History Main / ScreamingWoman

* Jamie Lee Curtis has made a career out of this, she's known as the "Scream Queen" for a reason. However, her portrayal of Laurie Strode in ''Film/Halloween1978'' was her StarMakingRole, partially thanks to her blood-curdling screams.
* Helen Benson doesn't do it much in ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951''. She has been ''told'' [[KlaatuBaradaNikto exactly what to say]], but still screams as Gort approaches her. Then she calmly delivers the message.
* Shannon Sassomon, who stars in the terrible movie ''Catacombs'' as an [[spoiler: unsympathetically ridiculously gullible]] over-emotional lady who plays this trope straight several times, plays this trope, most of the time randomly, as she runs about the underground Catacombs because she's seeing evidence of scary stuff.

** ''Film/{{Alien}}'':
*** Lambert, most notably in her final scene when she's paralysed with fear as the alien advances on her.
*** Ripley screams at the end of the movie, before blowing the alien out the airlock.
** Newt in ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. Excusable though as she is just a little girl facing very real monsters. It also saves her life when she's cocooned awaiting the facehugger. Ripley has found her TrackingDevice lying on the floor and breaks down in tears, thinking she's dead. Suddenly she hears Newt scream and thus knows exactly which direction to go.

* Parodied in the movie ''Film/TromasWar'', where a screaming woman appears during the opening... and is promptly shot.

* UpToEleven in ''Series/GreysAnatomy''. A woman who brought in her severely wounded husband screams and ''keeps screaming for more than a quarter of the episode'' until Alex makes her stop -- by screaming back at her.

* ''Film/ItCameFromHollywood'' opens with a woman being [[YouCanPanicNow warned via the radio]] about an escaped KillerGorilla. After warning against making loud noises that may attract the gorilla, the radio suddenly plays a recording of the gorilla's MightyRoar so the woman can listen for it, which of course only makes her respond appropriately.

* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' doesn't feature a physical woman doing this, but whenever the [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile Crocodile Crack Fullbottle]] is used to [[HenshinHero transform]] or [[FinishingMove perform a finisher]], it's capped off with the sound of a woman's scream. [[SarcasmMode Because, y'know]], the ''Film/{{Jaws}}''-esque music beforehand and the opening announcement of "'''DANGER...'''" didn't do a good enough job of conveying how this thing is bad news.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has a fraught relationship with this trope due to being heavily associated with it in the 1970s. While not doing it as often as some make out, "she's not just a screaming girlie" has to be emphasized whenever any new companion is created, especially in the new series.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' has Sindel.

** In Season 6, while going into danger alone, River Song tells the Doctor he shouldn't worry because she's "quite a screamer." Considering how flirtatious she is, and the fact that she's a genuine ActionGirl, we think she's talking about a [[ImmodestOrgasm different kind of scream]].

* In one of the first scenes of ''WesternAnimation/Beowulf2007'' a woman screams while Grendel slaughters everyone in the hall. Unlike most instances of this trope, however, the screams actually hurt Grendel.

** In the original ''Film/KingKong1933'', Fay Wray spent hours in the recording booth so she could scream in just the right way. It succeeded, producing one very memorable scream.

* ''Film/Frankenstein1970'': Caroline. She first appears screaming as she flees a monster in what is later revealed to be a scene in the movie they are shooting. She later screams in exactly the same way when the real monster appears. She even screams when Victor von Frankenstein is explaining his family history (and ruins the take).

* In the 1959 ''Film/HouseOnHauntedHill1959'', Nora Manning (played by Carolyn Craig) belts out her ear-splitting scream throughout the entire movie. Her scream is the first sound heard in the film, even before the opening credits roll!

--->'''Girl:''' EEEK! A giant slime monster! Everyone run around in a dangerous panic, quick!\\

-->'''Melissa:''' "The flight of dragon" rules don't apply, eh? Doesn't matter. ''[[YouAreAlreadyDead You were dead the moment I screamed.]]''

* ''Film/{{The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|1974}}'': The third act of the movie (starting from the moment where [[spoiler:Leatherface kills Franklin Hardesty by a chainsaw]]) is basically a nonstop montage of [[FinalGirl Sally Hardesty]] screaming her ass off, justified by what she goes through. In the infamous "dinner" scene, in particular, she never stops screaming [[spoiler:as she is strapped on a chair while being forced to watch the cannibals eating food made from her friends' flesh]], and it's pure NightmareFuel.

