ScreamMany horror movies follow familiar beats that embody the tropes of the genre--"rules" that fit a "formula"--giving fans a certain reassurance of what to expect. Wes Craven's Scream is a highly self-aware horror movie that subverts these cliches by bringing them to the foreground of the plot. Scream also embraces its derivative-by-design plot, making it feel like the quintessential teen slasher movie. Scream establishes itself as a slasher movie for the "MTV generation"; in that self-aware, ironic Nineties kind of way, the film went on to inspire a TV series reboot on said channel.
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Scream opens with a false start, where a teenage girl named Casey (Drew Barrymore) is preparing to spend a night in, watching a scary movie and eating popcorn. Suddenly, she receives a call from a discomforting voice--at first playful and even flirtatious, but the call quickly escalates into terror. This is but the first of many nods to classic horror movies--in this case, When a Stranger Calls, which opens in nearly the same fashion. Released in 1996, Scream was a mid-level budget horror film, and Drew Barrymore was the "biggest" name in the film at that time--Scream also pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho by offing this proto-protagonist within the first fifteen minutes. (She even looks a bit like a Hitchcock blonde.) This self-aware prologue sets the tone for the rest of Scream--the tense and familiar ground of a slasher movie, but steeped in irony. All of the teens in the movie have at least a working knowledge of horror movies, even if those like the true protagonist, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), are not a big fan of them. She and her boyfriend, Billy (Skeet Ulrich), joke about their intimacy along the lines of movie ratings, and even when her best friend, Tatum (Rose McGowan), mashes together the names of a couple horror movie directors ("Wes Carpenter?"), she's at least knowledgeable enough to try at the reference.
Scream was directed by Wes Craven, perhaps best known for his iconic slasher film, A Nightmare on Elm Street--Scream features more than a couple of nods to this. Aside from the occasional visual cameo and good-natured ribbing of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, Sidney and her clique are a lot like Nancy and her friends from Craven's earlier film. (Skeet Ulrich also looks a lot like Johnny Depp, who played Nancy's boyfriend.) This group of friends also embodies assorted teen movie archetypes--for example, from The Breakfast Club. Tatum's boyfriend, Stu (Matthew Lillard), is a high-energy skater-bro; Randy (Jamie Kennedy), the self-proclaimed guru on horror movie "rules" conveniently works at a video rental store, and could be considered the "nerd" of the group. Scream is suggesting that these kids have been so weaned on TV and movies, that they are like walking stereotypes; they live in a world which is immersed in media, so many of them think and act like what they see in the movies. To further the point, after Casey and her boyfriend are brutally murdered, the high school is swarmed by TV news crews looking to exploit the tragedy for ratings, not least of which is the self-absorbed tabloid reporter, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). The unfolding media blitzkrieg has all the delicacy of an atom bomb, and the exploitative journalism at the expense of teenagers surviving a tragedy presages horrible events like the Columbine shooting. Gale's appears to relentlessly hound Sidney due to her vanity, although the plot reveals that there is unresolved business between them. A year before, Sidney's mother was brutally killed, and her testimony resulted in the incarceration of a man Gale believes was innocent.
Scream is a slasher film mixed with a teen movie, but it also plays toward the mystery genre. Scream deliberately presents several "potential" suspects for who the "Ghostface" killer really is. (The iconic mask is modeled loosely after the famous Edvard Munch painting, aptly titled "The Scream".) Cues in the dialogue and mise-en-scène bait the audience; an out of focus figure, or a copy of the common "Ghostface" mask lying about take on more ominous connotations, speaking to the pervading anxiety in Scream. For example, when Principal Himbry (Henry Winkler) angrily rebukes a pair of students who were running around the halls in the killer's costume, he snatches up a pair of scissors, in a move designed to unnerve the audience, intimating that he might be the killer. Or when "Ghostface" tries to ambush Sidney in the bathroom, and the audience is treated to a shot of the killer's industrial boots--a shot repeated later with the local sheriff. (Scream has more red herrings than a fish market.) Scream is often credited with revitalizing the horror movie genre, due in no small part to its high profit margin. Scream invites neophytes into its fresh and contemporary take on the slasher genre, with nods to the films which inspired it for aficionados like Randy. It is a savvy juggling act, which ironically led to a series of sequels, just like the slasher films which paved the way for Scream.
Recommended for: Fans of a self-aware slasher film tempered by the expert direction of Wes Craven. Scream had a lasting impact on the genre, and represented a high point as an accessible horror movie that could appeal to long-time fans at the same time.
Scream was directed by Wes Craven, perhaps best known for his iconic slasher film, A Nightmare on Elm Street--Scream features more than a couple of nods to this. Aside from the occasional visual cameo and good-natured ribbing of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, Sidney and her clique are a lot like Nancy and her friends from Craven's earlier film. (Skeet Ulrich also looks a lot like Johnny Depp, who played Nancy's boyfriend.) This group of friends also embodies assorted teen movie archetypes--for example, from The Breakfast Club. Tatum's boyfriend, Stu (Matthew Lillard), is a high-energy skater-bro; Randy (Jamie Kennedy), the self-proclaimed guru on horror movie "rules" conveniently works at a video rental store, and could be considered the "nerd" of the group. Scream is suggesting that these kids have been so weaned on TV and movies, that they are like walking stereotypes; they live in a world which is immersed in media, so many of them think and act like what they see in the movies. To further the point, after Casey and her boyfriend are brutally murdered, the high school is swarmed by TV news crews looking to exploit the tragedy for ratings, not least of which is the self-absorbed tabloid reporter, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). The unfolding media blitzkrieg has all the delicacy of an atom bomb, and the exploitative journalism at the expense of teenagers surviving a tragedy presages horrible events like the Columbine shooting. Gale's appears to relentlessly hound Sidney due to her vanity, although the plot reveals that there is unresolved business between them. A year before, Sidney's mother was brutally killed, and her testimony resulted in the incarceration of a man Gale believes was innocent.
Scream is a slasher film mixed with a teen movie, but it also plays toward the mystery genre. Scream deliberately presents several "potential" suspects for who the "Ghostface" killer really is. (The iconic mask is modeled loosely after the famous Edvard Munch painting, aptly titled "The Scream".) Cues in the dialogue and mise-en-scène bait the audience; an out of focus figure, or a copy of the common "Ghostface" mask lying about take on more ominous connotations, speaking to the pervading anxiety in Scream. For example, when Principal Himbry (Henry Winkler) angrily rebukes a pair of students who were running around the halls in the killer's costume, he snatches up a pair of scissors, in a move designed to unnerve the audience, intimating that he might be the killer. Or when "Ghostface" tries to ambush Sidney in the bathroom, and the audience is treated to a shot of the killer's industrial boots--a shot repeated later with the local sheriff. (Scream has more red herrings than a fish market.) Scream is often credited with revitalizing the horror movie genre, due in no small part to its high profit margin. Scream invites neophytes into its fresh and contemporary take on the slasher genre, with nods to the films which inspired it for aficionados like Randy. It is a savvy juggling act, which ironically led to a series of sequels, just like the slasher films which paved the way for Scream.
Recommended for: Fans of a self-aware slasher film tempered by the expert direction of Wes Craven. Scream had a lasting impact on the genre, and represented a high point as an accessible horror movie that could appeal to long-time fans at the same time.