Scream

Scream

It was only a matter of time before the greatness of the American Horror Movie completely imploded. As the glorious 80s gave way to the early 90s and all the chinks in the armor of a once beloved genre began to show as the various clichés, stereotypes, and oft repeated stories came to a head, not to mention all the marvelous old school franchises that were rapidly turning to shit stirred twice, even the prized teenage demographic once sought after by the horror filmmakers of the day were now recognizing the severe lack of true quality and had actually started belittling it. There was no going back now, but there was one last ditch attempt by screenwriter Kevin Williamson to dredge something out of the swamp and try to capture the nature of the then current cynical youth zeitgeist that was everywhere and make one more try at something original and fun. That resulted in this 1996 release, which exploded into a major phenomenom at the time, and was even smart enough to bring on board as its director one Wes Craven, easily among the most respected horror directors of both the 70s and 80s, as this became a film that soon had everyone talking about horror again, even as it was sadly short lived. Williamson’s trick as a writer was to portray all the main teen characters as being rabid movie lovers who were not only overtly familiar with the movies themselves but also with all the clichés as well, particularly within the horror genre, creating an almost ironic, self referential, self aware feeling that had been attempted on only a couple of prior occasions with varying degrees of success, ranging from Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 to even the surprisingly brilliant 6th chapter of the Friday The 13th series, Jason Lives. The film was also strangely enough promoted as being a horror comedy that may have been too hip for its own good, when really it can best be described as a straight up yet original horror slasher pic coupled with liberal doses of black humor mostly stemming from the notion that all of the characters (including the killer) were obviously major horror movie fans themselves. This can be seen by the opening sequence featuring a cameoing Drew Barrymore (heavily promoted as practically being the star of the film in a Janet Leigh / Psycho like ruse) that despite the several cutesy poo references to past horror classics, is actually a pretty horrific scenario with the killer harassing her with constant phone calls while cruelly mentally torturing her prior to her own terrifying murder. Of course after the massive popularity of this film naturally many attempts were made to replicate the look and writing style of this film with almost no real success, with one constant standard always being by having its young cast be picture perfect refugees from various WB or CW teen friendly shows while eschewing the more realistic look of the teenage characters in horror films past, and Neve Campbell, as hot a young actress as anyone at that time coming out of the TV show Party Of Five, was really the first one to fit the bill as our pretty, sweet heroine Sidney Prescott. But the thing is Campbell really did succeed at creating a legendary, new horror heroine for her time, making Sidney someone with great strength yet still emotionally vulnerable even at the beginning of the story, having suffered through the rape and murder of her mother (said to be the promiscuous town slut who had slept with half the men in the town behind her dad’s back) just a year before, and had testified in the trial that had put a man on death row (Liev Schreiber, only glimpsed for a few seconds on a television screen before being given a major role in Part 2), despite the efforts of certain media figures to prove his innocence and generate the idea that the psycho killer is still out there, such as Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), in many ways a repellent, ratings starved vulture with a microphone, but it does set up the notion that Sidney is already pretty badly scarred before the story even begins. As a part of her personal life she has as her boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich), who faces the classic dilemma of having a girlfriend who won’t put out for him but yet still carries the classic, disheveled pretty boy look as he tries to make movie analogies and sad puppy looks to make her give in. Then there is her best friend Tatum (Rose McGowen, doing the likable sassy bitch routine to a tee), her brother Dewey (David Arquette, actually playing it a lot more toned down than his goofy dipshit persona would suggest), the simpleminded town deputy who develops a romance with the superficial bitch played by Cox which led to their own romance and marriage in real life, along with Tatum’s boyfriend Stu (Matthew Lillard) who is your typical loudly braying, annoying smartass, and the nerdy Randy (Jamie Kennedy), the biggest horror movie nut of them all who delights in spelling out “the rules” when they all come to realize that they are living out a horror movie for real. This is the type of movie where a character will make a direct reference in the dialogue to The Exorcist and THEN IN THE VERY NEXT SCENE have Linda Blair show up in a quick cameo as an obnoxious reporter or have the creepy school janitor pop up wearing a Freddy Krueger sweater and actually have the character name “Fred” (and be played by Craven himself!), but it also correctly gives form to the particularly heartless, callous nature of modern youth itself, showing the kids yukking it up over the death of their classmates and roaming the halls in the killer’s costume for laughs (even prompting Lillard to observe the scene and remark “Look at this place. It’s like Christmas!”) which pisses off the taciturn principal (an uncredited Henry Winkler) to no end, as well as the little touches like Craven giving clues throughout the whole movie that nearly every single male character might be a suspect (even showing a closeup at one point of the crotchedy old sheriff wearing what looks to be the killer’s boots), along with the admittedly hilarious bit of a bunch of teens racing off down the road to where the last victim has been found before they “pry him down.” As for the killer, the biggest irony of all is the fact that even though the film is a whodunit with a big reveal at the end, the image of the ghostface mask and the black robe costume became iconic enough in itself throughout the whole series (even if we had a different killer each time) along with the ever present “Voice” always heard on the phone and played by the same voiceover artist in all the sequels (and explained by a so called “voice enhancer” used by all the various killers to make them sound the same). Even better is the idea that when the big reveal happens (while there WAS a legitimate motive) the idea that these bored, stupid teens would engage in homicidal activity almost like it’s some sort of a game to them is both a disturbing and intriguing one that actually does work greatly as a commentary on our ever continuing times while the mental disintegration of our country’s young people marches on, for even if this movie is The Godfather of the post modern horror film, sadly in the end it still amounted to a last gasp that would see later films of this genre rip off a movie that was already so loaded to the brim with enough tips of the hat to classic horror films of the past that it could fill a whole reference book all by itself, just helping to continue the devouring of creativity at this level until nothing was left. But it’s still a hell of a ride downward for what it is, and worth enjoying for all those who love a good slasher film…

9/10

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