I was thinking the other day about movies I wanted to review, because I want to keep the content fresh on here and I desperately would love to dedicate more time to this website as it is my passion project. I love film, I love spending time dissecting characters and motivations and I love talking about what I love – I have always had difficulty expressing it though, and instead rely on things that are easy for me to churn out, like reviews or rants (OH, I can rant). But those things can so easily skew negative, and I don’t want that to be my contribution to the film community as a whole. And as I watch another movie I really don’t like (review to come!), it got me thinking about a movie I did like.
Would people want to hear my thoughts on a twenty year old slasher film? Who is the audience – what if there is no audience? What if I am just throwing this all into the void?
But I figured…fuck it, let’s take some time to write a real retrospective about one of my favourite films, Scream. I caught this movie at just the right time in my life, and it was one of those movies that reignited my love for writing, for film, and for characters. It’s one of those movies that I wish I could experience for the first time over and over again; A perfect blend of camp and horror, a sprinkling of satire, this 90’s cult classic is what I believe is the rare case of a perfect film.
For those of you who are not well acquainted with Scream, I will give you the run down – Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) tragically lost her mother a year ago. Believing the man responsible is behind bars, Sidney is horrified as more brutal killings start up, with an anonymous killer (the infamous Ghostface) seeming to specifically target her and her friends, threatening to end what started the night her mother was killed. The film also stars Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy, Skeet Ulrich, and Matthew Lillard. Drew Barrymore also stars as the first kill, Casey, but more on that later.
If you want to avoid spoilers, you can come back to the rest of this review at a later time. While I will try to keep it vague, I can’t promise in my fangirl state I won’t say something that might ruin the film; consider this your final warning.
Scream is lightning in a bottle – the cast, the script, and the direction all work in perfect harmony to create something satirical and frightening. While the horror is there, Scream also has this awareness of how predictable slasher films have become – they follow a simple formula, as Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy—truly a gift and an actor that is bringing everything to a character I just absolutely adore) passionately notes in the film. It feels like the characters are somewhat aware that they themselves are in a movie – save for Sidney, our protagonist, which makes what happens to her feel that much more horrifying. This candidness and awareness of horror films and the slasher genre also work towards the horror elements in that there are surprises and twists, keeping the audience engaged and guessing from start to finish. If you think you have figured it out, odds are you haven’t, and even when you guessed right, there will be another hidden in plain sight spin on the narrative that you can’t help but to be invested.
As stated, the cast is brilliant – Campbell leads as our protagonist Sidney, who balances the timid, nervous girl she starts the film as and the exhausted, brave, but still slightly human girl she is at the finale. Sidney is my favourite final girl in all of horror, she is so very human and the straight man in this cast of cartoonish characters. Even the other characters on her side – Gale Weathers, a journalist who is out to free the man Sidney believes killed her mother, Tatum Riley, Sidney’s best friend, and Randy Meeks, Sidney’s film obsessed friend, are all so macabre and vicious and disinterested in the violence around them that Sidney truly does walk above them. Sidney is empathetic, she is soft hearted, she wants to believe the best in people but has been through so much, she is rigid and tense. Sidney is really an angel that Woodsboro doesn’t deserve.
And that isn’t to say these other characters aren’t likeable – they are. In fact, as I said earlier, the Scream cast is one of those times I think everyone just works well together. Writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven really knew how to pick up on the strengths of the other. Kevin Williamson writes teenagers exceptionally well, with their desensitization to violence but their love of being together and partying, and you can tell even now he still cares about all of these characters. He knew which of the masked killers was who during each and every kill, noting every single detail and distinguishing trait so the film is a complete experience. And Craven, need I say more about Wes Craven? A litany of horror franchises supporting him Craven knows what does and doesn’t work in a slasher. He knows how Billy cleans his knife when he is Ghostface, he knows how Stu speaks with the voice changer when antagonizing people over the phone. He knows audiences will love when Sidney makes fun of horror characters for running upstairs instead of out the front door, and then creating a situation where Sidney is forced to run upstairs instead of out the front door. It’s genius upon genius and we, the audience, reap all the benefits.
