Paul Brian McCoy">
Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • Q Clearance

      Paul Brian McCoy
      March 4, 2021
      Fiction, PDI Press Writers
    Recent
    • Q Clearance

      Mike Burr
      March 4, 2021
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • VOICES FROM THE NIGHT: The Living Dead Tell Their Stories

      John E. Meredith
      October 31, 2018
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Chaos Walking (2021)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      April 13, 2021
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • Chaos Walking (2021)

      Nate Zoebl
      April 13, 2021
    • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      April 2, 2021
    • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown

      Paul Brian McCoy
      March 24, 2021
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      The Final Girl
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 30, 2019
      DVD/Blu-ray, News
    Recent
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      psychodr
      July 30, 2019
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives on Digital 9/3 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 9/17

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 16, 2019
    • Avengers: Endgame arrives on Digital 7/30 and Blu-ray 8/13

      psychodr
      July 16, 2019
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • Chaos Walking (2021)
  • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown
  • Psycho Goreman (2021)
  • Advance Review: Bad Girls (2021)
  • Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Columns
Women in Horror

Women in Horror: Barbara Crampton

Paul Brian McCoy
February 3, 2017
Women in Horror

28-Days

Women in Horror Month (WiHM) is an international, grassroots initiative, which encourages supporters to learn about and showcase the underrepresented work of women in the horror industries. Whether they are on the screen, behind the scenes, or contributing in their other various artistic ways, it is clear that women love, appreciate, and contribute to the horror genre. Psycho Drive-in is joining in by sharing articles – some classic, some new – celebrating the greatest women in the genre!


[Editor’s Note: A version of this article originally ran on October 6, 2016]

Barbara Crampton was my favorite Scream Queen, without question. Sure, Jamie Lee Curtis had a hard-to-beat three-year stretch from 1978-1981, and Linnea Quigley made quite the impression in an almost non-stop series of low-budget exploitation/horror films all through the ’80s and ’90s (most notably in Night of the Demons and Return of the Living Dead), but it was Crampton who starred in the films that hit me right in the brain, stimulated my pineal gland, and made me a horror/splatter junkie.

And it wasn’t just her stunning looks and willingness to get completely naked. I swear! Even though she started out playing college girls who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time in the gloriously goofy Chopping Mall (which just saw an amazing Blu-ray remastered release) and the oft-mentioned on this website Re-Animator, there was an authenticity and a sincerity to every performance no matter how over-the-top the directors pushed the film.

And many of her films went way over the top!

crampton-01

There aren’t too many women who would be game to be set on fire by a killer security robot in a mall after-hours or take on a role that involved being sexually molested by a severed head. And that was in her first two horror films! Then, in her second pairing with both Jeffrey Combs and director Stuart Gordon, she played Dr. Katherine McMichaels in the perverse splatter-fest (and I say that only with love) From Beyond. It was a role that saw her playing a “mad” scientist, the heroine, a dominatrix, and then a mad woman, demonstrating a range of strengths and an embracing of the absurd that made her hard to dismiss.

If Jeffrey Combs is the actor most identifiable with Lovecraft adaptations, Barbara Crampton nearly matches him film-for-film, co-starring in Re-Animator, From Beyond, “The Evil Clergyman,” and Castle Freak.

During this same stretch (from 1985 to 1995) she also had featured roles in Full Moon Entertainment’s Puppetmaster, Trancers II, and Robot Wars.

crampton-02

After this, Crampton ended up working in more mainstream low-budget films and made quite a few TV appearances, including extended runs on soap operas The Guiding Light, The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless, before dropping out of acting to raise a family.

Then, in a stroke of creative genius, Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard decided they wanted Crampton to play the mother in their extremely innovative and entertaining horror/satire You’re Next in 2011. The film was a complete surprise, taking the typical (and tired) home invasion cliché and turning it on its head. It was one of the best horror films to be released in 2013 — yes, 2013. This film sat on a shelf for two years because the people who run studios are asshats and don’t know a good thing when they see it.

Crampton was fantastic and enjoyed the fun energy of being on-set with creators like Barrett and Wingard, Ti West, Amy Seimetz, and A.J. Bowen that she decided to get back into acting for real.

crampton-05

For this, we thank you, mumblecore horror clique. Thank you.

Since then, she has had parts in a wide range of horror films including Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem (where she was cut almost entirely out of the film, but really, that’s probably for the best, as that film was a trainwreck), but one of the best was We Are Still Here, a haunted house story set in 1979 New England that made my Best Indie Horror of 2015 list. It features Crampton in one of her meatier roles, as a grieving mother searching for some kind of closure only to find dangerous locals and creepy burnt-up ghosts. What the story lacks in originality it makes up for in atmosphere and Crampton’s fantastic performance.

Through 2015 and 2016 Crampton appeared in seven other films, The Last Survivors, Sun Choke, Road Games, Blood Brothers, the “Grim Grinning Ghost” segment in Tales of Halloween, Little Sister, and a film the Soska Sisters loved, Beyond the Gates (it’s being described as an evil Jumanji), with two more films on the way: Applecart, which is apparently still filming according to IMDB, and Day of Reckoning, a monster-filled apocalypse story that premiered on Syfy! Crampton’s performances are extremely varied and bringing raves, particularly in Sun Choke, where she plays a sadistic nurse caring for a woman suffering from a violent psychotic break.

crampton-04

Barbara Crampton’s career resurrection is simply amazing to behold. Not only is she staying true to the genre that helped to make her a cult icon, she’s breaking new dramatic ground and crafting performances that are some of the best of her career. It’s great to see a classic old-school Scream Queen make good while staying down-to-earth and sincere.

(Visited 105 times, 1 visits today)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

28 Days of Women in HorrorBarbara CramptonBeyond the GatesCastle FreakChopping MallFrom BeyondPuppetmasterRe-AnimatorRobot WarsSun ChokeWomen in HorrorYou're Next

Lost in Translation 196: Mad Max: Fury Road
Women in Horror: Meg Foster

About The Author

monsterid
Paul Brian McCoy
Co-Founder / Editor-in-Chief / Dreamweaver

Paul Brian McCoy is the Editor-in-Chief of Psycho Drive-In. His first novel, The Unraveling: Damaged Inc. Book One is available at Amazon US & UK, along with his collection of short stories, Coffee, Sex, & Creation (US & UK). He recently contributed the 1989 chapter to The American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1980s (US & UK). He also kicked off Comics Bulletin Books with Mondo Marvel Volumes One (US & UK) and Two (US & UK) and PDI Press with Marvel at the Movies: 1977-1998 (US & UK), Marvel at the Movies: Marvel Studios (US & UK), and Spoiler Warning: Hannibal Season 1 - An Unauthorized Critical Guide (US & UK). Paul is also unnaturally preoccupied with zombie films and sci-fi television. He can be found babbling on Twitter at @PBMcCoy.

RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

Large_rectangle_336X280
All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: