength in his care of the demonic car. Arnie falls deep into the darkness of his ride and by the time he realizes the true effects of the situation, he must sacrifice himself. It does not end well for Arnie… to say the least.
Can one family handle two Scream Kings? We learn the answer to this question in The Lost Boys as Sam and Michael Emerson fill two distinctive Scream Queen archetypes. Michael, like Arnie in Christine , is the seduced innocent who eventually must fight for his own soul. Sam is the knowledgeable hero who sees things others miss and will eventually place himself in danger for his friends and family.
Sometimes the hero of the horror film recognizes the truth of the situation at hand long before anyone else does, like Nancy in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street . This is indeed the case when it comes to Charley in the original Fright Night . His neighbor is a vampire, killing people all around him, but no one will believe poor Charley. His vulnerability and selflessness place him in direct correlation with many of the most popular Scream Queens.
Like many of the great Queens, Tommy Doyle has a long standing relationship with the villain. He may not be a blood relative, like Laurie Strode or even John Tate, but he too has a deeper relationship with Michael Myers. He is one of the original children that Laurie was babysitting that fateful night in Haddonfield. The incident affected Tommy's life and built an obsession within him that would still be there when we saw him next fully grown in Halloween 6 . This movie was a huge convoluted mess that I will not go into here in much detail, but I will let you know that Tommy had done what most long standing horror heroes do, armed himself with knowledge. Tommy's development allows him to eventually go on the offensive with Myers, delivering a spectacular beat down… but we all know how that usually works out with Michael Myers.
I was very torn about which character in the Scream series deserved the Scream King title. I mean, it was a no-brainer that someone in this quartet of flicks would be included here just due to the title of the films. Randy in many ways was the wise guardian of the series, the master of the "rules" if you will; while Dewey was more of the likeable oaf often relying on luck to ensure his continued safety. Both characters squared off against Ghost Face several times but it is only Dewey who survived in the end. Both were strong characters who stood out and did their fair share of screaming.
What's with the name Tommy and iconic horror films? Whatever the connection is, we have another Tommy standing out as a true Scream King. Tommy Jarvis wrangled with Jason Voorhees more than any other character in my opinion, though for some reason the women get the spotlight when Jason's nemesis's are brought up. Jarvis first encountered Jason as a terrified kid and was definitely messed up by the experience. He even faced a Jason copycat in one of his films. Jarvis felt a responsibility to try and bring down Jason, regardless of what it would cost him personally.
I feel like this selection could be the one that causes a bit of controversy as the killer in the Jaws films was no slasher but the sharks did target Martin Brody and his family. Chief Brody was the hero of two Jaws films and his presence resonated throughout the entire series as his children continued to face the fish long after he had passed away. Brody began as the lone agent against the beast and eventually built a strong legacy.
Some critics would just outright call Jesse a Scream Queen in his own right. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge was one of the first films to really flip the gender script and place a male character as the target/hero in a slasher epic. Traditionally the dynamic is killer-strong female hero. Do a quick Google search and you will find a massive discourse on Jesse's role in this film and the over arcing themes people read into the movie's subtext, ie. the sadomasochism and homosexuality many see present. What's interesting is that the films' creators swear in interviews that they were just trying to create a new nemesis for Freddy and were making no psycho-sexual subtext but they did admit that they see it themselves upon repeated viewings. Is Jess a "Queen" or King? I will leave that up to you to decide.
How could there be any debate about male horror heroes without Ash from the Evil Dead series rising to the top of the list. He is the square peg jammed into the Scream Queen mold who completely comes out the other end as a true Scream King. He brought a unique vulnerability, strength of character and wild eyed energy that did something interesting in his series. Ash is more popular than the monsters he fights. His presence is what kept bringing people back to the films. This makes me believe that the upcoming remake will be a mistake in that it is purposefully excluding Ash. He is the definitive Scream King as he is targeted by the bad guys but has the strength to stand against those forces of darkness. And does he actually scream? You bet he does, I leave you with a retrospective on all of the screams from his films:
Did I miss your favorite testosterone fueled horror hero? Scream about it yourself in the comment section below!
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