History Main / ScreamingWoman

* In every single scene she's in, Kaori in ''Manga/{{Gyo}}'' is likely to scream. She's considerably calmer in the {{OVA}}.
* Amy Rose screamed in some episodes of ''Anime/SonicX''. [[ScreamingWarrior Albeit not always in fear...]]
* In ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'' (the anime version), Miyabi gets one when she discovers she's not alone in the room she's cleaning. It's quite funny when it turns out to be a cat. Given that her normal role is MamaBear to Aoi, it makes her a bit more sympathetic after the way she's been treating Kaoru up to that point.
* Jessica does this a few times in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. [[KillEmAll You can't really blame the poor girl, though.]]
* 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]].
* In Go Nagai's ''Manga/{{Shutendoji}}'' (both in the manga and anime versions), Miyuki Shiratori is guaranteed to scream whenever she sees a demon or anything horrifying. [[MsFanservice And usually while stark-naked.]]

* 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 flailing in silence.

* 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.

* ''Film/TalesOfTerror'': In "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", Helene reacts to every dramatic development bt screaming and fainting.

* 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 [[AGodAmI bowing before Dr Manhattan]] when he single-handedly wins UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.

''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' has Sindel.

** 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 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]]!

* Early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' had Starfire playing the Screaming Woman rather a lot. Raven, however, did it in one episode, off-screen, before she was attacked by a were-creature.

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

* 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.

* ''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.

* Discussed in ''Literature/TheConditionsOfGreatDetectives'' 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.

** In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", Narissa screams as she falls to her death.

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.

* 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.)

* 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.

*** Ripley screams in 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 coccooned 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.
* 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 [[AGodAmI bowing before Dr Manhattan]] when he single-handedly wins UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.

* Amanda Kirby from ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' movie does this a ''lot'', to the point that it seems like she spends the majority of the 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.

* 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.
* 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.

* 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 villian.

* 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!

* Lampshaded in the 1951 sci-fi novel ''Seetee Ship'' by Jack Williamson, when the LoveInterest asks the heroic space captain to stop their search through the [[LostTechnology creepy abandoned alien spaceship]] because she can't possibly scream any more.

* 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 some one is in trouble?"

** 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.

** 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]].

* ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'': the 2[[superscript:nd]] season episode ''Voodoo Doll'' has Nancy Drew. Dear Gods, it has Nancy Drew, who is reduced to screaming endlessly and uselessly...at the sight of a man in an obvious skull mask who is merely standing there. In a brightly lit room. She's reduced to the Screaming Woman again in ''Arson & Old Lace'', when Frank Hardy finally finds her...and she stands there and screams as he's tossed around by a lawyer and menaced by a 70-year-old man. Yeeeesh.

** 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 forgoe 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're 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]].

* Discussed in ''Literature/TheConditionsOfGreatDetectives'' 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.

* Played for horror in ''Film/TheStoneTape'' where the scream of a housemaid killed back in the 1890's 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!

* Subverted in Wrestling/{{WCW}}. Wrestling/DaffneyUnger would often randomly scream for no reason but when attacked by Juventud Guerrera her scream proved painful enough to ward her would be assailant off.

* Sissi Delmas, from ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', frequently lets out a frightened scream when confronted to 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!"
* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Babel". Shriek uses a device which messes with the hearing of everyone in Gotham. A construction crane falls off a skyscraper and is falling straight towards a traffic cop, about to crush him into strawberry jam. An elderly, meek-looking woman notices this and yells at him trying to get his attention, but when it doesn't work she proceeds to jump into the middle of the road without a thought of incoming traffic, and pulls the idiot out of the way and to safety. BadassBystander? Certainly.

* This can happen to someone of either gender in high stress situations when a person is not used to them, like say a combat situation. This can result in people not doing anything but scream. Usually they either get killed, or someone who isn't screaming drags them out of the way.

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

* Chihiro screams a lot in ''Anime/SpiritedAway''.

-->'''Kate Capshaw:''' ''(in a DVD featurette)'' Can she do more than just screaming?

