261 Days of Horror, Day 49: Scream
Mar. 8th, 2007 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiScream. 1996. Directed by Wes Craven. Written by Kevin Williamson. Released by Dimension.
There's lots of backlash against the Scream series, and most of it's in the form of unfair complaints about the sequels, rip-offs, and homages that followed. The Law of Unintended Consequences prevails, and the success of any movie will lead to a bunch of weak imitations*. That doesn't make the original film any less effective.
Let's start with a tabula rasa and pretend we're watching this movie without the "benefit" of the last ten years of slasher flicks.
We start with Drew Barrymore. This isn't the Cute Romantic Comedy Drew Barrymore of recent days. This is the Amy Fisher Story version of Drew Barrymore who could only land a part in Batman Forever as a minor moll. So understand, she's not exactly the celebrity death that you might think. Anyway, she's making popcorn and looking quite cute in a blond wig and a sweater when doom strikes, as it so often does, in the form of a telephone call.
Turns out it's a crank caller, but she chats with the guy anyway, because she's turned on by cheap voice modulating devices. Eventually, as the guy asks her about horror movies, she realizes that this isn't a typical crank call. He starts pestering her with questions that make it clear that he knows who she is, and eventually, he forces her into a horror trivia game, with her sports jock boyfriend's life at stake. Once Drew fails to remember the killer in the first Friday the 13th movie, her boyfriend gets it (stabbed in a chair out by the pool), and it's hard to feel any sympathy for her anyway, since no one should get to age 18 without knowing about Pamela Vorhees.
Eventually, Drew realizes that the game is rigged, especially when she's finally attacked by a guy in a flowing black cloak and a bizarre white mask. She fights him off, running out the back, but is eventually chased down and stabbed. As her parents get home and search for her, we see her being stabbed one last time, and strung up from a tree to die.
Only after that ten-minute opening sequence do we finally meet our lead, Sidney**. There are two notable things about this teenager. First, her mom was raped and killed a year ago, and the man convicted of the crime is that guy who replaced Grissom on CSI this year. Second, she's a virgin. Needless to say, her boyfriend, Billy, wishes that the latter would change.
We get plenty of intro scenes to introduce us to the significant characters. There's Sidney's bff, Tatum (played by Rose McGowan and her breasts***). Tatum's brother, Dewey, is a rookie cop (played by David Arquette). Her boyfriend, Stu (Matthew Lillard) is basically just an asshole. Tabloid TV reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) has made herself into a media star by reporting on the murder of Sidney's mom, and is a royal prima donna. And finally, there's film geek Randy Meeks, the horror-movie obsessed character who knows all the "rules" for surviving a horror flick.
The next night, with Sidney's dad out of town, the killer calls her up, and then attacks her from inside her own house! She escapes, and the police suspect Billy and arrest him. Meanwhile, Gale sees an opportunity for even more fame, and attempts to interview Sidney, which ends when the latter clocks the reporter (which is not, technically, a violation of the First Amendment, but it could be grounds for an assault charge).
We get a few more fun scenes, featuring the killer terrorizing Sidney over the phone again (thus exonerating Billy), attacking her in a school bathroom, and killing the school principal (TV's Henry Winkler) for no discernible reason at all. We also get one of those monumentally stupid "for the audience" moments, in which we see the killer -- in full costume -- in the woods after a conversation between Tatum and Sidney. Even though he's not stalking them or attacking them, and we cut to another scene afterwards. Since this isn't a Jason-esque killer with no ability to blend in, there's simply no fucking reason for the killer to be in costume, other than to toss a quick scare into the audience. It's self-indulgent crap like this (as opposed to the self-aware postmodernism that's theoretically driving the film) that prevents Scream from being a true masterpiece.
We get a few more pre-party scenes (including yet another pointless appearance by the Ghostface Killer**** in a grocery store), and then we get the big party that all teen horror movies have to have. Tatum heads to the garage for some beer, but finds the killer instead! She puts up a damned good fight, pelting him with beer bottles and using a nice duck-under throw, but eventually decides to flee. Alas, the only exit is through the cat flap in the garage door, and Tatum is just a wee bit too big to make it more than halfway through. The killer, instead of wasting precious knife swipes stabbing the girl, decides to open the garage door and crush her head instead.