These people love this film. They loved being a part of it – and in the actors’ case, it shows in their performances. McGowan and Kennedy are the perfect 90’s best friends in a slasher; unlike the fake friends in other similar products of the time (looking at you, Willow and Xander), Tatum and Randy are the real ones. Tatum with her cool girl energy defends Sidney at every turn, ready to turn into a killer herself whenever Sidney is even in a slightly stressful situation. And she gets to kick ass in her own right – during her confrontation with Ghostface, she gets so many good punches in before her tragic defeat. And Randy, who does have a crush on Sidney but never makes it his whole personality – a thing it would have been easy to do in the 90’s. Movie obsessed, brutally honest, and seemingly narrating out the plot of the horror movie they are in as it happens in real time, Randy Meeks is one of my favourite characters of all time. Jamie Kennedy is a treasure in this film, and the character of Randy stands the test of time as one of the greats in horror. And the best part is – he survives! He, Sidney, Dewey (HOW HAVE I NOT MENTIONED DEWEY YET?!) and Gale all pull through – which leads me to Gale (and Dewey!)
Gale Weathers, played expertly by Courtney Cox, is a character it took me about seven rewatches until it hit me that I absolutely loved her. Weathers is ambitious, putting it all on the line for her story. She can be cruel, in particular her remarks to Sidney, and she can be calculating and ruthless – for me, watching it the first time, Sidney was so likeable, that when she didn’t like Gale, I also followed suit and didn’t like her. But after having watched Scream so many times, I can now appreciate Gale for what a powerhouse of a character she is. She takes no bullshit, she is offensively honest, and really sticks to her convictions. I now wonder if I didn’t like Gale because I was honestly jealous since she was everything I’ve ever wanted to be. Playing opposite her is David Arquette as Deputy Dewey Riley, Tatum’s older brother and the sweetest man in Woodsboro. Dewey does not have a mean bone in his body and he always tries to do the right thing – even if he fumbles his way through it. Campbell is bringing the courage to this movie, and Dewey is bringing the heart – though he is a cop in this movie, I would honestly believe Kevin Williamson if he told me that someone mistook Dewey for a cop, and he was too polite to correct them, so now he just lives this lie out of fear of letting people down. He is such a good foil to Gale and his sister, and you can’t help but to be instantly endeared to him.
And on the opposite end of endearing, we have Billy Loomis, Sidney’s boyfriend, and Stu Macher, his lapdog/crony. And holy shit, do I have loving words for them.
Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) is now one of the definitive slashers in the horror community, with his better (or worse, depends on perspective) half, Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). Ulrich and Lillard are two of my favourite actors of all time, for reference – my love of Lillard started when I was eleven and watched Scooby Doo for the first time (another film that deserves a retrospective) and Ulrich I first saw in The Craft but Chris is the worst and I watched it when I was twelve and I hated him. It wasn’t until I watched Scream for the first time (in my late twenties, don’t judge me, I don’t love gore and I was scared Scream would be a gore fest so I avoided. For those squeamish like me, it is thankfully not so you can enjoy) but I was absolutely blown away by his talent and have seen pretty much every movie he has made (The Magic of Ordinary Days was one of the wildest rides of my life, and I could do a whole analysis on that film, but I won’t. Know that it is free on YouTube though if you want the most out of pocket Hallmark movie you have ever seen. Ulrich is great in it.)
