Halloween is closely approaching, and classically, Halloween is about watching horror movies. One such classic is Wes Craven’s Scream franchise. Craven single-handedly re-invested the slasher and horror genre with Scream in 1996. The movie, while meant to be a horror, also made fun of other classic horror movie cliches; this is what made it different from the other movies in the market as it made references to past cult classics like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Psycho. It wasn’t common at the time to reference past movies, but it helped establish the characters being more aware of the horror culture as a whole. The pop references also made the characters more interesting in my opinion and made the movie feel more real.
Another element that shocked audiences at the time of its release was Drew Barrymore, Hollywood’s princess, being front and center on the cover. Barrymore was, therefore, presumed to be the face of the franchise; however, it turns out, she gets killed in the first 15 minutes of the movie! It was later stated by Barrymore that “in horror, my biggest pet peeve was that I always knew the main character was going to be slugging through at the end. What I wanted to do is to take that comfort zone away, so we would establish that that rule [of a well known actor prevailing at the end] does not apply in this film.” The opening scene solidified that the movie wasn’t following the traditional rules of a horror film.
This film deserves all its hype. It reinvented the horror and slasher genre for all movies afterward. Drew Barrymore’s character, Casey Becker, is killed brutally after her call with ghostface, the iconic line, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” became a staple to the franchise. The use of horror trivia is also used a lot throughout the different movies in the franchise thanks to the opening scene. The opening scene was eerie while still being unexpected. Casey Becker being chased gives the audience a false sense of stability as it sees her almost escape just to see her die in a very brutal way. Another thing that separated Scream from other movies in its genre is having a strong female lead. Sidney Prescott paved the way for female leads that don’t have a “dumb blonde” attitude; the movie even mocks the stereotypical horror trope.
Further compelling is the interconnected background that ties to the later movies in the franchise. Scream also has a fun mystery aspect of trying to guess who ghostface is. The movie makes it easy to guess who the killers ghostface are, but the real fun comes from the motive. Billy Loomis and Stu Macher are revealed as the first franchise killers. Loomis represents a teen who turned to violence after a major conflict in his life: his parents divorce caused by Sidney’s mom while the other ghostface, Macher, is driven to kill after suffering from peer pressure. Loomis, in particular, follows the stereotypical role of the killer boyfriend who turns on his girlfriend. He is even accused and taken to the police station and found innocent, tricking some of the audience into believing in his innocence. Furthermore, it wasn’t mentioned or implied that there were two killers, so it too made for a fun twist at the end.
Overall, this movie is a must watch this fall. Wes Craven’s Scream is a staple for the Halloween season and a fun horror film. The movie even got a satire parody film called Scary Movie that became a franchise of its own. Speaking of franchises, Scream garnered a huge franchise off of its first movie. The franchise is still continuing to grow with talks of releasing Scream 7. Scream is a fun horror classic that everyone should watch at least once. It has changed the slasher genre for the better and is an absolute classic.
