DAY TWENTY-SIX - Scream (horror movie challenge - 31 days of horror)

DAY TWENTY-SIX – SCREAM (1996)

‘There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie. For instance,

Number one: you can never have sex.

Big no no! Big no no! Sex equals death, okay?

Number two: you can never drink or do drugs.

The sin factor! It’s a sin. It’s an extension of number one.

And number three: never, ever, ever, under any circumstances say, “I’ll be right back.” Because you won’t be back.’

Ah, Scream. In my top five favorite horror films. An absolute classic for my generation. When horror was in a funk, Scream rose up from the depths and gave fresh air to the genre. Written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, it stars Neve Campbell as our leading lady – Sidney Prescott.

Sidney is by far my favorite Final Girl/Scream Queen. She’s the toughest and the smartest of the bunch. Scream follows Sidney, who after the brutal murder of her mother a year ago, is being stalked by a killer who claims to have committed the murder. And Sidney’s next. The killer shows up in a ghost face mask and a long dark robe, chasing her and her friends around their houses. But who is the ghostface murderer? And why is Sidney’s boyfriend so intense? And where exactly is Sidney’s Dad?

A perfect script, with a perfect twist reveal of who the killer really is. It has an amazing cast including David Arquette as the young cop, Courteney Cox as a tabloid writer turned investigator, Rose McGowan as Sidney’s sweet but dumb best friend, Skeet Ulrich as Sidney’s creepy boyfriend, Matthew Lillard as the hilarious but unpredictable best friend of Skeet, and Jamie Kennedy – the horror movie fanatic who knows all the rules of how to survive a horror movie. Which he now realizes they are all in.

Of course, Drew Barrymore is also in this movie, and put on the poster. She dies in the first ten minutes. A trick Wes thought would be fun, along with the encouragement of Drew, to fool audiences into thinking she was the lead. Paying homage to the movie Psycho in which the same thing happens.

The movie is so much fun to watch, able to poke fun at the genre while remaining scary and serious. Originally titled ‘Scary Movie’, but changed to ‘Scream’, it was released during the Christmas season. The studio had no faith in it. But something weird happened….people kept showing up. And as each weekend passed, Scream began to make more and more money, pulling in more and more people. A sequel was announced immediately and so began the Scream franchise. Scream is smart, and it was the first time in a long time that it also knew its audience was smart. It didn’t fuck around. That’s why it was so successful. It was also truly American – sweet, innocent Sidney and her beautiful friends, living in a pleasant and quaint small town, all of their homes typical big old American houses. Craven was adamant that this was the case.

 Everything about this film is original and fresh. Even watching it almost twenty years later it holds up easily. I first watched this film when I was 11 and it really cemented my love of the horror genre. Although back then I was terrified and jumped and screamed through the whole film, it was the first time I had fun watching a horror film. In between scares I was laughing at the jokes and the characters. Then I’d resume screaming again. Now, I practically know the movie off by heart.

This movie will always be a 10/10 for me, and if you haven’t seen it yet, what are you doing?!? Watch this movie! So one day when the phone rings, and a creepy voice on the other end asks you, ‘what’s your favorite scary movie?’ you can answer; Scream, you asshole.

Guys, my History of Horror Presentation is in two days and I've come down with a cold. Which means my throat is swollen, which in turn swells the gums around my wisdom teeth, which basically means I am in constant pain and sound like Marge Simpson. I'm devastated. I am formally appologizing in advance to everyone who watches my presentation, I will un-ironically sound like Ghostface. Maybe it'll make it more scary?
Probably not.
I'm screwed.

Stay spooky!