Wes Craven’s Scream

• 1st Apr 2011

Wes Craven has already had slight exposure to post-modern horror with his own Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. He brought Freddy up to date and into the real world. Of course the film still worked as a straight horror and had very little commentary by characters on the genre. Plus there was no humour. Scream delivered both of these by the bucket load.

Scream didn’t reinvent the horror genre so much as make commentary on it. It also opened the floodgates for teen-based horror films – and the poster campaigns literally copied the blueprint that Scream laid out alongside I Know What You Did Last Summer (also scripted by Kevin Williamson). Go out and look up as many teen-based horrors from the late 90s and count how many used the same poster format.

Scream tells the tale of a ghost faced masked killer running amok in the town of Woodsboro. The opening is now well known for killing off a famous cameo (Drew Barrymore here) and introducing us to the killer who torments via the phone first. I have a big issue with this scene. The killer makes the poor girl answer film trivia and a wrong answer means death! Of course she screws a question up and her boyfriend (tied up outside) gets his stomach emptied on the patio, soon to be followed by her. My issue with this scene, and later with the school principal (played by The Fonz!) is – why were these victims were chosen? They are quite random choices and we can only assume the killer(s) is getting in a bit of target practice before they go for the main target.

The second issue I have is this – what would happen if she got all the answers right? Would they say congratulations and then pop off to the pub, or would they kill them anyway (I assume this would be what would happen)? It kinda kills the drama if that is the case. But in the work of books and plays they say that you shouldn’t imagine what would have happened, or even what would be an issue outside of the text. All there is is the text that exists and nothing more. You can’t pass judgment on a body of work for what isn’t there, and only work with what is there. So with that in mind I won’t assume any more about what could happen alternatively in this film. Let’s just say that there are issues that are conveniently covered up by the script.

The tale then gives us our lead heroine played by Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott who finds herself tormented by the killer. We then get our cast of youngsters hanging out at school commenting on these events and comparing them to the world of film (mainly done by film geek Randy). There’s even a sly joke when both John Carpenter and Wes Craven are both misidentified as Wes Carpenter (in the UK it may have been even funnier if they used the alternate names).

Here’s a huge tip for any of you out there that like to figure out the identity of the killer before the big reveal. More often than not – once you’ve had an action scene – the killer will pop up in the very next scene as a regular Joe. Scream does it. Once the opening has finished we find Sidney in her bedroom where she’s visited by her boyfriend Billy (in a fake scare moment where he pops through the window). Fake scare, but real killer! Many films follow this pattern either by accident, or to better hide the killer’s identity.

The film works mainly because of its joyful jibes at the horror genre and also the colourful and game cast involved. Jamie Kennedy as the comic relief provides some of the best jokes, even by proxy (see the moment when he’s yelling at Jamie Lee Curtis on the TV to watch out for the killer, when he himself is in that very predicament).

The action does become a bit repetitive. When you have someone being chased by Ghostface, all too often the killer comes plummeting out of a closet and chases the victim with all the grace of a lumbering zombie. The lack of tact the killer has is almost laughable. The death then of the first killer is all too apt as a TV set lands on their head. But even into the sequels tiny women are smashing vases on the heads of the killers and down they go, arse over tit! You almost expect to hear the tweeting of birds when these guys bash their heads.

Still, the film delivers a prolonged final set piece that has all the tension you need for a big film. And these films came out like clockwork for a few years at the same time of year (which I used as an excuse to celebrate my birthday with each year – let’s go see the next Scream film!). The initial kill in the finale of Rose McGowan now looks dated. The kill is preceded by the victim addressing the killer in disbelief and crude humour until it becomes apparent that she actually is in danger. It was funny back then, but now it’s just kind of jarring and makes us yearn for some straight tension that isn’t filled with nervous giggles. And Scream is full of nervous giggles – even when the Fonz gets offed there are jokes in the lead up to his death – right from him swearing to the janitor, Fred (actually Wes Craven dressed as Freddy Kruger).

The film also has quite a good soundtrack with the likes of Nick Cave and Alice Cooper being strong highlights. Craven tapped into the culture at the time, and obviously Kevin Williamson (who has returned as writer of the fourth part) deserves a huge amount of the praise for the script.

Quite a few careers were launched with this film (or helped careers along the way at least): Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Jamie Kennedy, Liev Schreiber and Drew Barrymore all went onto work heavily after this film. The film may have dated slightly – but it’s of its time, and was a leader of that time which has at the very least set its place in stone in cinema history.

Steven Hurst