Horror aficionado Alfred Hitchcock may have said that blondes make the best victims—likening them to “virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints”—but we would like to make a minor amendment. It’s not only blondes but babes who elevate scary movies from mere camp to art. With their wide-eyed allure, those skilled genre screen sirens amplify an audience’s sense of unease, upping the stakes in an environment weighted with fear. What would Dracula have been without Helen Chandler’s Mina, whose ethereal beauty and bedroom eyes (and yes, blonde hair) serve as an easy juxtaposition to the Count’s refined brand of evil? Sissy Spacek’s delicate, almost fragile features in Carrie bring a timid grace to her character, even as she overturns Chris and Billy’s car by way of telekinesis, her pale pink prom dress sodden with pig’s blood. Shelley Duvall’s doll-like visage was seemingly sculpted to wear the expression of alarm she perfected in The Shining. In recent decades, knockouts like Drew Barrymore, Halle Berry, Naomi Watts, and Elizabeth Olsen have found their way into nightmarish narratives with faces that are (almost) too beautiful to die. In honor of Halloween, a glance back at the scream queens who make being terrified look good.
The post #TBT Scream Queens: 18 Beautiful Horror Heroines, from Tippi Hedren to Drew Barrymore appeared first on Vogue.
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