History Main / ScreamingWoman

* Subverted in ''Series/SpaceCases''. Catalina screams when threatened or in trouble, yes... but [[MakeMeWannaShout her scream is a sonic weapon]], and a very effective one at that.

* ''Film/thePhantomOfTheOpera1998'': Christine slips into this while being taken out of the cavern by Raoul on a rowboat.

* Amanda Kirby from ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' movie does this a ''lot'', to the point that it seems like she spends the majority of her screen time on the island either doing that or making some sort of terrible decision that puts her in TooDumbToLive territory. Predictably, most people who have seen it feel that it gets old pretty fast.

** "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E3IsMyVeryNatureThatOfADevil Is My Very Nature That of a Devil]]": A female pedestrian shrieks at the top of her lungs when she sees Alderman Fenwick's [[GuttedLikeAFish eviscerated corpse]] hanging from the gates of St. Louis Cathedral.

Contrast with ScreamingWarrior (a badass fighter screams to psych himself/[[ActionGirl herself]] up and/or ''cause'' fear in his/her enemies) and ScreamsLikeALittleGirl (a [[AlwaysMale man]] who issues a comically high-pitched scream when danger rears its ugly head). Compare HystericalWoman. Also see MakeMeWannaShout, when the scream is superpowered and weaponized.

* Subverted in ''Film/X2XMenUnited''; when the soldiers attack, a girl starts screaming. [[spoiler:She's Siryn, and [[MakeMeWannaShout screaming is her superpower]]. She nearly defeats the soldiers that way, and although she still gets knocked out, her scream wakes up all the other mutants and gives them a chance to escape.]]

* ''Film/{{Hatched}}'': Christine lets loose a scream near the start of the movie when she sees a [[RaptorAttack raptor, prompting it to [[spoiler:attack and eat her]].

** In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E3IsMyVeryNatureThatOfADevil Is My Very Nature That of a Devil]]", a female pedestrian shrieks at the top of her lungs when she sees Alderman Fenwick's [[GuttedLikeAFish eviscerated corpse]] hanging from the gates of St. Louis Cathedral.
** In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E4TheRuthlessPursuitOfBloodWithAllA ...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding]]", the girlfriend of Claudia's victim screams in terror as she runs away from her boyfriend being butchered.
** In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E7TheThingLayStill The Thing Lay Still]]", the sole human woman at the after-party feast screeches her head off several times before Lestat de Lioncourt exsanguinates her to death.

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'': 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 be used murder to 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.

** In the third episode, a female pedestrian shrieks at the top of her lungs when she sees Alderman Fenwick's [[GuttedLikeAFish eviscerated corpse]] hanging from the gates of St. Louis Cathedral.
** In the fourth episode, the girlfriend of Claudia's victim screams in terror as she runs away from her boyfriend being butchered.

'''Wes and Wedge(a Corellian):''' ''[=[=][[DeathGlare glare]][=]=]''

** In the third episode, a female pedestrian shrieks at the top of her lungs when she sees Alderman Fenwick's eviscerated corpse hanging from the gates of St. Louis Cathedral.

* Almost every single character Kim Basinger played in every movie she is in. Her character, Michel, has a Screaming Woman moment in the 1986 film, 'Film/NoMercy'', when she realizes Eddie Gilette is driving the car off to the river.

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[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* The woman in the monster movie Norman watches at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' has no lines, just a lot of terrified shrieks.

* 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.

* Vicki Vale in the 1989 ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'' movie, who would scream at ''everything'' -- when the clowns shooting at the City Hall, when the Joker nearly sprays her with acid, when Bruce Wayne gets shot by the Joker, when her friend Knox jumped to the windshield of her car and when the Joker pulled the trigger on his BANGFlagGun (which is even more absurd in context, since the Joker was pretending to shoot ''himself'').\\\
In the City Hall scene, Vicki wasn't screaming; she was ''shouting'' "Bruce!" at Bruce Wayne because he wasn't paying attention and nearly wandered into the clowns' line of fire. In other words, she was trying to ''save him'', which is not something you'd expect a Screaming Woman to do. Vicki is actually pretty capable for the first half of the movie, and doesn't [[{{Chickification}} turn into the scaredy-cat character we all remember until the museum scene]]. [[JustifiedTrope Also, wouldn't you scream if a guy who killed everyone in the museum you were in started trying to kill you as well]]?
* Almost every single character Kim Basinger played in every movie she is in. Her character, Michel, has a Screaming Woman moment in the 1986 film, ''No Mercy'', when she realizes Eddie Gilette is driving the car off to the river.
** Kim Basinger gets another screaming woman moment in the 1985 film ''Fool for Love'', when her character, May, dodges the gunshots while being held on by Eddie as the Countess shoots Eddie's car.

