#halloweenandchill | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thewyloren · 6 years

Text

Day One - Scream *SPOILERS ABOUND - YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!*

Scream (1996 - Rated R) Directed by Wes Craven. Starring Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, and Drew Barrymore.

“What’s your favorite scary movie?”

What was once an innocent question is now an iconic line from 1996′s slasher classic, Scream. While director Wes Craven is known best for A Nightmare on Elm Street where he was also a writer, Craven did not pen Scream. The story comes from the mind of Kevin Williamson who went on to work on I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Faculty; also horror films involving teens, so let’s say he’d found his niche. It’s not too surprising to learn Williamson also created the hit teen series Dawson’s Creek.

If you’ve never seen Scream before, the killer is disguised in a halloween costume which is coined later as “Ghost Face Killer.” He terrorizes high schoolers of Woodsboro, mainly Sidney Prescott, daughter of a woman brutally murdered a year earlier. But her killer was put behind bars, so it couldn’t possibly be the same guy. Right?

Scream grabs you within the first five minutes. Poor innocent Casey Becker, played by Drew Barrymore, is home alone, about to start a movie and chill, when a phone call disguised as a wrong number turns into a game of cat and mouse, leaving her gutted, hanging from a tree for her parents to find. One must always remember the killer from Friday the 13th is, in fact, not Jason Voorhees, but his mother. Better luck next time, Casey.

Killed within ten minutes of the movie, one has to wonder why on earth a star like Barrymore would agree to play that part. According to Barrymore herself, she wanted that role. While she was sought out to play the lead role of Sidney Prescott, once reading the script, she asked for the role of Casey. Writer Williamson originally wanted actress Alicia Silverstone (Clueless) for the role of Casey. As if! Barrymore nailed it, solidifying herself as an official Scream Queen with her memorable and iconic scene.

While audiences are recovering from Casey’s shocking death, we’re introduced to the main protagonist, Sidney Prescott, played by fresh faced Neve Cambell, star of The Craft and drama series Party of Five. Portrayed immediately as young and naive, we see her being pressured to be more sexual by her boyfriend Billy Loomis, played by cutie Skeet Ulrich, donning his best Johnny Depp look. Depp stars in Nightmare on Elm Street, so maybe Craven figured that “look” was part of some kind of horror film formula for success. Who knows?

We learn Sidney and Billy have been dating for two years. My first thought? Two years and this guy is still whining about her being a virgin? Dumpppp himmmmm. But apparently it wasn’t always like this. The beginning of their relationship started out hot and heavy (but which relationship doesn’t, amirite?) then somewhere it falters... Sidney grows a bit cold as far as physical touch goes. Ah hah. That would be when her mom was brutally raped and murdered.

The quaint (but rather rich... I mean, everyone’s living in these huge fancy farmhouses and none of these kids seem to have jobs, other than Randy, whom I’ll get back to soon) town of Woodsboro is shooketh. They haven’t seen crime like this since Sid’s mom.

With Sid’s dad out of town for work, Sid waits around for her best friend Tatum (Rose McGowen) to pick her up for a sleepover. Sid gets a prank call and assumes its their friend Randy. Told you I’d come back to him. Randy works at a video store and makes many references to scary movies. In fact, the movie itself is very meta. Lots of name dropping and parallels to other horror classics. “Randy” gets Sid to chat about scary movies where Sid confesses she hates them because they’re all the same. “The big breasted actress that can’t act always runs upstairs instead of outside; it’s insulting” (I’m paraphrasing) which is comical because once she learns the voice on the phone is not Randy, and the person calling is actually in the house and attacks her, she can’t get out the front door, forcing her to run upstairs.

Hiding herself in her bedroom, Billy pops into the window and a cell phone falls out of his pocket. Dun dun dun! All signs point to Billy! There’s no way it can’t not be Billy! But we are so conditioned by Scooby Doo as kids. It’s never who we think it is. There’s always a red herring. There’s always a twist. So while we believe they want us to think it’s Billy, we’re smarter than that. We know it can’t really be him. Because where’s the fun in that? Giving away the killer so soon? Nah bruh. We’ll wait for the big epic “ah HA, I knew it wasn’t Billy” moment.

After a pit stop at the police station where both Sid and Billy are questioned, Sid stays over at Tatum’s house where the killer phones yet again, accusing Sid of “fingering the wrong guy again.” Whoa, whaaat? The wrong guy? AGAIN?

It’s not long after we learn that Sidney testified against her mother’s killer, Cotton Weary, putting him away for good. Tabloid journalist (think today’s TMZ) Gale Weathers played by Courteney Cox in a horrid neon green dress suit believes in Cotton’s innocence. She made bank writing a book about the tragic event surrounding Sid’s mom and Sid ain’t too happy about it.