Back at the party, Gale and her cameraman (played by W. Earl Brown, pre-Something About Mary and Deadwood) have placed a hidden camera there (which has a thirty-second time delay for no good reason other than setting up a murder later), and Sidney, turned on by all the danger, decides that a party full of drunk teens is the perfect place to lose her virginity, so she and Billy go upstairs to do the Wild Thing, and after finishing the deed, instead of snuggling, Billy turns over and gets himself stabbed. Downstairs, the party's broken up as the kids learn about the death of the principal and decide to go check out the scene. That means that no one's around to hear Sidney's screams except the cameraman, who forgets about that thirty-second time delay, sees the killer on screen in the house, and heads outside, where he gets his throat slit.
Meanwhile, Dewey and Gale, who have been flirting, have also come across Sidney's dad's car, abandoned in the woods. Looks like his business trip never happened as expected. When they get back to the house, Dewey heads inside with his gun, and Gale checks out the van, seeing the blood on the windshield, but not realizing that her cameraman is dead at first. By the time she realizes this, she's cruising down the road, and when Sidney runs into the road looking for help, Gale swerves and crashes the van. Sidney, realizing that Gale's not very useful, heads back to the house, where Dewey stumbles out, a knife in his back, followed by the killer.
Sidney hides in a car, but the killer gets inside, leading to another confrontation. She escapes with a gun, and both Randy and Stu show up, each accusing the other of being the killer (since no one else is left). Sidney shows remarkable common sense and slams the door on both of them, and soon we see a bloody Billy stumble down the stairs. Sidney, ecstatic that her boyfriend is still alive, runs to him, and he opens the door to let Randy in (Stu has vanished). Out of nowhere, Billy seems to be a lot healthier, and he takes Sidney's gun, quotes Norman Bates, and shoots poor Randy in the shoulder. Surprise!
Stu makes his appearance from the kitchen, having headed in the back door. OMG, there are two killers! The kids reveal that they also killed Sid's mother. See, Sidney's mom had been sleeping with Billy's dad, and Billy blamed that for the divorce of his parents. Stu is just a psycho who was willing to help. After the rush of that first kill, they know they can get away with another murder spree, stabbing each other to make it look like they're "victims" as well. As a bonus feature, they've kidnapped Sidney's dad!
The two killers stab each other non-fatally, but argue some (since they didn't realize just how much it would hurt) before getting interrupted by Gale, who has a gun, but doesn't know how to take the safety off. While the wounded killers are knocking her out, Sidney and her dad vanish! The killers tear up the house looking for her, with Billy finding her when she pops out of a closet and stabs him with an umbrella! She then struggles with Stu, eventually smashing a TV set on his head, and when Billy reveals that he's still not dead, Gale wakes up, figures out the safety thing, and blows him away. We get one last false scare, with Billy opening his eyes, before Sidney puts another bullet in his head.
There are plenty of small problems with Scream, from the self-indulgent stuff (the killer running around in places he doesn't need to be, the gratuitously set up kills involving things like garage doors and time-delayed cameras), to the acting (which is decidedly hit-or-miss). But the postmodern aspects of the movie -- victims who fight back, characters who are aware of the link between virginity and death in horror movies, two killers blending into one anonymous identity, cute name gags like "Loomis*****" and "Gale Weathers" -- are what make it work. Director Wes Craven had already explored some of this territory in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and this follow-up makes a perfect counterpoint to it. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson has never matched the lofty highs that he hits here, bringing a fresh look at the slasher subgenre that had transcended staleness and faded to irrelevance by the mid-'90s.
Scream's unquestionably flawed, but it's one of the most influential and, frankly, fun slasher flicks of the last few decades. Still highly recommended.
*Just as Saw begat Hostel which begat Turistas. Although I'm not sure any example that allows me let Saw off the hook for something is a good one.
**You know she's the lead because she's got an androgynous name.
***I believe that the latter get acting credits on the special edition.
****When no fewer than five folks dress up as the killer over the course of three movies, I guess it's hard to assign a specific identity to the murderer, which is why this term came into vogue.
