In every generation, there is a scream queen–an actress known for starring in horror films who comes to embody the genre landscape of her time. From Janet Leigh and her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis, Sarah Michelle Gellar to Maika Monroe, these women often originate a beloved character or star in a variety of cutting edge films, pushing the boundaries as cinema evolves.
The jury’s still out on which Gen Z actress will ascend to the scream queen throne, but Sydney Sweeney is making a strong case for her legacy. Though not exclusively known for horror, this versatile actress specializes in creating fearsome characters that break the mold set by her predecessors. With her wide eyes and angelic smile, Sweeney has a knack for luring us in with the perception of innocence only to shock us with a cutting remark or withering glare.
In Immaculate, Sweeney enters the taboo world of pregnancy horror with her most challenging character to date. Cecilia is a young novitiate whose path to becoming a nun is derailed by the discovery that she may be carrying the child of God in her womb. Directed by Michael Mohan, the film is a blood-soaked battle between good and evil with Cecilia trapped somewhere in between.
Yet Sweeney excels in this type of ambiguity, often blindsiding audiences with a villainous turn or devastating death. She’s spent the last 15 years deconstructing her girl next door persona with an impressive resume boasting horrific roles from film and television of all genres. In anticipation of Immaculate, Bloody Disgusting has compiled her most terrifying turns — even outside of the genre.
Alice – The Ward (2010)
Sweeney’s acting career was born out of horror. Her first film credit was a small role in the 2009 horror comedy ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction, followed by a handful of scary shorts and appearances on Heroes and Criminal Minds. In 2010, however, Sweeney nabbed a role in The Ward, John Carpenter’s eagerly anticipated return to the director’s chair. Sweeney plays a small but pivotal role as a younger version of the film’s supernatural threat through periodic flashbacks that find her chained in a dirty basement. Sweeney makes the most out of a limited role and demonstrates an uncanny ability to dance between the boundaries of villain and victim. As a captive, she is clearly no threat, but her disarming eyes hint at a lurking malevolence just waiting to emerge.
Emaline – Everything Sucks! (2018)
Sweeney would spend the next eight years building a name for herself in film and TV, appearing in B-movies like Spiders and Held while booking guest spots on prominent shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Pretty Little Liars. In 2018, Sweeney landed a major role in the Netflix series Everything Sucks! created by Ben York Jones and Immaculate director Michael Mohan. Set in 1996, this quirky series follows high school freshman Luke (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) and his fellow AV Club members as they feud with older students from the Drama Club. Sweeney plays Emaline, a vicious mean girl who dedicates her life to taking Luke and his nerdy friends down. As the outwardly hostile but inwardly frightened girl, Sweeney brings both heart and relatability to Emaline, essentially laying out the blueprint that leads to her international stardom.
Ashley – Along Came the Devil (2018)
This year also saw Sweeney star in more traditional horror fare with Jason DeVan’s horror film Along Came the Devil. Sweeney leads the cast as Ashely, a young teen recently removed from the home of her abusive father. With her sister off to college and her mother long dead, Ashley moves in with her Aunt Tanya (Jessica Barth) and reconnects with childhood friends. While trying to impress her new classmates, Ashley takes part in a reckless séance and inadvertently opens the door for an evil force. As the demonic entity takes possession of her body, Ashley begins to act with violence and profanity. The film itself is a standard possession story, but Sweeney is a bright spot as the tormented victim and practices the sweetly devilish charm she would go on to perfect in future roles.
Eden – The Handmaid’s Tale (2018)
Sweeney followed this starring turn with a memorable role on one of TV’s buzziest shows. Season two of The Handmaid’s Tale introduces Eden, a devout child bride forced to marry a man she barely knows. As an Econowife, she’s been raised to believe she exists to serve her husband and bear his children, abandoning her own desires to fulfill God’s purpose for her life. But regardless of intention, this teenager finds herself drawn to a cute boy who gives her the affection her aloof husband will not. She engages in a romantic dalliance and winds up paying a steep price for the crime of infidelity. Betrayed by her own father, Eden is publicly executed when she refuses to “renounce her sin.” This quiet act of courage and defiance sparks similar rebellion in the dehumanized women forced to watch her drown. Sweeney may play an innocent character, but her shocking death remains one of the show’s most upsetting and horrific moments.
Alice – Sharp Objects (2018)
In addition to this memorable role, Sweeney would make a brief but pivotal appearance in another of the year’s most talked about shows. Like its name foretells, HBO’s Sharp Objects is an unflinching adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s debut novel and a jaw-dropping exploration of self-harm and addiction. Sweeney appears in a series of flashbacks that serve as a reference point for Camille (Amy Adams), the story’s troubled protagonist. Roommates in a residential treatment center, Alice and Camille quickly bond over music and a shared understanding of the overwhelming desire to mutilate their own bodies. Tragically, Camille discovers Alice’s lifeless body moments after drinking drain cleaner. Consumed with shock and grief, Camille desperately tries to slit her wrists with a loose screw from a nearby toilet as hospital staff wrestle her to safety. It’s a brutal moment.