** 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]].)
--->'''[[http://docohobigfinish.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-keys-of-marinus-written-by-terry.html Joe Ford]]:''' Unfortunately ''[[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS1E5TheKeysOfMarinus}} The Keys of Marinus]]'' is the story that turned Simon away from Susan for good. I was watching it in bed whilst he was reading Sky News on his phone (yep, apparently that is the preferable option) and Creator/CaroleAnnFord was screeching and screaming and wailing and bawling and he begged me to turn it off. I naturally refused and kept watching and as he tried to settle and go to sleep she was still going at it! He suggested I either turn it off or he would [[ToiletSeatDivorce start proceedings for divorce.]]

** 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.)

* ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'': the 2nd season episode ''Voodoo Doll'' has Nancy Drew. Dear Gods, it has Nancy Drew, who is reduced to screaming endlessly and uselessly...at the sight of a man in an obvious skull mask who is merely standing there. In a brightly lit room. She's reduced to the Screaming Woman again in ''Arson & Old Lace'', when Frank Hardy finally finds her...and she stands there and screams as he's tossed around by a lawyer and menaced by a 70-year-old man. Yeeeesh.

* ''Buffyverse''

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''.

** Parodied in the ''[[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton Captain Proton]]'' [[ShowWithinAShow holodeck program]], an AffectionateParody of 1930's Republic {{Film Serial}}s like ''Flash Gordon''. Proton's secretary, Constance Goodheart, is a busty blonde DesignatedVictim whose only dialogue is an ear-piercing scream.

* While ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' was admirably progressive in [[RaceTropes other respects,]] unfortunately its female characters wound up screaming an ''awful'' lot at the MonsterOfTheWeek.

* 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:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Subverted by the [[SpaceElves Eldar]]'s Howling Banshees, who certainly scream when faced with combat but for different reasons: an AmazonBrigade ([[WholesomeCrossdresser most of the time]]) whose screaming is amplified and distorted through their helmets to paralyze their enemies, which they then cut apart with monomolecular-edged swords.

[[folder:Theater]]
* This is used to a character's advantage in ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. Eponine screams loudly to frighten off her father and his friends, who are planning to break into Valjean and Cosette's home.
* 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)]].

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* In ''Theatre/SpecialEffectsShow'' at Ride/UniversalStudios, during the horror section, the hosts have the female volunteer do an over-the-top scream for when they take her picture.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Several female characters in ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' do this at least once, such as Helena Van Garrett when Hawley Faust starts shooting at her, though it's rather understandable considering the circumstances they're in.

* Pauline from the ''DonaldDuck'' short, ''WesternAnimation/DuckPimples'', in horrified reaction to Donald after he was supposedly shot and collapsed.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Played with in the 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 ''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.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'.

* Joolushko "Jool" Tunai Fenta Hovalis from ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' 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 forgoe finding power for a welding torch and simply breaks Jool's thumb.

[[/folder]]

* Blanche Barrow in ''BonnieAndClyde''. 95 percent of Estelle Parson's Oscar winning lines were ear splitting screams while the gang was fleeing from the police.

* Subverted in Wrestling/{{WCW}}. Wrestling/{{Daffney}} Unger would often randomly scream for no reason but when attacked by Juventud Guerrera her scream proved painful enough to ward her would be assailant off.

* A special case in WWE, where heel Divas are as likely to scream out of rage as out of fear (not that the screams are any less annoying in the former case). Examples: Vickie Guerrero, Melina Perez, Wrestling/AJLee.

* ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'': the 2nd season episode ''Voodoo Doll'' has Nancy Drew. Dear Gods, it has Nancy Drew, who is reduced to screaming endlessly and uselessly...at the sight of a man in an obvious skull mask who is merely standing there. In a brightly lit room. She's reduced to the ScreamingWoman again in ''Arson & Old Lace'', when Frank Hardy finally finds her...and she stands there and screams as he's tossed around by a lawyer and menaced by a 70-year-old man. Yeeeesh.