*****That's a Halloween reference. And if you haven't seen Halloween, see it now. Please. We're talking basic horror movie literacy here.
There's lots of backlash against the Scream series, and most of it's in the form of unfair complaints about the sequels, rip-offs, and homages that followed. The Law of Unintended Consequences prevails, and the success of any movie will lead to a bunch of weak imitations*. That doesn't make the original film any less effective.
Let's start with a tabula rasa and pretend we're watching this movie without the "benefit" of the last ten years of slasher flicks.
We start with Drew Barrymore. This isn't the Cute Romantic Comedy Drew Barrymore of recent days. This is the Amy Fisher Story version of Drew Barrymore who could only land a part in Batman Forever as a minor moll. So understand, she's not exactly the celebrity death that you might think. Anyway, she's making popcorn and looking quite cute in a blond wig and a sweater when doom strikes, as it so often does, in the form of a telephone call.
Turns out it's a crank caller, but she chats with the guy anyway, because she's turned on by cheap voice modulating devices. Eventually, as the guy asks her about horror movies, she realizes that this isn't a typical crank call. He starts pestering her with questions that make it clear that he knows who she is, and eventually, he forces her into a horror trivia game, with her sports jock boyfriend's life at stake. Once Drew fails to remember the killer in the first Friday the 13th movie, her boyfriend gets it (stabbed in a chair out by the pool), and it's hard to feel any sympathy for her anyway, since no one should get to age 18 without knowing about Pamela Vorhees.
Eventually, Drew realizes that the game is rigged, especially when she's finally attacked by a guy in a flowing black cloak and a bizarre white mask. She fights him off, running out the back, but is eventually chased down and stabbed. As her parents get home and search for her, we see her being stabbed one last time, and strung up from a tree to die.
Only after that ten-minute opening sequence do we finally meet our lead, Sidney**. There are two notable things about this teenager. First, her mom was raped and killed a year ago, and the man convicted of the crime is that guy who replaced Grissom on CSI this year. Second, she's a virgin. Needless to say, her boyfriend, Billy, wishes that the latter would change.
We get plenty of intro scenes to introduce us to the significant characters. There's Sidney's bff, Tatum (played by Rose McGowan and her breasts***). Tatum's brother, Dewey, is a rookie cop (played by David Arquette). Her boyfriend, Stu (Matthew Lillard) is basically just an asshole. Tabloid TV reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) has made herself into a media star by reporting on the murder of Sidney's mom, and is a royal prima donna. And finally, there's film geek Randy Meeks, the horror-movie obsessed character who knows all the "rules" for surviving a horror flick.
The next night, with Sidney's dad out of town, the killer calls her up, and then attacks her from inside her own house! She escapes, and the police suspect Billy and arrest him. Meanwhile, Gale sees an opportunity for even more fame, and attempts to interview Sidney, which ends when the latter clocks the reporter (which is not, technically, a violation of the First Amendment, but it could be grounds for an assault charge).
We get a few more fun scenes, featuring the killer terrorizing Sidney over the phone again (thus exonerating Billy), attacking her in a school bathroom, and killing the school principal (TV's Henry Winkler) for no discernible reason at all. We also get one of those monumentally stupid "for the audience" moments, in which we see the killer -- in full costume -- in the woods after a conversation between Tatum and Sidney. Even though he's not stalking them or attacking them, and we cut to another scene afterwards. Since this isn't a Jason-esque killer with no ability to blend in, there's simply no fucking reason for the killer to be in costume, other than to toss a quick scare into the audience. It's self-indulgent crap like this (as opposed to the self-aware postmodernism that's theoretically driving the film) that prevents Scream from being a true masterpiece.
We get a few more pre-party scenes (including yet another pointless appearance by the Ghostface Killer**** in a grocery store), and then we get the big party that all teen horror movies have to have. Tatum heads to the garage for some beer, but finds the killer instead! She puts up a damned good fight, pelting him with beer bottles and using a nice duck-under throw, but eventually decides to flee. Alas, the only exit is through the cat flap in the garage door, and Tatum is just a wee bit too big to make it more than halfway through. The killer, instead of wasting precious knife swipes stabbing the girl, decides to open the garage door and crush her head instead.