* Rachel in the 2005 remake of ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds''. Justified in that she's a ten-year-old girl.
* Renee Russo's character in ''Film/GetShorty'' was a famous B-movie "scream queen" with an extremely impressive scream. When a villain pulls a gun on Chili Palmer, she screams and it distracts the villain long enough to give Chili the upper hand.
* Noticeably averted in ''Film/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor''. A female CIA analyst looks up and sees three men pointing silenced submachine guns at her, and realises what's about to happen.
-->'''Joubert:''' [[AffablyEvil Would you please]] step away from the window.\\
'''Janice:''' ''[calmly]'' I won't scream.\\
'''Joubert:''' I know.
* Amanda Kirby from ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' movie does this a ''lot'', to the point that it seems like she spends the majority of her screen time on the island either doing that or making some sort of terrible decision that puts her in TooDumbToLive territory. Predictably, most people who have seen it feel that it gets old pretty fast.
** Lex gets a few good moments of her own in the [[Film/JurassicPark first film]], both during the ''T. rex'' attack, and later in the climax as the raptors close in on them in the visitor's center. Much more tolerable as it's neither as overused as the above example, and Lex is also a teenager. ''VideoGame/LegoJurassicWorld'' parodies this by making her scream her ''power'', letting her [[GlassShatteringSound break glass]] with her screams.
* Blanche Barrow in ''Film/BonnieAndClyde''. 95 percent of Estelle Parson's Oscar-winning lines were ear-splitting screams while the gang was fleeing from the police. The real Blanche Barrow hated that she was portrayed this way, stating that they made her look like "a screaming horse's ass".
* A woman's scream starts off the staircase shootout in ''Film/TheUntouchables1987'', when she sees Eliot 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.
* In the 1985 film of ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'' Alan Quatermain and Jesse Huston are CapturedByCannibals. Our hero suggests they FaceDeathWithDignity.
-->'''Jesse:''' Well I don't need to die with dignity! I want to scream... ''ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!''\\
''[[ComicallyMissingThePoint Cannibals give war-cry in response]]''
* An InvokedTrope by [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} The Cat]] in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', who hugs the floor shrieking in terror when a SWAT team burst in on a meeting she has with the villains, so they'll assume she's an InnocentBystander.
* Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson from Sam Raimi's ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' screams in all three movies whenever she is in danger or is kidnapped by the villain.
** Then again, pretty much any woman in the series screams at the top of her lungs anywhere near danger. Its a world of screaming women.
* In the ActionPrologue of ''Film/StarTrek2009'', a female RedShirt is sucked out through a hole blown in the hull of the starship. Her screams last until she enters the vacuum of outer space, where we just see her [[AndIMustScream flailing in silence]].
* ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers''. At one point the protagonists [[PretendWereDead feign being emotionless pod people]], only to be given away by the woman screaming in shock. In the [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956 1956 film]] she witnesses a dog almost being run over by a truck, but in [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978 1978]] this was less plausible, so it's because she bumps into a [[BodyHorror failed assimilation]].
* In the classic giant-ant movie ''Film/{{Them}}'', Dr. Pat Medford is mostly a calm and competent professional, but she does cut loose once when she abruptly and unexpectedly finds herself face-to-face with one of the ants. The little girl who survived an early attack also screams when finally snapped from her traumatized catatonia.
* ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1970}}'': 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).
* ''Film/MysteryOfTheWaxMuseum'': Charlotte's descent into the workroom is nothing a series of screams, as she screams at everything from the reveal of Igor's true face to a door closing.
* In the 1959 ''Film/{{House on Haunted Hill|1959}}'', 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!
* ''Film/TalesOfTerror'': In "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", Helene reacts to every dramatic development by screaming and fainting.
* In ''Film/{{Deathtrap}}'', Myra's reaction to almost anything unexpected is to shriek at the top of her lungs, even doing so when Sidney opens the French windows to reveal absolutely nothing. It is very annoying. [[spoiler:As she's being set up for a FrightDeathtrap, it's presumably to show she's easily frightened.]]
* ''Film/ItCameFromHollywood'' opens with a woman being [[MediaScaremongering 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.
* ''Film/{{The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|1974}}'': The third act of the movie (starting from the moment where [[spoiler:Leatherface kills Franklin Hardesty with 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/StrippersVsWerewolves'': Justice lets out a scream after killing a werewolf via silver fountain pen to [[EyeScream the eye]].
* Ann does a lot of screaming (and generally being useless) in ''Film/TheThirstyDead''. While sleeping in the cave during their escape, Ann rolls over into a spider's web. Waking up, she sees the spider in front of her face and immediately screams: alerting the pursuing {{mook}}s to the group's location.

* Brought up in ''Literature/TalesOfKolmar''. Lanen fights back in every situation, but she screams like bloody murder as she does so, too -- her philosophy there is to never deny anyone the chance to come help.

* Aline Penhallow from ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments''. Despite being a Shadowhunter, from a prestigious Shadowhunter family, her reaction to Alicante being besieged by demons is to basically panic, adding her to the roster of people in need of rescuing as opposed to helping with the defense.
* One of the protagonists in the novel ''The Harem of Aman Akbar'' observes sensibly that it only makes sense to scream, "or how is anybody to know someone is in trouble?"
* ''Literature/TheBourneIdentity''. Jason Bourne and Marie St Jacques are captured by Carlos' men, and one of them is ordered to [[LeaveNoWitnesses take Marie to the river to be killed]]. Jason tells Marie to scream her head off, but the killer just punches her in the throat. Bourne is able to escape and drive to the river, and is able to locate Marie by her cries of fear accompanied by the sound of the killer hitting her to shut her up.

* Subverted in ''Series/SpaceCases''. Catalina screams when threatened or in trouble, yes... but [[MakeMeWannaShout her scream is a sonic weapon]], and a very effective one at that.

* ''That's Incredible'' did a brief piece on a voice actress who earned money providing the screams for this trope, which would be dubbed onto the film so the Scream Queens didn't have to damage their vocal cords. According to her, it provided a CatharsisFactor for everyday frustrations. Cue a shot of her screaming after being stopped by a red traffic light, watched by an alarmed motorist.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* This 1989 ''Series/SesameStreet'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMyYP0Lt9E take on "Little Miss Muffet"]] has the titular character frequently screaming very loud when she [[SpidersAreScary comes across a spider]] [[StalkerWithoutACrush that keeps following her]].
[[/folder]]

* Little Red Riding Hood uses this to get her cape back from the Baker in ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods''. A more melodic version ("Ah ha-ah ah-ha...") is used as Rapunzel's main line, especially in "First Midnight" and the finale [[spoiler:(she also does the non-melodic version after going insane)]].

* In Creator/{{Taito}}'s ''Dead Connection'', pretty much the only thing women do is scream and flee the scene.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'': Sindel is a lethal example, since one of her fatalities has her scream into her opponent's ear so loud, [[YourHeadASplode their head explodes!]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' had Starfire playing the Screaming Wowman rather a lot. Raven, however, did it in one episode, off-screen, before she was attacked by a were-creature.
* Sissi Delmas, from ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', frequently lets out a frightened scream when confronted with XANA's latest attack. Parodied in episode "End of Take", where the only line of dialogue Sissi gets in James Finson's horror movie is "AAAAAH!"

* Princess Sally Acorn screams in the ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' episode "Blast in the Past" part 1.

When a truly terrifying danger rears its ugly head, maybe a monster appears or a large object is about to fall on them, one of the female characters stands there and screams helplessly, necessitating that one of the heroes pull her out of harm's way. [[MonsterMunch Or she dies.]] Is guaranteed to become even more annoying when said female character sees something dangerous, and stands and screams for the hero to help when they would have had plenty of time to get out of the way themselves. Not necessarily limited to the DamselInDistress or TheChick, but can be infuriating if the character is [[FauxActionGirl supposed to be]] a hardened ActionGirl.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the third episode, a female pedestrian shrieks at the top her lungs when she sees Alderman Fenwick's eviscerated corpse hanging from the gates of St. Louis Cathedral.

* An impressive subversion occurs in ''Film/KingdomOfTheSpiders'' when the [[HotScientist Hot Entomologist]] opens a drawer in her rural Arizona motel room to reveal a live tarantula. Not yet aware she's in a Nature's-revenge flick, she calmly scoops it up and shoos it outside. (According to the IMDB, Tiffany Bolling beat out other actresses for the part because she was able to do this scene without turning into a RealLife example of this trope.)

* Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}:
** Played with in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Hush", in which Buffy ''must'' scream in order to [[YourHeadASplode destroy]] The Gentlemen. The problem is they've cast a spell to stop anyone in Sunnydale from speaking.
** Cordelia, though less so after she moves to the spin-off ''Series/{{Angel}}'' and toughens up. PlayedForLaughs in "Theres No Place Like Plrtz Glrb". Cordelia screams when [[LosingYourHead Lorne's decapitated head starts talking to her]]. Lorne patiently tells Cordy to get it out of her system, [[OverlyLongGag but when the scream goes on and on without stopping]], he tells her to shut up because he no longer has the hands to cover his ears.
** In "Helpless", Buffy finds herself BroughtDownToNormal when her Slayer powers are removed, and her initial response to being attacked by a vampire is to run for her life while screaming her head off. Needless to say [[SunnydaleSyndrome no-one stops to help in Sunnydale]], and she eventually has to pull herself together and get FinalGirl on the vamp.
* Several civilian women react to dead bodies and other gruesome sights by screaming uselessly on ''Series/{{NCIS}}''.
* Subverted in ''Series/SpaceCases''. Catalina screams when threatened or in trouble, yes... but [[MakeMeWannaShout her scream is a sonic weapon]], and a very effective one at that.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'':
** Joolushko "Jool" Tunai Fenta Hovalis spends a good portion of her introductory appearance doing just this. And it continued throughout the third series. Interestingly enough, Jool's screams are so high-pitched, they can ''melt metal,'' resulting in a hilarious moment when Aeryn decides to forgo finding power for a welding torch and simply breaks Jool's thumb.
** In "Scratch N Sniff", Crichton and D'Argo wake up after a night's partying to find they've been robbed and their fellow crewmembers are missing. They start PerpSweating a female criminal to find out what happened but [[HangoverSensitivity stop in terror when she threatens to scream]].

* ''Series/Stranger Things'' sometimes does this, with general justification due to the nature of the threat and the youth of most of the protagonists. Eleven is this just as much as she is a ScreamingWarrior.

* Discussed in ''Literature/LessonsForAPerfectDetectiveStory'' when Fujii is told to go into a creepy room first because "it's the heroine's job to get scared and scream." She doesn't and instead Tenkaichi gets scared, screams, and faints.
* ''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.
* While ''Series/{{The Outer Limits|1963}}'' was admirably progressive in [[RaceTropes other respects]], unfortunately its female characters wound up screaming an ''awful'' lot at the MonsterOfTheWeek.
* Parodied in the slasher movie-themed episode of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld''. Angela takes on this role and after several big screams Jack says "You know, you are really good at that." and she thanks him. Later, when Jennifer Love Hewitt's character shows up she lets out a big scream of her own and Angela then tries to out-scream her because she "is the screamer around here".
* Employed several times in the first two seasons of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', with opening scenes regularly depicting female nurses screaming at the horrifying case-of-the-week. Stretches suspension of belief, since an emergency room medical professional in a major urban hospital would be trained to deal with the unexpected and horrible.

* Played for horror in ''Film/TheStoneTape'' where the scream of a housemaid killed back in the 1890s has become a LivingMemory imprinted in the foundations of a castle. [[spoiler:Later on a female colleague is killed by whatever lurks there, and it's her scream that's now imprinted in the building.]]
* ''That's Incredible'' did a brief piece on a voice actress who earned money providing the screams for this trope, which would be dubbed onto the film so the Scream Queens didn't have to damage their vocal cords. According to her, it provided a CatharsisFactor for everyday frustrations. Cue a shot of her screaming after being stopped by a red traffic light, watched by an alarmed motorist.
* Downplayed in ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In the episode "Orac", Supreme Commander Servalan shrieks in terror when a monster grabs her in a dark narrow tunnel. TheDragon promptly shoots it and offers to lead the way. But Servalan quickly regains her dignity and announces that she will lead and he will follow!
* ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'' was inordinately fond of this trope. Possibly the worst example in history comes in "The Meighan Conspiracy" when a woman screams upon seeing [[spoiler: an empty bank vault]]. Seriously.
* ''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. The series then plays this for laughs by using the scream to [[FauxHorrific punctuate]] the Fullbottle's primary user's ''[[RummageSaleReject atrocious]]'' fashion sense.

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'': 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.

* ''Film/DontLook'': Lorena becomes one when her kinky sex with Ted is interrupted by the killer. After she discovers the blood on the floor (that she's laying in), she runs screaming from the barn across the field to the house.

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Jessica does this a few times. [[KillEmAll You can't really blame the poor girl, though.]]

* Willie Scott more-or-less does this for the entirety of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''. Creator/KateCapshaw even had to be taught how to scream.
-->'''Kate Capshaw:''' ''[in a DVD featurette]'' Can she do more than just screaming?

* The ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise:
* Averted in the movie ''Film/{{Watchmen}}''. When Dr Manhattan is shown turning Moloch's mooks into sticky gore hanging from the ceiling, a close-up is shown of one of his bar girls who is not screaming hysterically as one would expect but is staring with the same terrified religious awe as the VC soldiers shown [[PhysicalGod bowing before Dr Manhattan]] when he single-handedly wins UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.
* The original script for ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' has Francine screaming a bit. The actress refused, saying that it would undermine the character's strength.

* Happens at the opening of ''Film/{{Lajja}}'', accompanied by the burning of a red sari.