The 10 Best Scream Kings Who Left Their Mark on Movie History

Members of a horror-loving Internet forum sounded off about the most fabulous Scream Kings. Many men in horror films will willingly sacrifice themselves to save their loved ones or save the world. Not as many Scream Kings survive until the film's end, but that doesn't make them less courageous or worthy of praise.

Hail to the King, baby indeed. Just for his work as Ash Williams in The Evil Dead (1981-1992) franchise and the Ash Vs. The Evil Dead (2015-2018) television series, Bruce Campbell, is one of the ultimate Scream Kings.

But he has also played Elvis Presley in Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) and starred in Maniac Cop (1988) and Maniac Cop 2 (1988), The Woods (2006), Intruder (1989), Black Friday (2021), and The X Files episode, Terms of Endearment (1999) among others.

Bruce Campbell, as Ash Williams, has been fighting Kandarian demons for decades with little training and is a slightly silly but courageous character that epitomizes the ability of the Scream King to survive no matter the odds.

Daniel Kaluuya has secured his reputation as a Scream King in the two films he has starred in for director Jordan Peele, the groundbreaking Get Out (2017) and the out-of-this-world alien horror film Nope (2022).

Get Out was more of a solo tour de force, but Nope showed him working to help his sister, a tech sales associate, and a cinematographer save the world.

Kaluuya is a British stage actor with quiet strength and intense emotionality that wins the audience's sympathy. As a Scream King, he tends to quickly and silently assess the situation and do whatever he needs to save himself and those needing help.

Sam Neill has played one of the ultimate villains, Damien Thorne, the antichrist, in Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981), but he has spent more time in Scream King roles in films like Possession (1981), Dead Calm (1989), In The Mouth Of Madness (1994), and Event Horizon (1997).

His characters are level-headed and wise but can show a more devilish side when needed.

Tom Atkins is a Scream King who has worked on classic horror films for John Carpenter, The Fog (1980) and Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982), William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration, Fred Dekker's Night of The Creeps (1986) and Maniac Cop (1988).

Atkins is a very charismatic performer and plays police officers in many roles. Still, as a Scream King and romantic lead in Halloween III: Season Of The Witch, he was center stage as Dr. Dan Challis and Nick Castle in The Fog.

Mark Patton is known best for starring as Jesse Walsh in A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), where he played a teenager who Freddy Krueger possesses after his family moves into Nancy Thompson's house.

The film has become iconic for having a gay subtext. Patton's career was harmed when the writer, David Chaskin, claimed that the subtext came from his performance, but Chaskin later admitted that he intentionally wrote the subtext into the script.

The documentary, Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019) explored the controversy and Patton's career. Patton has recently returned to acting with the film Swallowed (2023).

Justin Long burst back into prominence as a Scream King with the surprise hit Barbarian (2022) last year, but he has been working in horror films for a while.

He appeared in Jeepers Creepers (2001). Also, in Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell (2009), Kevin Smith's Tusk (2014), Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo's After Life (2009), and Neil LaBute's House Of Darkness (2022).

Long is known for playing sympathetic characters, so people were amazed by his range when he played a profoundly unpleasant person in Barbarian.

As Dewey Riley, David Arquette is the Scream King of the Scream Franchise (1996 to 2023). Deputy Dewey is the foil and companion to both Gail and Sydney and screams just as much as they do.

He is a trustworthy and almost indestructible police officer dedicated to helping keep Sydney safe and foiling the evil plot of each new iteration of Ghostface.

He also starred as Benny in the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer film and Ravenous (1999), a cult cannibal horror western set in 1840s California.

Donald Sutherland is a respected actor who has had a sixty-year career in such films as Klute (1971), Ordinary People (1980), Fellini's Casanova (1976), A Time To Kill (1996), and The Hunger Games Franchise (2012-2015).

He is a Scream King who started his career in horror films and has had a fondness for the genre, returning again and again to horror cinema.

His first role as an actor in film was as a triple role of Sgt. Paul, The Witch, and, The Old Man in Castle of the Living Dead (1964) with Christopher Lee.

His quintessential Scream King roles in horror cinema are John Baxter in Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now and Matthew Bennell in Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).

You have only to see the scene where Bennell opens his mouth to scream at Veronica Cartwright's Nancy Bellicec to understand why he is a true Scream King.

Devon Sawa first starred in the comedy horror film Idle Hands (1999). Still, he became a Scream King when he played Alex Browning in the original Final Destination (2000) movie, where he battled Death itself.

It was an iconic role in an iconic film series. Sawa has continued to work in the genre in such films as Devil's Den (2006), A Resurrection (2013), The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (2015), Hunter Hunter (2020), Black Friday (2021), and Glenn Danzig's Death Rider in the House of Vampires (2021).

In 2021, Sawa joined the cast of the Chucky (2021) television series and has played at least four different roles in two seasons. That's a lot of work for one Scream King.

Josh Hartnett is another Scream King who started in horror. His first film role was in Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998) as John Tate or Laurie Strode's son while she lives under an assumed name.

Next, he starred as Zeke Tyler in The Faculty (1998) as the crafty and defiant teen who provides the weapon that can destroy the alien menace.

He triumphantly returned to the genre with 30 Days Of Night (2007), a bloody cult classic where he plays the brave sheriff of an Alasakan town attacked by vampires during a thirty-day-long polar night. And on television in Penny Dreadful (2014-2017), the horror television series, as Ethan Chandler/Ethan Lawrence Talbot.

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