Back at the party, Gale and her cameraman (played by W. Earl Brown, pre-Something About Mary and Deadwood) have placed a hidden camera there (which has a thirty-second time delay for no good reason other than setting up a murder later), and Sidney, turned on by all the danger, decides that a party full of drunk teens is the perfect place to lose her virginity, so she and Billy go upstairs to do the Wild Thing, and after finishing the deed, instead of snuggling, Billy turns over and gets himself stabbed. Downstairs, the party's broken up as the kids learn about the death of the principal and decide to go check out the scene. That means that no one's around to hear Sidney's screams except the cameraman, who forgets about that thirty-second time delay, sees the killer on screen in the house, and heads outside, where he gets his throat slit.
Meanwhile, Dewey and Gale, who have been flirting, have also come across Sidney's dad's car, abandoned in the woods. Looks like his business trip never happened as expected. When they get back to the house, Dewey heads inside with his gun, and Gale checks out the van, seeing the blood on the windshield, but not realizing that her cameraman is dead at first. By the time she realizes this, she's cruising down the road, and when Sidney runs into the road looking for help, Gale swerves and crashes the van. Sidney, realizing that Gale's not very useful, heads back to the house, where Dewey stumbles out, a knife in his back, followed by the killer.
Sidney hides in a car, but the killer gets inside, leading to another confrontation. She escapes with a gun, and both Randy and Stu show up, each accusing the other of being the killer (since no one else is left). Sidney shows remarkable common sense and slams the door on both of them, and soon we see a bloody Billy stumble down the stairs. Sidney, ecstatic that her boyfriend is still alive, runs to him, and he opens the door to let Randy in (Stu has vanished). Out of nowhere, Billy seems to be a lot healthier, and he takes Sidney's gun, quotes Norman Bates, and shoots poor Randy in the shoulder. Surprise!
Stu makes his appearance from the kitchen, having headed in the back door. OMG, there are two killers! The kids reveal that they also killed Sid's mother. See, Sidney's mom had been sleeping with Billy's dad, and Billy blamed that for the divorce of his parents. Stu is just a psycho who was willing to help. After the rush of that first kill, they know they can get away with another murder spree, stabbing each other to make it look like they're "victims" as well. As a bonus feature, they've kidnapped Sidney's dad!
The two killers stab each other non-fatally, but argue some (since they didn't realize just how much it would hurt) before getting interrupted by Gale, who has a gun, but doesn't know how to take the safety off. While the wounded killers are knocking her out, Sidney and her dad vanish! The killers tear up the house looking for her, with Billy finding her when she pops out of a closet and stabs him with an umbrella! She then struggles with Stu, eventually smashing a TV set on his head, and when Billy reveals that he's still not dead, Gale wakes up, figures out the safety thing, and blows him away. We get one last false scare, with Billy opening his eyes, before Sidney puts another bullet in his head.
There are plenty of small problems with Scream, from the self-indulgent stuff (the killer running around in places he doesn't need to be, the gratuitously set up kills involving things like garage doors and time-delayed cameras), to the acting (which is decidedly hit-or-miss). But the postmodern aspects of the movie -- victims who fight back, characters who are aware of the link between virginity and death in horror movies, two killers blending into one anonymous identity, cute name gags like "Loomis*****" and "Gale Weathers" -- are what make it work. Director Wes Craven had already explored some of this territory in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and this follow-up makes a perfect counterpoint to it. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson has never matched the lofty highs that he hits here, bringing a fresh look at the slasher subgenre that had transcended staleness and faded to irrelevance by the mid-'90s.
Scream's unquestionably flawed, but it's one of the most influential and, frankly, fun slasher flicks of the last few decades. Still highly recommended.
*Just as Saw begat Hostel which begat Turistas. Although I'm not sure any example that allows me let Saw off the hook for something is a good one.
**You know she's the lead because she's got an androgynous name.
***I believe that the latter get acting credits on the special edition.
****When no fewer than five folks dress up as the killer over the course of three movies, I guess it's hard to assign a specific identity to the murderer, which is why this term came into vogue.
*****That's a Halloween reference. And if you haven't seen Halloween, see it now. Please. We're talking basic horror movie literacy here.