Where in the Horror are they Now? Rose McGowan!

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

ROSE McGOWAN

    THEN: The very first time I laid eyes on Rose McGowan, she said “F*ck.” It was in the shockingly bizarre THE DOOM GENERATION (1995) and I was immediately smitten. At the time, I had missed her in ENCINO MAN (1992) and BIO-DOME (1996) so I hadn’t seen her Pauly Shore close encounters. It didn’t matter though, because DOOM GENERATION presented me with her audacious performance in Gregg Araki’s cult flick of sex, drugs, bloodshed and castrating Neo-Nazis. You want to see a weird f*cking movie? You can’t get much weirder than this flick, and I loved every damn second of it! Especially every second that the lovely Rose was on-screen in all sorts of dress and undress.

While this beautiful (and badass) actress had yet to catch fire with mainstream audiences, it didn’t take long for them to discover her. Do you remember the first time you saw SCREAM? While it was strange seeing her jet black hair turned blonde, this buxom beauty created a whole slew of male fans in the slasher-comedy as Sidney Prescott’s best pal Tatum. And when it came time  for her to face off against “Ghostface” it was clear that this dude had nearly met his match. Not only was she sexy as hell once again, the actress proved to be pretty dynamic with Kevin Williamson’s smartly written script. To this day, Rose is one of the most memorable victims in the SCREAM franchise.

With a few indie flicks after the success of SCREAM, Rose once again turned to horror in PHANTOMS in 1998. Yeah, yeah, we all know that “PHANTOMS was the BOMB” but frankly I dug seeing her in this movie alongside legendary Peter O’Toole. Was it a great movie? Not really, but it had far more promise than many give it credit for. That same year, Rose and her sex appeal stirred a little low budget goodness in DEVIL IN THE FLESH. To be honest, I only vaguely remember checking this flick out, but I do remember it being worth a watch late night on video. I didn’t bother with the sequel… did you?

Next up for Rose was the HEATHERS-lite flick JAWBREAKER in 1999. And while I didn’t fully jive on the sweetness of this piece of hard candy cinema, I did enjoy the hell of out Rose. She made the admission price fully worthwhile. And while Rose’s career didn’t get all that mainstream, she continued to work in a ton of bizarre flicks. She had READY TO RUMBLE in 2000, MONKEYBONE in 2001 she even appeared as Ann-Margret in an Elvis TV movie in 2005. Soon however, she became a regular on the very popular teen series Charmed replacing the troublesome Shannen Doherty. From 2001 to 2006 she fit right into the fan favorite show, which made this indie queen accessible to television fans everywhere.

As if SCREAM and DOOM GENERATION and Charmed weren’t enough. What she did with a machine gun was extraordinary! In the groovy double features GRINDHOUSE,  she stole the show in the Robert Rodriguez directed PLANET TERROR. McGowan owned as “Cherry Darling” who had a nice piece of weaponry surgically attached to where her leg used to be! This was an iconic role for the actress, and one that I would have really appreciated seeing her recreate. This was badass on every level. And let’s face it, Rose genuinely seems to dig genre. She appeared in the other half of GRIND HOUSE, DEATH PROOF directed by Quentin Tarantino as well. She headed back for the small screen for a few episodes of Nip/Tuck in 2009. And a few years back she starred opposite Jason Momoa in the kind of/sort of remake of CONAN THE BARBARIAN in 2011.

NOW: In my years of working for JoBlo.com and Arrow in the Head I’ve had the immense pleasure of chatting with Rose a few times. Not only did she quite literally write me out a birthday card one year, another time she sang a little tune dedicated to JoBlo. She is absolutely amazing! As you know we don’t chat about gossip here at Where in the Horror, we simply talk about career, and she’s had one hell of a good one. Thankfully, this amazing lady isn’t even close to being finished. She recently was out and about promoting Dawn, a short she had directed about a teenage girl longing for more from her life. I need to see this!

According to IMDB she also has another directing gig with THE PINES in pre-production. As far as acting is concerned, she appeared on a series entitled Chosen – this Chad Michael Murray starring show is available on Crackle – which I have yet to watch, but believe me I will. And she also has the feature film THE LAST DUANE which has an expected 2015 release. This flick also stars Danny Trejo, Jason Patric and Sons of Anarchy regular Mark Boone Junior. Add to that THE TELL-TALE HEART – a revision of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale – and VOWS AND RITES which is currently filming. If you’d to find out more about the actress you can check out her official fansite. Better still, you can follow her official Facebook and Twitter page for more from the lovely, smart and talented Ms. McGowan.