Scream

On Mute No One Can Hear You Scream!

“What’s your favorite scary movie?” That line will forever be imprinted in my mental. Scream was the first scary movie I saw, and being ten at the time I really didn’t get the “tongue-in-cheek” style the infamous Wes Craven was going for. All I knew was that, that ghostface mask was scary as hell! With a bunch of young soon to be stars like Neve Campbell and David Arquette (along with many others), Scream sure had the mid-twenties actors playing high school students cliché down, but it was still done well. I had such a big crush on Sidney and hoped to god she wasn’t slashed to ribbons by the end. The film wastes no time with Casey (Drew Barrymore) being the first to go, being toyed with over the phone, then forced to watch her boyfriend get mutilated, then she herself is slain and hung from a tree, just in time for her parents to see.

The sound in this movie is both disturbing and ominous; giving you the felling that something bad is definitely around the corner. The music almost certainty leads to a telephone ringing that we as the viewer knows Sidney (or whoever) shouldn’t answer. When Sidney gets her first call the intensity is epic, as she’s chased through her house, and nearly killed. Her boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich) shows up in the nick of time, but he’s a little too clumsy, dropping a cellphone right in front of Sidney officially sparking the “whodunit?” discussion involving everyone including the principle (who soon after ends up being victim number two). First up is Billy who seems like a worthy suspect until Sidney receives a call from the killer while Billy is in jail, which makes us think otherwise. Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox) is the annoying but persistent news reporter that has history with Sidney.

Back when I was ten I remembered watching the garage scene without blinking! I was just so fascinated at how Rose (Tatum Riley) was just talking to the killer like he was her boyfriend or something. Things turn quickly as she finds herself trying to escape through a doggy door (or kitty door here), and ends up dead… somehow. One of my favorite characters of the film (when I was ten at least) was Randy. He reminded me so much of myself, as I am also a film nerd. He takes it a bit too far with the whole “rules” of a horror movie, which are admittedly true, but are just too corny to recite in front of the opposite sex. Moving on the final act Billy still seems to be Sidney’s prime suspect, but when he is attacked and presumed dead, along with a sliced camera man, she’s just as lost as we were the first time we saw this movie. I can’t say the identity of the killer (or killers?) was something I didn’t see coming, but when Billy and Stu start going through their spiel of setting things up and stabbing each other, do things get a bit to convoluted for this (then) ten year old viewer. At the end of the day, and at the end of the film it’d really hard not to like this cult classic that just so happens to not take itself seriously at all. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!