1996’s Scream, directed
by Wes Craven.
Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Skeet
Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy, Henry Winkler, Drew
Barrymore, and Liev Schreiber.
What is it about?
Set in California during the 1990’s, high school student
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her father (Lawrence Hect) mourn the death
of Sidney’s mother. With the 1 year anniversary of her passing approaching, their
town is rocked by the appearance of a ghostface serial killer with encyclopedic
knowledge of horror movies, whom stalks and kills teenagers. The killings
attract the media, such as tabloid reporter Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox), who
has her own theories on how Sidney’s mother died. With best friend Tatum Riley
(Rose McGowan), her brother Deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette), boyfriend
Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), and friends Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) and Randy
Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), Sidney will need to outwit the killer to survive. Will
her ignorance of horror films be her undoing?
Why is it worth seeing?
At some point in the 90’s, horror films found themselves in
a rather uninspiring place. With Blockbusters chocked full of direct to video
slasher dreck, audiences began to check out as Hollywood churned out crap mostly
worth forgetting. Horror auteur Wes Craven had a glimpse of some kind of new horror
genre in 1994’s New Nightmare. It
featured his iconic creation from Nightmare
on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger, whom previously was only dealt with in his victim’s
nightmares. Craven experimented with the self aware idea of his abomination existing
in the “real world”, and the meta implications that would ensue. While New Nightmare was more ground breaking
than successful, Craven would later team up with writer Kevin Williamson to
create something here where the characters are not only self aware of the genre
they’re starring in, but gleefully in on the joke.
To establish a formula, you need rules. Patterns. Routines. Scream’s characters don’t just inhabit
them- they tell you about how they’re fulfilling them. After a virtuosic
opening sequence, a sleek tribute to the slasher films of yesteryear, we meet
our gang of protagonists. All of them spend time explaining to us the cliché of
their various roles. You know the type- attractive happy-go-lucky teenagers
(portrayed by adults well past voting age) who would rather leave behind good
looking corpses, than just call the police or run out the front door. Beyond
the clichéd characters, comes even the character who explains the rules to us-
while Halloween plays in the
background. Meta- it’s, y’know… for kids.
Craven, so experienced after creating such groundbreaking
fare like Last House on the Left, The
Hills Have Eyes, and the Nightmare
franchise, creates something that is quite thrilling at times. It’s nice to
see, underneath all the cleverness and jabs at the genre, that Craven crafts
some kineticism as our heroes try to survive the cinephiles’ wrath. It’s just
as well, since the movie’s ghostface antagonist (and those behind the mask)
aren’t scary. They’re kind of clumsy, and motives are explainable, no matter
the amount of middle class entitlement. But Scream
knows that, that the lynchpins’ power of the genre’s classics derives from our
lack of understanding, or unfamiliarity with their back story and motivations.
It’s just too clever to care.
Any formidable “final girl” requires someone who is plucky
and resilient. Neve Campbell is a fine choice, someone who portrays intelligence,
stands out from the crowd for introverted reasons, and doesn’t take off her
shirt when she’s in Wild Things. She’s a great choice, and only 22 when
filming this movie. Less can be said about the rest of the cast, with the
exception of Courtney Cox and David Arquette. Their characters are ridiculous, barely
archetypes- but they possess a chemistry that would surprise few people
considering the 2 actors married each other shortly before the movie’s sequel.
With a groundbreaking director at the helm, a hot writer,
and a capable protagonist, Scream has some thrills, and its charms are infused
with some satire, and a whole lot of self awareness. It knows its influences as
well as a grad student- but forgets the lesson. It's too clever by half
quartered.
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