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as seen in USA Today "The rise in horror films in theaters and on DVD particularly the slasher variety has given birth to a new generation of scream queens." Excerpt from USA Today: Andrea Bogart, 27 Recent horror films: Axe (2006), Dark Ride (2006), Dark Wolf (2003) Upcoming: Something's Wrong in Kansas, Nite Tales: The Movie Most gruesome scene: "Dark Ride. In my death scene, I was actually decapitated, so I had a head mold made, and that was a pretty bloody, gory mess, I would say." Back story: Bogart is a dancer from Missouri who broke into movies in 2002. Why horror?: "I have fun doing them and hope they will be a steppingstone." By Thomas K. Arnold, Special for USA TODAY The rise in horror films in theaters and on DVD — particularly the slasher variety — has given birth to a new generation of "scream queens." These attractive young damsels-in-distress are the cinematic descendents of Jamie Lee Curtis, who launched her career in 1978 with the cult classic Halloween, and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who went from slaying vampires on TV to a succession of girl-meets-ghoul fare, from I Know What You Did Last Summer to The Grudge and The Return. But their lineage dates back way before that, to such legendary queens of horror as Soledad Miranda, Barbara Shelley and Julie Ege of Hammer Studios fame. "Women screaming in terror has been a Hollywood mainstay — even when films were silent," says film historian George Feltenstein, senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing at Warner Home Video. Many of the new scream queens are veterans of TV series who want to break into movies and find horror an easy entry. The booming direct-to-video arena is particularly fertile ground. "There's a built-in fan base for the genre, so it becomes a great platform to get exposure," says Bill Clark of Starz Home Entertainment, which releases up to 30 direct-to-video and TV horror films a year, including Showtime's Masters of Horror. What makes a good scream queen? Lloyd Kaufman, whose Troma Films has distributed more than 1,000 horror films since the mid-'70s, says, "It's more than just crying and having ketchup thrown on you. You not only have to be attractive, but you also have to have a big brain. You have to be frightened, you have to be sad, you have to be romantic." |
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| | "USA Today" | Published: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 | ||
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