Running into Billy at school, Sid and Billy chit chat about how the anniversary of the death of her mother is coming up and Billy thinks Sid should just “get over it” already. Because he got over his father leaving a year ago. Because that’s totally the same thing.

Boyfriend of the year right there. What a sociopath. Here’s where we get back on board thinking “Yeah maybe it’s Billy... who else could it be?”

The town of Woodsboro is put on a curfew until the police can get to the bottom of things. But kids will be kids and kids will have parties when parents are away and why are the parents always away? Randy and Stu (Stu would be Tatum’s goofy boyfriend played by over-the-top Matthew Lillard, and Stu just happens to be Billy’s ride or die) chat about Billy. Randy thinks Billy’s the killer. Stu laughs, but defends his buddy. The signs are starting to point more towards Sid’s dad. The police haven’t been able to get ahold of him. And when they checked the phone records for the calls made to Sid, they weren’t coming from Billy’s phone, but rather Sid’s dad’s phone. Uh oh. Could it be with the anniversary of mom’s death, dad is finally losing it?

At Stu’s house, teens are drinking beer and watching scary movies, provided by Randy. The killer’s there and Tatum meets her end, getting stuck in a doggy door and her neck snapping. Billy shows up to the house after this happens, again, making us believe he’s the killer. No one cares about Tatum’s whereabouts I guess, and Sidney slips away with Billy, upstairs. Two high schoolers headed upstairs into a bedroom, what could possibly happen next? Downstairs, Randy lists off rules for surviving a horror film.

Number one, never have sex. Number two, never drink or do drugs. Number three, never say “I’ll be right back.”

Remember those rules and you too will be around for the sequel.

This film is full of clever bits. While everyone is watching Halloween, Randy announces “obligatory tit shot” and just as the actress in Halloween bares her breasts, the shot then turns to Sidney taking off her bra but she gets blocked from view by Billy. Hah!

Yada yada yada, Sid and Billy break rule number one and Billy is next to be killed. This is when we believe we were right all along. It wasn’t Billy after all. The tricky movie makers tricked us but we secretly knew it wasn’t really him. Sid escapes out the window after being chased around a bit. The killer goes downstairs where Randy is now all alone on the couch watching Halloween. Randy is played by Jamie Kennedy and if you remember, Jamie Lee Curtis is the lead in Halloween. So Randy’s on the couch shouting “Jamie look behind you” as the killer sneaks up behind him. Thankfully, Randy is saved by Sidney screaming for help outside and the killer leaves him, for now.

More death happens, yada yada, it gets bloody. Sid ends up back in the house and Randy and Stu fight over who the killer is. Stu blames Randy and Randy blames Stu. We’ve seen Randy and the killer in the same room, but we’ve never seen Stu and the killer in the same room.... hmm. Something to think about. But not something Sid has time for, so she closes the door on both of them. Billy comes stumbling down from upstairs, covered in blood. Now that Sid is positive Billy isn’t the killer, she’s comfortable with him taking the gun from her, to be the protector now, even if he is half dead.

Billy lets Randy in and ends up shooting him. Whaaat? Sidney tries to escape, confused as hell, obviously, and bumps into Stu who came in through the kitchen. Stu pulls out a voice changer and speaks exactly like the killer and everyone is shocked to discover it was THE TWO OF THEM THIS WHOLE TIME! They admit to framing Cotton, who’d been having an affair with Sid’s mom. Apparently Sid’s mom had multiple affairs and was the reason Billy’s dad left. Dun dun dun.

Stu pulls Sid’s dad out of another room, bound and gagged. He and Billy plan to stab each other, kill Sid, then shoot Sid’s dad, making it look like Sid’s dad went on a killing spree, and then offed himself. Billy and Stu would be the only survivors. How convenient!

But things don’t work out how they hoped. Billy ends up getting shot. Then Randy, who isn’t dead, says “This is when the killer comes back for one final scare” and Billy comes back for one final scare before Sidney puts a bullet in his head.

The way the movie is shot, the clever way it pays homage to other horror classics, makes it so lovable. It’s really revived the horror genre, or at least the slasher portion. Many sequels have since been filmed, as well as a television series, and comical spoofs. It’s definitely a film that I would call a masterpiece of story telling and directing. Definitely add this one to your Halloween and Chill list for October. It’s available to rent on Amazon. Also check with your cable provider, as it was free on demand for me.

RATING: 🎃🎃🎃🎃 4 out of 5 pumpkins

#halloweenandchill #halloween #movies #scarymovies #october #scream #screammovie #sidney prescott #ghostface #whatsyourfavoritescarymovie #wyloren

5 notes · View notes