A scream queen (a wordplay on screen queen) is an actress who is prominent and influential in horror films, either through a notable appearance or recurring roles. The title is a buzzword used by critics and has gained positive and negative responses. Scream King is the male version of the title. Notable scream queen examples include Fay Wray, Neve Campbell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Lee Curtis, Mia Goth, Shawnee Smith, Bipasha Basu, Angela Bassett and Linnea Quigley.

The term "scream queen" is more specifically used to refer to the attractive young damsel-in-distress characters that have appeared in a number of films in the horror genre. Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma Entertainment, noted that being a scream queen is "more than just crying and having ketchup thrown on you. You not only have to be attractive, but you also have to have a big brain. You have to be frightened, you have to be sad, you have to be romantic."

Debbie Rochon, often described as a scream queen herself, wrote in an article originally published in GC Magazine that "a true Scream Queen isn't The Perfect Woman. She's sexy, seductive, but most importantly attainable to the average guy, or so it would seem." Although the earlier scream queens might be women that "just had to look pretty and shriek a lot until the hero of the film got around to save them." The later scream queens showcase women worrying about something other than a guy...unless said guy is the one trying to kill them, with some of them wreaking vengeance by defeating the villain.

The prominence of women in horror films dates back to the silent movie era, with notable examples including the productions The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922). George Feltenstein, film historian and senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing at Warner Home Video, states, "Women screaming in terror has been a Hollywood mainstay – even when films were silent". Fay Wray, an actress starring in King Kong (1933), is sometimes referred to as the "very first scream queen". Anne Gwynne, Chris Pine's grandmother, is known for scream queen roles in the 1930s and 1940s. Janet Leigh, playing Marion in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), is regarded as "one of the most iconic" scream queens in horror film history.

Veronica Cartwright was also a prominent scream queen of the 1970s; however, she found her beginnings as a scream queen in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds in the 1960s. Later in the 1970s she appeared in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers as well as Alien in 1979.

Four actresses in the 1970s became seminal examples of a "scream queen" for the decade: Sandra Peabody, who portrayed Mari Collingwood in The Last House on the Left (1972) then went to appear in Voices of Desire (1972) and Legacy of Satan (1974). Marilyn Burns, who portrayed Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) would go onto appearing in Helter Skelter (1976) and Eaten Alive (1977). Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of Psycho actress Janet Leigh, portrayed Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978). Curtis has been called the "ultimate 'scream queen'".

Dee Wallace appeared in Wes Craven's 1977 horror film The Hills Have Eyes before going on to establish herself as a scream queen in the 1980s by appearing in The Howling (1981), Cujo (1983) and Critters (1986). Daria Nicolodi played the role of the scream queen in most of her films directed by Dario Argento (Deep Red, Inferno, Phenomena, Terror at the Opera).

The success of Halloween revived slasher films during the late 1970s and 1980s. Examples include Terror Train and Prom Night, in which Jamie Lee Curtis would again play the scream queen; Friday the 13th, the first entry to have both a female antagonist (Betsy Palmer) and protagonist (Adrienne King); and A Nightmare on Elm Street, now considered a slasher classic, which introduced supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger, and whose leading actress, Heather Langenkamp, was dubbed a scream queen, and went on to become one of the most influential.