Snake – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
Sweeney’s next high profile role would be a small part in one of the most exciting films of 2019: Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a revisionist history of 1969 Hollywood that garnered 10 Oscar nominations and two wins. Sweeney plays Snake, a younger member of the deadly Manson Family cult who’ve laid claim to Spahn Ranch on the outskirts of town. Looking out from a dirty screen door, Snake exudes menace even though we don’t yet know the true nature of the group’s plans. Sweeney’s character is loosely based on a real life member of the Manson family, Dianne Lake, who spent two years with Manson and testified against a number of his followers. Sweeney doesn’t do anything overtly evil in this minimal role, but her seductive and confronting eyes are enough to tell us that something is very wrong on the grounds of Spahn Ranch.
Juliet – Nocturne (2020)
Sweeney’s next feature film appearance would be in a leading role. Following her breakout portrayal of Cassie Howard in Sam Levinson’s Euphoria, the actress starred as Juliet in Nocturne, the fourth installment in Amazon Studios’ Welcome to Blumhouse series. Overshadowed by her more talented sister, Juliet begins to have sinister visions when she stumbles on a cryptic notebook related to the death of a fellow student. This faustian horror film follows Juliet through betrayal and violence as she weighs love for her twin sister with an overwhelming desire for perfection. In a villainous yet relatable performance, Sweeney shows that she can maintain the audience’s sympathies while doing the most despicable things.
Olivia – The White Lotus (2021)
Sweeney’s appearance on HBO’s The White Lotus would solidify her status as one of Hollywood’s most versatile young stars. Olivia is a privileged college student on a Hawaiian vacation with her ultra-wealthy businesswoman mother and 2nd generation famous father. Dubbed the “scariest girls on TV,” she and her friend Paula (Brittany O’Grady) spend their days doing drugs and eviscerating fellow guests with sharp words and thinly veiled insults. But a rift forms between the cynical friends when Paula begins sleeping with a hunky member of the staff. No longer the center of attention, Olivia vows revenge and begins subtly torturing her friend with snide comments and viscous barbs. Though never outright dangerous, Olivia wields her unearned power like a knife and doesn’t hesitate to cut those around her to smithereens.
Reality Winner – Reality (2023)
Hoping to take her career in an unexpected direction, Sweeney auditioned and fought for the titular role in Tina Satter’s unsettling HBO docu-drama Reality. We first meet Sweeney’s Reality Winner as she watches news coverage of James Comey’s termination from her desk at a military contracting organization. Later, she’s surprised at home by FBI agents with a warrant to search her apartment for evidence that she leaked a classified document proving Russian interference with the 2016 election. The real Winner, a former U.S. Air Force veteran and NSA translator, would go on to serve more than five years in federal prison, the steepest sentence ever given to an American whistleblower. Satter’s film is based largely on transcripts of a conversation recorded as Winner is taken into custody, reminding us that this woman portrayed in the news as a criminal mastermind is in actuality a relatable 25 year old just trying to be a good citizen. Of all Sweeney’s terrifying roles, this may be the most horrific simply because every bit of the nerve-wracking story is true.
Cassie Howard – Euphoria (2019 to Present)
When we first meet Cassie Howard on the debut season of Euphoria, she’s a sweet girl longing for the father she lost to substance abuse. Dating a college football player, she faces her share of heartbreak, but the ingénue takes a devious turn in the Season 2 premiere when she begins sleeping with her best friend’s ex. Carrying this secret for much of the season, Cassie explodes when she watches a recreation of her most painful moments unfold on stage as the subject of her sister’s school play. With her relationship in shambles and nothing left to lose, Cassie walks down the aisle on a kamikaze mission to ruin the performance and humiliate her younger sister in return. Though not a villainous character, Cassie becomes an unpredictable and catastrophic force in this combustible friend group. There’s no telling what her self-destructive eyes will fall on next and who will suffer in the collateral damage
Photo Credit: Fabian Lavino courtesy of NEON
In the 15 years since her first screen credit, Sweeney has perfected the art of deceptive horror. Whether bringing fear to innocuous comedies or playing compelling victims in outright horror, Sweeney constantly keeps us guessing in one uniquely shocking role after another. Her magnetic turn as a pregnant nun in Immaculate is both the culmination of a long journey through the horror genre and an exciting harbinger of roles to come. With two upcoming thrillers currently in post-production and Season 3 of Euphoria due in 2025, it seems the chameleonic actress will likely be surprising us with more horrific roles for the foreseeable future.
Witness unholy horror. IMMACULATE starring Sydney Sweeney is in theaters this Friday. Get tickets now.
