Ringside Report Puts the Spotlight on Scream Queens: Part II

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By Geoffrey Huchel

For Part 2 of my Scream Queens Spotlight Series I’d like to highlight the career of one of the most popular scream queens of the 1990s: Neve Campbell. We all know her from her starring role as “final girl” Sidney Prescott in all 4 SCREAM films. The SCREAM series certainly made Campbell a star, but the actress found success in other genres of film, and before her breakout role as Sidney, Campbell was part of an ensemble cast in a popular television show in the 1990s.

Neve Adrienne Campbell was born October 3, 1973 in Guelph, Canada. Campbell began her career in her native Canada. She was cast as Daisy in the series CATWALK (1992-1994) and made appearances on shows THE KIDS IN THE HALL (1988), ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK (1990), and KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (1993).

In 1994 Campbell went to Los Angeles in hopes of finding an agent. While there she went on several auditions. One of her auditions turned out to be a lucky one. She was cast as orphan Julia Salinger on the Fox series PARTY OF FIVE (1994). Upon her casting, Campbell returned to Canada, packed up her belongings and moved to the United States. Campbell, along with her PARTY OF FIVE siblings, Matthew Fox, Scott Wolf and Lacey Chabert, rose to fame due to the success of the series, which ran for six seasons, and won the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 1996. Campbell opted out of a seventh season to pursue film work. She was cast in her first major film role as Bonnie in the drama/thriller THE CRAFT (1996). Campbell’s Bonnie was part of a trio (including Fairuza Balk and Rachel True) of outcast teenagers who welcome a newcomer (Robin Tunney) and practice witchcraft who conjure up spells for those who wronged them.

Her next role would ultimately be the one that she will be best remembered for, high school student Sidney Prescott in the horror flick SCREAM (1996). Campbell’s Sidney is the target of the killer Ghostface, who has a connection to her past. The film was a major hit and won critical acclaim. Campbell received significant praise for her performance, placing her in an elite group of the most popular final girls in horror films. Campbell starred opposite Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich (her costar in THE CRAFT), Matthew Lillard and Drew Barrymore. Of course, with the success of SCREAM, it was inevitable that there’d be a sequel. Campbell, along with original SCREAM stars Cox and Arquette, reprised their roles of Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley, respectively, for SCREAM 2 (1997). This time around Sidney, now a college student, faces Ghostface once again, just as she was trying to get her life back on track. Following the success of SCREAM 2, Campbell followed up with the erotic crime/thriller WILD THINGS (1998), with Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon and Denise Richards, 54 (1998), with Ryan Phillippe and Salma Hayek, THE LION KING 2: SIMBA’S PRIDE (1998), THREE TO TANGO (1999), with Matthew Perry and Dylan McDermott, and DROWNING MONA (2000), with Danny DeVito, Bette Midler and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Campbell reprised her role as Sidney for SCREAM 3 (2000), with Cox and Arquette also returning. In this installment we find Sidney, who is now in hiding and using an alias as an attempt to remain hidden from Ghostface. But when the actors of the movie based on her life story are getting murdered, she comes out of hiding to help Gale and Dewey take down Ghostface. For her next film, THE COMPANY (2003), Campbell received writing credits and starred opposite James Franco in the drama. She made a three-episode guest appearance on the crime/drama series MEDIUM (2005-2011), starring Patricia Arquette. Fans of the SCREAM movies hadn’t seen the last of Sidney Prescott when Campbell returned to the role for SCREAM 4 (2011), along with Cox and Arquette, Emma Roberts, Marley Shelton, Rory Culkin and Hayden Panettierre. In this sequel Sidney returns to her hometown of Woodsboro for a book tour ten years after the events from the first set of murders. Unbeknownst to her, Ghostface is back for another round of killing sprees as an attempt to track down Sidney to finish what was started.

Campbell returned to TV to make appearances on shows such as GREY’S ANATOMY (2005), MAD MEN (2007), MANHATTAN (2014), and HOUSE OF CARDS (2013). Her most recent film roles include SKYSCRAPER (2018), with Dwayne Johnson, HOT AIR (2018), CASTLE IN THE GROUND (2019) and CLOUDS (2020).

It was recently announced that Campbell has signed on to reprise her beloved character Sidney Prescott for SCREAM 5. Campbell joined the cast following the news of original stars Courteney Cox and David Arquette also returning to the franchise. The film will also bring back Marley Shelton in her SCREAM 4 role Deputy Judy Hicks; as well as new cast members Jack Quaid, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette and Kyle Gallner, among others. Will Sidney live through another showdown with Ghostface? I guess we’ll have to wait and see when SCREAM 5 is released in 2022.

Essential Campbell:

THE CRAFT (1996)

SCREAM (1996)

SCREAM 2 (1997)

WILD THINGS (1998)

54 (1998)

SCREAM 3 (2000)

THE COMPANY (2003)

SCREAM 4 (2011)

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