Scream

Words cannot really describe why I love this film, yet alone how it managed to be a masterpiece. I remember when I was a little kid, sitting somewhere where my dad was talking abt horror movies to a couple of guys, at the time I went with whatever my dad said in person, but behind the scenes was very vocal about my opinion; my dads opinion was that Scream was mediocre, he talked about how much he thought it was essentially a snooze fest. Me, a kid who shouldn’t have been exposed to that sort of thing (story of my life), with abnormal patience for my age, consistently sat through this film over & over again. I don’t know what it was, there’s just something endearing about this Scooby-Doo slasher, & it’s legendary Wes Craven cameo. But whenever I talked to the adults I knew, or checked online, I always heard negatives. Now? This film is hailed as a masterpiece, being one of the top rated horror films of this sight & breaking at least top 20 on almost every grand horror list & rightfully so, it’s just.. I can’t help but why did people double back on a nearly 30 year old slasher flick? It’s typically unlikely the audience goes back & really evaluates horror films, especially ones like Scream. On the surface it’s a simple slasher: a lot of fun, but nothing particularly deep, & for the filmbros who just learned the word “cinematography” but not what it means: it’s nothing remarkable, just surface level junk; “not true cinema.” However, as Gen Z grows to become adults, & Millennials enter their prime, the general audience have sort of gravitated towards this aesthetic rules all mindset that has made films from well before even the oldest of us were born into hot topics at the moment, & No era is worshipped more than the 90’s. Now, yes, Millennials were born around then, but none of us really began to appreciate media until notably later, especially us “Zoomers”, who generally have only been soaking in R-Rated shit as of the last few years; barely pre-pandemic as far as I’ve seen, so Scream popping up as a fan favorite for the youth isn’t too surprising, since even those who weren’t born within the decade were mostly consuming 90’s - early 2010’s material as a kid; the 90’s just have a nostalgic feel y’know? Even if most of us weren’t there. So that brings me to Scream, my pride, my joy, my everything, taking the literal outline of an average Saturday morning episode of arguably my most life-defining childhood shows, Scooby-Doo, & weaving it with my comfort sub-genre (yes, I have one of those). As much as most like to admire this film for all the boys, babes & narly kills; I feel like the craftsmanship behind this film is something to be studied; yes, I’m serious. On quite a few levels, this film works. The subtle grain of the 90’s new-millennia cameras perfectly locks arm with the flashy editing, & constant flares in noise; if there’s one word to describe Scream, it’s manic. The constant ups & downs, random on & off shadiness between the cast, at times it makes the reveals so hilariously obvious it leaves you questioning whether or not they’re actually seriously fucking up, or just pulling our tail, it’s this weird unintentional confusion in the writing that just somehow perfectly embodies what makes Wes Craven’s classic work so well - - it was just lightning in a bottle. It did everything wrong yet made it so, so right. Scream is entertaining. It’s funny. It’s exciting. At times it’s truly horrifying. It starts with an ultra-tense opening scene that kicks off our mystery, a scene which, if I may be so bold, is managing to creep up on Psycho’s infamous shower scenes as the definitive cinematic display suspense greeting true terror. Sure, it wouldn’t exist if not for Hitchcock’s classic, but it manages to take the blueprint & build something better out of it. I wish I got to see the audience genuinely flabbergasted at the idea they killed off Drew Barrymore in the opening scene after using her as one of the central sources of marketing. Most for the time seen it as a waste of a great actress, & while I agree she’s fantastic, she gave all she needed to within the opening 15 minutes, her imprint literally being the driving point of the rest of the story. Her death is how our investigation starts & is what kept the audience patiently waiting to see who our killer struck next. Then when he tries to strike Sydney, she completely embarrasses him, running him around in a live-action Scooby-Doo chase scene; Ghostface slips on his ass, & gets it beat in a moment that instantly solidified Neve Campbell’s Sydney as one of the defining female faces of horror. She’s a brilliant protagonist, & while I’m definitely one to vouch for Scream as an anthology over one continuous story with maybe a few old cast members playing minor roles, if there’s a protagonist to follow I’m damn sure it’s Sydney. She kicked ass, five times across 4 decades. She doesn’t miss & I’m honestly curious to see how the series hold’s up without her - - fuck whoever didn’t pay her right. Neve deserves better. Scream is nuanced but plays it cool like nothing matters. It’s the cinematic embodiment of that summer you know you’ll never forget, but everything is just so exciting it’s impossible to give a shit. I’d love to do a deeper analysis on why this film works on so many deeper levels than stabbing & horror trivia but frankly - - who gives a shit?