Jenna Ortega has officially evolved from a Disney princess to a scream queen. In just a few short years, the Gen Z star has left her mark in horror with successful movies (both in existing franchises and helping to kickstarting a new one), while also helping revitalize Tim Burton’s career as his muse in two highly popular titles.
Though Ortega had already appeared in big movies like “Iron Man 3” (in a small role as the Vice President’s daughter) and had a recurring role on “Jane the Virgin” a decade ago, it wasn’t really until after the pandemic that Ortega broke big, especially in the horror landscape. It helped, of course, that Ortega appeared in four horror films in 2022 alone. She was a protagonist of the “Scream” reboot alongside Melissa Barrera, subverting the franchise’s iconic kitchen murder scene by surviving her encounter with Ghostface. Then she appeared in the horror comedies “American Carnage” and “Studio 666” (the latter starring alongside Dave Grohl), and she co-starred in “X,” the very successful (and very good!) horror film by Ti West that birthed an entire trilogy. All this before we get to her work on the stupidly popular “Wednesday” series, or the surprise hit of this fall, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which Ortega helped update for a younger generation.
The actor has carved herself a spot in the 2020s horror sphere, and it so happens that Ortega is a big horror fan — or at least has a rather big knowledge of the history of the genre, as seen in her eclectic choices in favorite horror movies.
James Wan, Robert Eggers, and Paul Lynch movies are among Jenna Ortega’s favorites
In a 2022 interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Ortega named “Possession,” “Insidious,” “The Witch,” “Prom Night,” and “Persona” as her five favorite horror films. What’s interesting about these picks is how much variety there is to them. You have a healthy mix of indie hits both old and recent, and movies about vastly different subjects that have different tones and levels of gore and scares.
Speaking about “The Witch,” the most recently released movie of her selections, Ortega shared her admiration for the film’s “cinematography, storyline, the performances — it’s so high quality and so beautifully done.” But before you think the list is only about craftsmanship or the dreadful term “elevated horror,” Ortega also named “Insidious” as one of her favorites because “watching that as a 12-year-old was traumatizing.” It’s good to know that some things are universal, such as watching a horror movie way too early and being traumatized by it (Ortega said she “can still see the red-faced demon guy wherever I go”).
Likewise, the actress does something potentially surprising for a member of Gen Z, in that she names movies made before the ’90s among her favorites. Specifically, she names both “Persona” and “Prom Night” (an already good movie with an arguably even better sequel, the latter of which made our list of best slasher films). “It was one of the first representations of a story where you really didn’t know who the killer is, which makes the whole thing such a worse scenario,” Ortega explained.
Jenna Ortega clearly has good taste in horror, and after starring in a variety of horror films the past few years, we’re excited to see what she does next.
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