When Jamie Lee Curtis made her film debut in the classic American independent slasher, Halloween, she quickly became one of the most talked about actresses in the world. Not only did the original Halloween turn Jamie into a movie star overnight, but she would also earn the title of “Scream Queen,” years later starring in several other horror films. In the iconic Scream (1996), the horror film that changed the genre of scary movies in the 90’s, Jamie is often referred to as the “Scream Queen” while Halloween is being watched by high school students at the end of the OG Scream. Since Halloween is still considered one of the greatest and most influential horror movies ever made, it was extremely clever of the late, great Wes Craven, to pay homage to the 1978 film that started it all.

In 2020, the second season of YOU became the most watched television show of the year and one of the best shows to come out on Netflix at the time. Jenna Ortega had a supportive role in the season as Ellie, a street-smart Los Angeles teenager who lives in the same apartment complex as Joe (Penn Badgley). She proved she had the niche for the horror genre, delivering a suspenseful performance throughout the thrilling season.

In January of this year, Jenna played the lead role in Scream (2022) and shocked fans of the horror franchise delivering a scary, tense and realistic performance. Jenna was also in the bad ass opening sequence, just like Drew Barrymore was in the 1996 original. Jenna plays Tara Carpenter (nod to the director of Halloween, John Carpenter) the sister of Sam, who we later find out is the daughter of Billy Loomis (killer in the OG Scream). Jenna’s performance, especially in the opening act of Scream (2022), solidified her as this generations “Scream Queen.” She was so good that she gave Drew a run for her money in what is considered one of the best opening scenes in horror history, the 1996 original that is. Tara survives the attack and is mostly in the hospital for the entire movie, but her bone-chilling acting chops literally gave me chills and felt like she was really going through the terror and horror. Critics praised the new Scream, and it quickly became a huge success at the box office. Jenna even won the award for Best Frightened Performance at the MTV Movie & TV Awards this Summer for her role as Tara Carpenter. Yes, she’s that good.

Scream (2022) paid homage to the original Scream and to Wes Craven, the mastermind of horror and the man behind the camera in four of the five Scream movies. It’s almost like Jenna was destined to star in the new generation of Scream movies and it’s absolutely clear that the horror, “Scream Queen,” baton has been perfectly passed to Jenna Ortega.

Later this year, Jenna Ortega starred in the movie X, another horror film to add to her impressive resume. X documented wannabe porn stars filming raunchy sex scenes in some old house during 1979. While she played more of a conservative, uptight young woman in the movie, her ability to portray real horror on screen is disturbingly delightful. And that scream!

Finally, in November of 2022, Jenna played Wednesday Addams in the record-breaking Netflix series, Wednesday. Wednesday dethroned the hit series Stranger Things with the biggest week for any English language streamer on Netflix, scoring 342.2 million hours streamed worldwide. Currently, the Jenna Ortega-led Wednesday, ranks in as the third most watched Netflix series of all time, right behind Dahmer. It’s most likely to surpass Dahmer, the extremely disturbing and controversial show that also took the world by storm, very quickly.

A first-time Best Actress Golden Globe nomination for her role as Wednesday Addams and a newly released teaser trailer for Scream VI, it’s safe to say that Jenna Ortega is having the time of her life. With the departure of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott in Scream VI and Wednesday turning Jenna Ortega into one of the most recognizable actresses in the industry, I don’t think box-office numbers for Scream VI will suffer without Neve. If anything, it will probably outshine 2022’s Scream as people are noticing that Jenna really is the new “Scream Queen” of this generation. The attention and praise she is getting from Wednesday alone will have fans flocking to theatres to see her star in Scream VI.

Scream VI, set in New York City and starring Jenna Ortega, slashes into theatres on March 10th, 2023. In the famous words of Matthew Lillard, “it’s gonna be a scream, baby!”

Jenna Ortega as Tara Carpenter | Scream (2022)