* ''Film/ItCameFromHollywood'' opens with a woman being [[YouCanPanicNow warned via the radio]] about an escaped KillerGorilla. After warning against making loud noises that may attract the gorilla, the radio plays a recording of the gorilla's MightyRoar so the audience can watch out for it, which of course only makes the woman respond appropriately.

* A woman's scream starts off the staircase shootout in ''Film/TheUntouchables'', when she sees Elliot Ness take a shotgun out from under his BadassLongcoat. After that, her screams are all silent with only the gunshots and the wheels of the BabyCarriage bumping down the stairs being heard.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'': It happens almost every single time when one of the corpses' first discoverers happens to be female. Ran, Sonoko, Kazuha and Ayumi are frequently subjugated by this trope, even though they should to be used murder cases at this point. And since most of Heiji's cases happen to be "monster mystery" cases nowadays, Kazuha and Ran always scream whenever they see something remotely scary because both of them are afraid of ghosts.

** Also, Fiona screams when she sees through mirror discovering she's becoming a human again in the morning [[spoiler: after Donkey drinks the Happily Ever After potion which turns the fairy tale creatures into humans]].

** Spoofed when General [[PunnyName W. R. Monger]][[note]]"warmonger"[[/note]] is showing [[Creator/StephenColbert the President of the United States]] footage of all the monsters he's got locked up. ''Every time'' he shows one, Ms. Ronson the coffee lady keeps screams in sheer terror and drops her tray. Finally, Monger has had enough and angrily orders her thrown out of the room. He then shows his next clip, that of "Ginormica", a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 49 foot, 11 1/2 inch woman]]. Whereupon there's an identical high-pitched scream... from [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl the President]]!

** Also, Fiona screams when she sees through mirror discovering she's becoming a human again in the morning [spoiler: after Donkey drinks the Happily Ever After potion which turns the fairy tale creatures into humans].

* ''Manga/FutureDiary'': The first episode has one of [[SerialKiller Third's]] victims running away, calling for help, and ''begging'' the killer to spare her life, all before we're treated to screaming coupled with a GoryDiscretionShot of [[{{Gorn}} blood spattering the concrete]].

** Mel is famous for this trope. Reputedly her actress was told to pitch her screams to match the start of the theme music, so there wouldn't be any dissonance at cliffhangers. The fan webcomic ''Webcomic/The10Doctors'' has fun with this, with an author's note commenting that "Mel, as we all feared, screams".

** Ace competes with Leela for the title "Classic Series Companion Who Screams the Least"; the closest she came was in "Survival". She was being menaced by some thugs, but she had been warned by the Doctor that she couldn't fight lest she permanently lose control of herself; thus she ''had'' to yell for someone to help her. (And, as with Louise Jameson, there were some scripted screams that Sophie Aldred flatly refused to do.)

** The first regular to leave the series, Doctor's granddaughter Susan, did so because the actress portraying her felt Susan had no depth beyond the screaming girl slash damsel in distress. (Curiously, in her very last serial "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", she nearly [[DroppedABridgeOnHim drops a literal bridge on herself]].)

** The Second Doctor companion Victoria Waterfield is an exaggeration bordering on subversion -- she is actually quite brave and adventurous but has a truly eardrum-shattering scream considered painful even in-universe. In "Tomb of the Cybermen", Victoria even stuns someone pointing a gun at her and a friend by shrieking so loud he can't think. In "The Ice Warriors", her scream causes an avalanche that takes out her captor. In "Fury from the Deep", her scream is the weapon that defeats the BigBad. The actress was nicknamed "Leatherlungs" by the rest of the cast.

** Louise Jameson, who played Leela, was often scripted as screaming but refused to do so in almost all cases as she felt it was out-of-character. Leela only screams once in her whole tenure -- a scream of pain when a giant rat starts biting her leg off in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang".

* ''Manga/FutureDiary'': The first episode has one of [[SerialKiller Third's]] victims running away, calling for help, and ''begging'' the killer to spare her life, all before we're treated to screaming coupled with a GoryDiscretionShot of [[{{Gorn}} blood spattering the concrete]].

* The first episode of ''Manga/FutureDiary'' has one of [[SerialKiller Third's]] victims shown running away, calling for help, and ''begging'' the killer to spare her life, all before we're treated to screaming coupled with a GoryDiscretionShot of [[{{Gorn}} blood spattering the concrete]].