Hello, and welcome to the final full week of Horrorfest 2020! It’s insane to me that we are already at the end of the month of October, but all good horror must come to an end. This week, I am focusing on some of the most influential actors and actresses in horror and their terrific performances that have made our favorite scary stories that much scarier. Please enjoy our final full week of Fandom Horrorfest!
Sigourney Weaver
Following yesterday’s theme of badass women in horror, the master actress Sigourney Weaver has one of the longest-running resumes in horror and science fiction. From her performances as Ripley in the Alien franchise that helped establish the series as an all-time sci-fi horror legend to her beloved appearances in Ghostbusters as Dana Barrett to Avatar to Cabin in the Woods to Galaxy Quest to Holes to The Defenders–needless to say, Weaver has given genre fans a lot to love in the past 40+ years. It’s no wonder why she’s such a sought after actress in these movies, as well: in addition to overall incredible acting ability, Weaver brings with her an air of authority and toughness that takes even her most vulnerable roles from survivor girl to capable protagonist about to kick some ass.
Using Alien as an example (and because I love to pick on franchises that I adore), Weaver’s ability and significance is just as apparent in her absence as it is in her performances. With Weaver as the lead, we got Alien–one of the best sci-fi horrors ever–Aliens–one of the best sci-fi action movies ever–Alien3–an underrated sci-fi horror mostly derided for the fact that it came after such incredible films–and Alien Resurrection, a movie that is just as absurdly glorious as its writers intended it to with Weaver acting her ass off in a hammed-up role. She also provided voice acting in the video game Alien: Isolation, perhaps the best survival horror game in the post-PS2 era. Now let’s look at the Alien media that do not have Sigourney Weaver–oh wait, let’s not, because nobody wants to. Because they’re all garbage. Now obviously I’m not saying every problem with the garbage fires that are Prometheus and Covenant could be solved by forcing Weaver into a role in those movies, but I am saying that her absence suggests a common theme: Alien, and horror in general, is at its best when it tries to tell stories with genuine consideration of the human psyche, and Weaver is one of the few actresses who can consistently carry those narratives. Covenant was a cash-grab, and 8 years later I’m still not sure what the hell Prometheus was even trying to do. All I’m saying is this: if you want quality horror and sci-fi (and, you know, throw in Resurrection there too), follow the work of Sigourney Weaver.
Every horror list on the internet will give you Alien films to watch, and while I love the Alien franchise, I wanted to go in a different direction. I’m a psychologist, and any psychologist worth their weight in clinical hours will recommend Sigourney Weaver’s performance in 1995’s Copycat, a movie where Weaver plays an agoraphobic psychologist tasked with hunting down a serial killer who re-enacts the crimes of infamous killers from the past. It’s great crime horror with an even greater Weaver performance.