Lillard and Ulrich play off of each other so well – Billy, the entitled white boy who needs someone to blame for his problems, and Stu, the entitled white boy so desperate to be Billy he would do anything to get there. Their disregard for human life and sensationalizing everything they do so it can be just like a movie is a behavior that I see in so many young men still. They are arrogant, they’re violent, and they can’t be questioned. And even as deplorable as they are, Ulrich and Lillard breathe so much life into these characters that you cannot help but to love them even as they slaughter the other characters you love. In particular, Stu has this dialogue with Sidney over the phone while she is hiding from the pair of them after they initiate their big plan to murder her on the anniversary of her mother’s death (which Billy is responsible for, if you read ahead and didn’t avoid spoilers). Stu is asking Sidney if she really called the cops on them, and when she says she did, Stu immediately bursts into tears and wails “MY MOM AND DAD ARE GOING TO BE SO MAD AT ME”. Audiences are giddy simultaneously for two reasons – firstly, the killers ARE going down, and secondly, you can’t help but to love Stu. You can’t help but to love Billy, who fakes his own death to fool Sidney (and the audience) into thinking he isn’t the killer. As he pretends to bleed out, he desperately reaches out to Sidney before collapsing. He then makes his triumphant return fifteen minutes later by crawling out of the bedroom and flinging himself down the stairs as if he is collapsing under his own weight. While on an initial watch, this might inspire some hope in audiences that Sidney has someone in her corner during this final battle, on the second watch, audiences (me, I’ll admit to it) can’t help but to laugh at Billy’s theatrics. He is deplorable but it’s fun. It’s fun to almost root for Billy and Stu because, as the movie states over and over, it’s just a movie. And as Harry Styles once said, it feels like a movie.
Even in his final death scene, as Sidney, Randy and Gale stand over what they think is Billy’s corpse, Randy warns them that this is the point where the killer comes back for a final scare – which is exactly what Billy does, jump scaring them and the audience right before Sidney puts a bullet between his eyes and says “not in my movie” (fucking….iconic.) And while I have no evidence to back this up, that almost feels like Billy is somehow doing this for the audience’s benefit – there’s no chance he can win, and no other reason besides to give Sidney the ability to have that baller final line. There’s something so comforting about this whole debacle, a reminder that we are just watching a movie, and it’s okay to have a good time. And the performances are so solid, little moments like that serve as a reminder to the audience that this is fun. This is a product from people who love film, and they want the audience to have a good time.
Being good actors aside, you can tell the cast knows they are a part of something bigger than ‘just a movie’ – many of them still running in the con circuit to this day just excited to talk to fans about it. Campbell, Arquette and Lillard have been in every Scream movie up until film 6—Cox is still in them, God love her. Jamie Kennedy and Drew Barrymore have come back to do voices as students and the principal in Scream 5. Ulrich is even back now as the hallucination of young Billy Loomis, talking to his secret daughter (though it’s more like he’s a ghost, I don’t care what they tell me; HE TOLD SAM WHERE THE KNIFE WAS. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch Scream 5. If you do know what I’m talking about, I’m sorry you had to see Scream 5).
During the first film, Rose Mcgowan, who played Tatum, went out and got her own wardrobe because she wanted Tatum to look like a cool girl. Barrymore (remember I mentioned her earlier) was initially invited to play Sidney, but thought it would be better if she was the first kill – that way audiences would know that just because she was the biggest name, they couldn’t trust she would stay alive.
These actors care about this film – even if they can no longer be a part of it, their characters mean everything to them, and it shows. The love from the writers shows. The first Scream movie is one of those things that is so perfect and so special that it makes sense why they could never recreate the magic in the sequels (EXCEPT FOR 4 BUT WE WILL GET TO THAT). I don’t know what I want these retrospectives to be, except really to serve as a place where I can gush about characters and movies that I love. And I believe this is the perfect jumping off point – Scream is one of those movies I can watch time and time again, and each time I can find something new to love about it. Even as I finish this little retrospective about a film that means so much to me, spending hours of time trying to perfect it, I can’t help but think I might give it another watch. There’s something so comforting about this movie, and I think it’s because the audience is in on the joke; this feels like a slasher with friends, as bizarre as that sounds.
And on nights like this, where I am feeling melancholy and waxing poetic for nostalgia media, I think a fun time with some friends is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Thank you for reading about one of my favourite movies, hopefully the start of many retrospectives to keep things positive. And I have to ask now, as is my obligation as a Scream fan, what’s your favourite scary movie?