Skip to main content

Empire List #482: Scream

In the late 1990s the American movie machine was producing movies aimed at the MTV generation starring the latest crop of young actors in their 20s who were playing characters in their late teens. Such movies included “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “American Pie,” and “Scream.” I missed most of these movies because at the time I was either too young, too shy to have any friends with whom I could go out with, or I just thought they didn’t look good enough. Back then I was living in South America and I was a long way from the United-States so there was somewhat of a disconnect between the MTV generation and I.

Still, when you’re spending your summer at your mom’s place while waiting for your next college semester and you’re saving every dollar you have just like I was last summer in Quebec City, if Wes Craven’s “Scream” is playing on TV, you may as well enjoy it while you have access to a movie channel. Plus it doesn’t hurt that the movie is actually quite good at what it tries to be.

I didn’t know much about the franchise except that it was supposed to be a parody/homage to classic slasher movies with characters that are expert in horror films and are almost winking at the camera when something bad happens as though they were in on the joke. I found it strange that there should be a trilogy of these movies since it makes little sense for there to be two copycats of the same killer (three if you count the upcoming “Scream 4”). So it stands to reason that the very first movie in the franchise would be the best one. I would have to say it is.

The movie begins with a teenager (Drew Barrymore) answering the telephone and listening to a creepy voice asking her trivia questions about slasher films. An incorrect response incurs the wrath of the killer who wears a white ghost mask and a black cloak. The fact that Barrymore the movie star is killed so early on in the film is reminiscent of another horror classic, “Psycho” which also features a knife-wielding maniac.

There are plenty of references like that peppered throughout the film. One character’s last name is Loomis, as in Dr. Loomis from the “Halloween” franchise, Skeet Ulrich is made to look like Johnny Depp whose debut film was “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Linda Blair from “The Exorcist” has a cameo as a reporter, and Wes Craven the director has his own cameo as a janitor that looks like Freddy Krueger. This is all good fun for horror fans, but what about the uninitiated? The good news is that “Scream” is also a good mystery film.

Who is the killer? Why is he/she doing this? Is it Randy (Jamie Kennedy) the video store clerk who knows so much about these movies? Could it be reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) who hopes to make her career with this story? Why not put your money on Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley (David Arquette)? When the killer’s identity is revealed it reminded of a trick not from a slasher franchise or any horror movie, but actually from an Agatha Christie book. (Hint: just because a suspect has a rock-hard alibi, it doesn’t mean said suspect should be off the list.)

Overall, “Scream” makes for a good time on a dark knight, preferably around Halloween. When the killer strike there is appropriate tension, when the violence becomes ridiculous there is humour, and the main character Sidney Prescott follows the tradition set by John Carpenter of a strong female heroine who becomes a survivor. Maybe it would have been more fun if I had seen in a packed room back in the late 1990s and watched each of the sequels on the big screen, but sometimes its actually scarier if you’re alone. As for the sequels, I believe that it is not the hero who kills the murderer in a horror franchise, but an excess of sequels. Do people honestly think Freddy Krueger was still scary after the ninth sequel?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #49: Evil Dead 2

What do you get when you mix buckets of fake blood, creative camera operators, the humour of the Three Stooges, and a man with the most recognizable chin in Hollywood? You get Evil Dead II (1987), the horror classic that somehow manages to remake the original in the first 15 minutes and yet feel entirely original. Even though it is mostly set in a cabin in the woods, that staple location in the horror genre, it feels like a roller coaster ride. This is especially true once the film's hero, the scrappy Ash Williams, embraces the madness by arming himself with a sawed-off shotgun and attaching a chainsaw where his hand used to be. "Groovy" indeed. This gore-soaked franchise has had a long run, starting off with one low-budget movie directed by a young Sam Raimi and then growing into two sequels, a remake, comic books and a TV show with three seasons. My starting point was the third entry, Army of Darkness, which moves the action to the Middle Ages with the same

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #97: Reservoir Dogs

One of the most surprising things about Quentin Tarantino’s debut film Reservoir Dogs (1992) is the fact that it has never been adapted for the stage. They will make a show out of Beauty and the Beast , Monty Python and the Holy Grail , and even Spider-Man , but somehow a movie in which most of the action takes place in a warehouse has never made it to Broadway? In any case, this was the movie that announced the arrival of the insatiable film fan that could regurgitate everything he had learned watching movies at the video store into stories filled with sudden bursts of violence, sharp-dressed characters, awesome soundtracks, and crackling dialogue.   Since this violent piece of American cinema came out at a time when I was still learning basic math in elementary school there was no way I would watch this on the big screen. However as the years went by it became a cult classic, and even a classic of the independent movies genre, and was re-released on special edition DVD for its

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #102: The Hustler

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler (1961) is proof that any sport can be used for good cinematic drama even if that sport is pool. Although this is not a game that involves a massive sport arena and bloody boxing gloves, things can get dramatically interesting if the monetary stakes are high, and visually arresting if the filmmakers shoot from the right angle. It also helps a lot if the man putting his money on the table is played by a young Paul Newman in a career-breaking role. Prior to watching the film I had a vague idea of the meaning of the word “hustling” and a rather passive interest in the game of pool. It’s a fun game to play if you are having a couple of nachos and chicken wings on a Friday evening with friends, but I didn’t see it as a spectator sport. Watching The Hustler in the classics section of Netflix two years ago was a bit of an education since it shows the sport as a way of life for some people, and a huge source of revenue for big time gamblers. Newman star as