Horror Legend Neve Campbell
Welcome back to Horror Celebrity Spotlight, my series about the most interesting icons in the horror world! For our first spotlight of the new year, we’re taking a look at one of horror’s most famous scream queens, and the star of the upcoming Scream 7, Neve Campbell!
Full Name: Neve Adrianne Campbell
Age: 52
Best Known For: Playing Sidney Prescott in the Scream franchise.
Official website: Link Here
Often Works With: Wes Craven, Kevin Williamson
An Iconic Scream Queen
Neve Campbell was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1973. As a kid, she had minor roles in a couple of series and commercials. In 1994, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to pursue a serious acting career.
Her first major role was in the popular ’90s teen drama series Party of Five. In 1996, she co-starred in The Craft. The movie became a sleeper hit. Director Wes Craven was impressed by her performance and cast her as Sydney Prescott, the final girl in his upcoming slasher spoof Scream.
Scream’s massive unexpected success lifted Neve into the celebrity stratosphere. Both the movie overall, and her performance specifically, received critical acclaim (rare for horror films at the time). She returned as Sidney in Scream 2 and Scream 3. The latter was initially supposed to be the series finale.
With her Sidney era supposedly over, Campbell appeared in a number of film and television shows over the next several years. She grew dissatisfied with the roles that she was offered, feeling typecast as a horror actress.
After a three year break from acting, Campbell returned as Sydney in Scream 4 (2011). After another hiatus from movies, she came back again in Scream (2022). Including the upcoming Scream 7, she has appeared in five of the six sequels, skipping Scream VI due to a contract dispute.
Campbell was outspoken about her belief felt that Paramount was being sexist in their contract negotiations for the sixth Scream, leading to a broader discussion in the media about gender pay gaps in society.
Like Jamie Lee Curtis and Laurie Strode, Campbell and Sidney have enjoyed enduring popularity for decades. What is it about Sydney/Neve that make them horror icons?
I think Campbell’s decision to consistently play her role straight, despite the spoofy and self referential nature of the Scream series, has played dividends for her. There is never any indication of Neve winking at the audience or thinking that she’s above the material.
As for Sydney she’s led an impossibly tragic life. By the end of the first movie she has endured her mother being murdered, her best friend Tatum also being murdered, and nearly being killed herself by her boyfriend, who turns out be a serial killer.
That would be enough to put most people in a padded cell, and yet that’s just a tiny percentage of all the horrific trauma that Syd has endured throughout the series. It’s easy to sympathize with a character like that, and respect that she keeps on going, although (as Ghostface pointed out in Scream ’22) it’s pretty ridiculous that she keeps surviving so many rampages. She has a hell of a lot of plot armor.
More Screams?
With buzz already surfacing online about a potential eighth Scream film, Campbell may not be done playing Sydney yet. She also has other projects in the works. She just appeared in the latest season of the Netflix drama The Lincoln Lawyer and is reprising her voice role in the upcoming season of the animated Marvel series X-Men ’97.
.jpg){kind=link}