28 October 2012

skeet shooting.

41. Scream (1996)

This an outrageous generalization, but I'd have to say the 1990s wasn't an especially good decade for horror films, especially when contrasted with the late 70s and early 80s, which was pretty much a heyday for the genre. By the late 80s and early 90s, many of the old franchises had become stagnant. A new Friday the 13th or Halloween film meant just another regurgitation of the same tired old premise—psycho killer stalks teens—with a few nonsensical tweaks to keep the brain-atrophied audience coming back. ('Hey, I've got a great idea! Let's send Jason to outer space!') Mostly, the horror film assembly line kept churning out dumb but earnest gore flicks as long as people still went to see them. 

As a biographical side note... I worked at a movie theater for four years as teenager—and although I have many memories I'll cherish (someone defecating on the bathroom floor; finding used condoms strewn across the seats; audience members smoking joints during a crowded showing of Bambi), something that has always stayed with me is the opening night of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. I was seventeen at the time and thinking, 'Who in the hell is going to see this stupid-ass movie?' Well, imagine my surprise when the first evening show was sold out... but I was even more surprised that a majority of the audience was black. 

During the showing, I checked the theater... I had never heard such an uproar in my theater-working career! This audience was not just into the film—they were loudly rooting for Jason to kill all those dumb little shits. It was like Showtime at the Apollo, and the first act was Kill Whity. (And let me tell you. That act did not get booed off the stage.) That's when I realized that these films no longer functioned as passive narratives; they were now social rituals. People went to see them, yes, to find a strange comfort in a familiar storyline—but more so to interact with the film and with each other. I guess if you go into one of these films expecting something original—or even good—then maybe it's your own fault because obviously that's not what they're trying to be. They're just campfire stories, with less concern for the substance of the story than for the mere communal experience of it.


Anyway, conventional wisdom tells us that Wes Craven's Scream woke up the horror genre from its zombie-like torpor. I'm not sure if the film deserves that much credit—maybe it does—but on first glance it isn't all that much different from the preceding slasher formula—except that its writer Kevin Williamson added something that the genre was badly in need of: a little self-awareness. How is it that all of these horror films seem to take place in a strange otherworld where nobody has ever seen a horror film? Why are many of the victims unequipped with even the most elementary cognitive skills or common sense? Why does your garden-variety psychopath get so kill-happy when he stumbles upon teenagers in flagrante delicto?

Scream is an attempt to account for these questions and to reorient the horror film in the real world—or at least someplace nearer to it than Camp Crystal Lake or Elm Street. In so doing, Craven and Williamson also reposition the victims in the film as erstwhile audience members—as sharers in the communal experience of the formulaic horror film described above. If the victims are now as knowing and self-aware as the audience is, horror can at last be restored to the horror film—because these characters are no longer bland idiots; they're as savvy as we are, so we can begin to identify with them again, to whatever degree.

Of course, these are all statements of intention. The question remains... how successful is Scream in accomplishing these objectives? Is it just another case of 'great idea, poor execution'?


As those of you who've been following the Halloween Film Fest know, I'm no Wes Craven fan—but I feel I can confidently say that Scream is his most satisfying work. (This isn't really saying much, considering that the only real competition was A Nightmare on Elm Street.) It's far from perfect—I mean, I could write a very long essay on everything wrong with Matthew Lillard's performance alone—but it does provide some genuine scares while, thankfully, abandoning the trope of the colorless victim. (And, of course, I would argue that the former is a consequence of the latter.)

Unfortunately, Scream peaks early. It really doesn't get any better—or scarier—than Drew Barrymore's fifteen-minute segment at the beginning of the film.  She's home alone, she receives some menacing phone calls—during which other horror films are referenced, and then all hell breaks loose. I think one thing this sequence shows is that you don't need high-concept scenarios; it's all in the execution. All we've got here is a character who's alone in an isolated setting and a psycho killer. It's not exactly reinventing the wheel—but it works because of the attention to details.


Sometimes Scream gets a little too cute and over-the-top meta for its own good, especially as the film wears on. We get it already! You're hip, you're fresh, you're postmodern! We don't need quite so many belabored winks and nudges to get this across. And I've never wanted to hit someone in the face with steam shovel like I did with Matthew Lillard in this film. He's just awful (as he always is)—and the film might've reasonably benefited from his role being given to any random non-actor Craven ran into on the street. Still, all in all, this film made me want to do something I never want to do: i.e., praise Wes Craven. But then I return to my senses and remember that he didn't actually write this film—and that explains why it doesn't completely suck goat balls.

11 comments:

  1. That Lillard gif is horrible. I can't stop watching it and I hate him more deeply each flash.

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    1. It's as horrible as he is. I wonder whom he blew to get an acting career. ('Whom' sounds terrible in that sentence—but I refuse to give in to bad grammar.)

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  2. I like Scream. I think if I were to rate a bunch of those films which spawned horror franchises, it might go something like this:

    1. The Exorcist
    2. The Silence of the Lambs
    3. Psycho
    4. The Evil Dead
    5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
    6. Night of the Living Dead
    7. Scream
    8. Nightmare on Elm Street
    9. Halloween
    10. Paranormal Activity
    11. Friday the 13th
    12. Saw

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    1. I'm not sure—are you talking about the movies listed themselves or the franchises they spawned? Because I find it hard to believe that anybody liked the Psycho franchise.

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    2. No, no. I am only talking about the original films.

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    3. My rankings of the films you listed:

      1. Psycho
      2. Halloween
      3. The Exorcist
      4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
      5. The Evil Dead
      6. The Silence of the Lambs
      7. Scream
      8. Night of the Living Dead
      9. A Nightmare on Elm Street
      10. Saw
      11. Friday the 13th

      I've never seen Paranormal Activity—and I don't really consider The Silence of the Lambs a horror film (for whatever reason), but I included it anyway...

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  3. SPOILERS AHEAD:

    The one good thing I can say about "Scream" is that it did something unexpected. Watching it for the first time, I assumed there was no way a high-profile star (these things are relative, mind you) like Drew Barrymore was going to be killed off in the first scene. I assumed her star power (and presumably her paycheck) demanded she'd be the formulaic "last teen standing". To Mr. Craven's credit, he offed her charcter unexpectedly early.

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  4. Horror isn't really my genre, but I agree with Jason's listing The Exorcist as #1. I'm not sure of the others, but The Shining, Prince of Darkness, The Beast Within and The Blair Witch Project would also be in the mix somewhere.

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    1. I still think Exorcist III is scarier than the first one...

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  5. I had the best experience watching this movie. I saw it at the Century Theater in Oakland, which is now closed and was near the airport (read: it was ghetto). Everyone was talking, and it was like watching a movie at home with a very loud group of friends. The funniest moment was someone on screen about to be killed and an audience member yelling, 'Run bitch, ruuuun!'

    I guess it could have been scary if it wasn't so damn funny.

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  6. I'm not a horror movie guy, and, not wanting to pay money to have my fellow man invade my personal space unless I really have to, I don't much care for going to theaters to watch movies, either. But I made an exception for this stupid movie because I heard that Drew Barrymore was stabbed to death in the opening sequence, which is a bit of wish fulfillment.

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