While actress Jamie Lee Curtis independently became a “scream queen” through her role as Laurie Strode in the Halloween franchise, she also comes by her title through heredity. In 1960, Curtis’ mother Janet Leigh delivered one of the most iconic onscreen shrieks of all time as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. On last night’s Scream Queens, Curtis got to pay tribute.
In the original scene from Psycho, Marion—a thief on the run—gets into the shower in her room at the Bates Motel. After a few moments of joyful bathing, she’s interrupted by a knife-wielding murderer. She screams, is stabbed to death, and viewers watch as her blood spirals down the drain.