Bonus Scream Queen: Cherie Johnson

For the third year in a row, I bring you a flag-draped Scream Queen for the Fourth of July, officially making it a tradition.

Celebrate Independence Day with Cherie Johnson, a child actress who got her start on "Puniky Brewster" and made a successful transition to adulthood in front of the camera with roles in horror films such as "Dead Tone", "Killer Weekend" (both 2007), and "Raven" (2010).

Bonus Scream Queen: Amanda Tapping

It's Independence Day in the United States, and in celebration, I'm presenting the second annual Bonus Scream Queen.

Amanda Tapping is a veteran television actress who spent 13 years portraying U.S. Air Force scientist and inter-stellar explorer Samantha Carter on "Stargate: SG-1" and the spin-off series and movies, from 1997 through 2010. More recently, she starred as the unaging Helen Magnus on the SyFy Channel monster series "Sanctuary", which was formally cancelled in May of 2012 after four seasons.

As she was getting established, Tapping had small parts on several horror series in the mid-1990s, including "Forever Knight", "Goosebumps", "The X-Files", and "Millennium". In between her series work, she also had roles in the horror films "Blacktop", "The Haunting of Lisa", and "The Void".

Tapping's most recent horror film, "Taken Back", was released last month. She plays a deranged mother who think she's located her long-lost daughter living with another couple.

Bonus Scream Queen: Charisma Carpenter

In celebration of July Fourth, Independence Day in the United States of America, I present a special Monday Scream Queen.

Charisma Carpenter was working as a cheerleader for the San Diego Chargers when she turned to acting. After landing a few commercials and bit parts, and recurring parts in television series "Josh Kirby: Time Warrior" and "Malibu Shores", she was cast as Cordelia, the social nemesis and eventual friend of teenaged vampire slayer, Buffy in the long-running series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". She also potrayed the character on the spin-off series "Angel".

After playing Cordelia from 1996 to 2004, Carpenter has gone on to star in made-for-television horror movies, such as "Voodoo Moon" (2006) and "House of Bones (2010), both for the Syfy Channel, in addition to extended guest-shots on series "Charmed" and "Strange Frequency".

Most recently, Carpenter has starred in a couple of chillers for the big screen--"Psychosis" in 2010 and "Crash Site". which is scheduled to hit theaters in next month, August 2011.

Carpenter's current slate of films consists entirely of horror movies in various stages of production, with "The Human Factor" in pre-production and "A Trusted Man" and "Deadly Sibling Rivalry" in post-production and slated for release late this year. Carpenter plays twin sisters in that last film, one good and one evil.

A Fourth of July Nightmare?

Submitted for your consideration: Erika David, a young lady whose singing voice and good looks made her a minor YouTube sensation and who was starting to climb the ladder to true celebrity. Her live performance of "God Bless America" before 100,000 baseball fans was to be a major break for her. But something went wrong, and Erika will discover that dreams have a subset we call nightmares.



Did Erika crumble under the pressure of performing in front of cameras and a huge crowd? Or was she merely singing "God Bless America" as it is known in the Twilight Zone?