Shriek

*"He said the mutations are advancing. My powers are too strong."*
―Shriek to Cletus Kasady[src]
**Frances Louise Barrison**, also known as **Shriek**, was the girlfriend turned wife of deranged serial killer Cletus Kasady and a former inmate at Ravencroft. She was a mutant who possessed a supersonic screech.

## Biography

### Early Life

in her childhood, Frances Barrison was sent to St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children, due to her possessing a supersonic scream. While there, she encountered Cletus Kasady and incapacitated some of the orphans who were bullying him with her scream, later befriending him. As time passed, the two grew up and formed a romantic bond until Frances was hauled off to Ravencroft Institute in 1996, much to Cletus' dismay. En route to Ravencroft, she attempted to escape by using her powers and attacked police officer Patrick Mulligan, who shot Frances in the left eye, although the latter nearly went deaf from Frances' screech.

### Life in Ravencroft

Unbeknownst to Mulligan, who believed he killed her, Frances was taken to the institute, which was hardened to withstand her abilities, and nicknamed "Shriek" by the staff. During her time there, she was mocked and abused by Camille Pazzo, the head doctor of Ravencroft. One day, she learned that Cletus was subjected to the death penalty after the bodies of some of his victims were discovered by the authorities, causing her to scream in horror.

### Reunion with Cletus

After Cletus, now bonded to a new symbiote called Carnage, had escaped his death sentence, she was informed by Dr. Pazzo that Cletus had broken out of San Quentin State Prison, but taunted her not to get her hopes up since Cletus would never find her. Annoyed, Frances typed "Screw you" on the screen to Dr. Pazzo. As Pazzo continued to taunt her, Cletus showed up and used Carnage to strangle her to death while Frances watched on in shock before showing great excitement at seeing her lover again. After Cletus greeted Frances and introduced her to Carnage, she expressed amazement as Carnage crushed her cell, allowing the lovers to kiss while Carnage took out the guards.

### A Planned Wedding

Following the escape, Frances and Cletus burned down St. Estes before planning to get married. The three sought guests to attend the wedding. Frances asked for Detective Mulligan before going heading to Eddie's apartment to confront Eddie, who was secretly bonded to Venom. There, she discovered a wedding ring meant for Eddie's ex-fiancee Anne Weiying. Planning to use Anne to bait Eddie and Venom, she subdued Anne's boyfriend Dan Lewis before capturing Anne.

#### Duel at Grace Cathedral

Cletus and Shriek planned to get married at a cathedral with a kidnapped minister, where Venom appears and fights Carnage. Shriek seemingly attacks and kills Mulligan with her sonic powers. Venom attacked, resulting in Carnage and Cletus fighting them. During the fight, Carnage knocked Shriek around to Cletus' protests and killed the church priest to get more power. Eventually, Carnage grew tired of Shriek's presence and tried to strangle her to death, which caused Cletus to panic and try to prevent Carnage from doing so. As the fight with Venom reached the bell tower, Venom manages to rescue Anne Weying in time and provokes Shriek to use her powers again; her sonic blast causes both symbiotes to separate from their hosts, but then Shriek falls to her death below as her scream dislodged the bell and crushes her.

## Personality

Frances is very loyal to Cletus Kasady and protective of him as they were both neglected in their childhood, eventually falling in love in him. However, she had a dark side as her undying love for Cletus and years of isolation at Ravencroft resulted in her committing sinister actions alongside him. Frances was also obsessed with revenge against Patrick Mulligan.

However, she did have some morality: she was notably the only one to befriend Cletus in their childhood and protected him from those who bullied him, which allowed Cletus to feel happiness after living a childhood full of abuse. Additionally, despite her dark affiliation with Cletus, she argued that Carnage was going too far when he tried to kill Anne Weying and implored Cletus to stop him, showing that even she was shocked by Carnage's evil nature and didn't resort to killing those who had nothing to do with them.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Sonic Manipulation**: Shriek was able to produce powerful sonic screams, capable of inflicting pain on Symbiotes and normal Humans.
* **Sound Immunity**: Shriek was not affected by her sonic scream once she uses it.

### Abilities

* **Skilled Combatant**: Shriek demonstrates advanced hand-to-hand fighting skills.

## Relationships

### Family

* Cletus Kasady † - Husband
* Roscoe Kasady - Father-in-Law
* Louise Kasady † - Mother-in-Law
* Nana Kasady † - Grandmother-in-Law

### Enemies

* Carnage † - Former Ally turned Attempted Killer
* Eddie Brock/Venom - Killer
* Anne Weying - Attempted Victim
* Camille Pazzo † - Abuser
* Patrick Mulligan - Attempted Victim and Attempted Killer

## Trivia

* In the comics, Shriek is an enemy of Spider-Man.
* Frances underwent a redesign from comic to film. Her comics counterpart has pale white skin and dark black hair and clothing. She also has a black diamond mark on her left eye, and both irises of her eyes are blue. In the film, Francis does not have the black diamond mark, but she does have a scar. Also, only the iris of her left eye is blue (a shimmering hue) compared to that of her right eye which is brown.

## Behind the Scenes

* Belle Williams and Ayanna Linton were stunt doubles for Naomie Harris and Liva Rafidison was stunt double for Olumide Olorunfemi in the role of Shriek.

## References

The Sony's Spider-Man Universe Wiki has a collection of images and media related to **Shriek**.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 *Venom: Let There Be Carnage*

## External Links

* Shriek on Marvel Database
* Shriek on Wikipedia