Review: Scream

I was exhausted by everything happening in the world, so around Halloween I watched a few “scary” movies because, well, considering I was working on the election, the horror on screen was pretty relaxing compared to what was happening in real life. And so beyond watching a film from 1996 that I haven’t seen since it came out, watching Scream was a chance to re-experience pop culture from my youth, and take a new look at it.

Beyond of course the obvious reaction, which is to throughout the film repeatedly go, I forgot this actor was in this! (And, wow, they look so young)

This is the first time I’ve watched Scream since it came out and I found myself ignoring dialogue for the most part. Or rather, on rewatching, it’s the least interesting aspect of the film. At the time it came out, the self-referential dialogue with its shades of Tarantino-esque postmodernism was one of the appeals. This is what made it more than just another horror movie. The characters were aware of how horror movies worked. (which doesn’t stop most of them from getting killed, of course). The film had that dialogue, but in other aspects, it was another horror movie. Scream helped to establish Kevin Williamson as, well, Kevin Williamson. And I could mock his career, which I admittedly don’t hold in especially high esteem, but at the same time, the man’s created multiple TV shows and written a few movies. Most of his work just isn’t for me (and The Following was bad on many levels), but The Faculty is something of a classic, and I actually liked Glory Days and Wasteland when they came out. (I’m one of the few, it seems)

The film may have been marketed with Williamson, but the movie belongs to director Wes Craven and composer Marco Beltrami. By the time Scream came out, Craven was an old hand and practically synonymous with the horror genre for The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and other films. But he was coming off on two of his more ambitious films (Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and Vampire in Brooklyn) both of which are much more highly regarded now than they were upon release. His career was on the decline and Scream revitalized his career. What he showed in Scream was how talented he was. Craven was masterful at establishing the geography of spaces in small ways and then utilizing that to help craft drama and tension. He wasn’t a great director of comedy, but he knew how to communicate with actors and give them space for comedy – just as he gave them space to emote – and it’s incredible to watch. Why didn’t Hollywood realize he was so good at this and throw money at him to direct thrillers? Because he was so much better at it than most directors. Plus he was good working with younger and inexperienced actors and coaxing good performances out of them. He directed Red Eye in 2005, but imagine if he was doing that annually? Or if he had the chance to make a few more odd films like the short he wrote and directed for Paris je t’aime? Careers go up and down, obviously, and often for reasons out of individual’s control, but I’m not sure I appreciated how good he was until I rewatched the film. He was really talented and not in the very explicit stylistic ways (think of John Carpenter) that draw a viewer’s attention to the camera. Craven was more invisible than that

By contrast to the mid-career Craven, Beltrami was at the very beginning of his career. He’s currently one of the best film composers currently alive, but his talent was obvious right at the start here, because his score for the film is gorgeous. Seriously, one of the best parts of the film and I say that having just talked about what a skilled craftsman Craven is, but Beltrami brings the film to another level entirely.

And having dismissed Williamson and his script, I will say that what he does well is to capture some of the feeling of being a teenager. And not just the idea of being a teen, or the symbolic idea of it, which is why so many films about kids and teens feel…off, let’s say. The struggle is to capture what it felt like at that age, and at its best, Scream gets that. The anger, the irreverence, the attitude to authority. Being a complete wiseass, which is at the heart of a lot of the dialogue about horror movies and the rules and what it means. That added level of geekiness. The film’s success – and the script’s – is its ability to do many things well. To be a teen movie, to be a geeky self-referential movie, to be a horror movie. It’s not funny (or at least, not as funny as it thinks it is) but that’s not a major problem.

The film was huge and it was huge for the horror genre. In some ways the film can be blamed for a generation of horror movies that featured young casts – I’m thinking about everything from I Know What You Did Last Summer to Final Destination to the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the list goes on. This was…not great, let’s say. But the film launched dozens, if not hundreds of films in its wake. And if in the end, the film wasn’t as influential, didn’t change as much as it was trumpeted to, well, every genre needs to be rebooted and refurbished every now and then. To remind people why it worked, why its great, what it’s capable of being. Scream did that.

Admittedly I was not the biggest fan of much of the cast – then or now. As I said, I was reminded throughout about how I didn’t remember most of the cast was in the film. I did not remember how Drew Barrymore had a small role and was essentially the movie’s big name.

I was never a big David Arquette fan, though he’s fine in the films. In truth I’ve never enjoyed his work as a comedian, but I do wish he’d done some more dramatic roles, some more crime movies and thrillers, because he’s not bad. Courtney Cox was on one of the biggest shows on TV at the time she made Scream, and I was never a big fan of Friends, but she’s good here. The character is annoying for the most part, but Cox plays the character perfectly.

I was reminded how much I like Neve Campbell and how she should have (and is capable of) a much better career than she’s had. But back in the nineties (for all you young ‘uns reading) she was on Party of Five every week and then besides Scream, she was in The Craft and Wild Things. And she had a mixed bag of films after but there was The Company that she co-wrote and produced and starred in, directed by the late great Robert Altman, and films like Investigating Sex, Panic, Last Call, Reefer Madness, Closing the Ring, I Really Hate My Job. She’s worked with good directors and actors. She’s often interesting even if the film isn’t. But I’m guessing most people never saw most of those films.

Also, and this may be showing my age but I can’t help but think about how the film was released in 1996, which is to say, pre-Columbine. And watching the film today it feels completely different than it did to me back then for that reason. I don’t know that it could be made today. And yes, obviously sequels to the film have happened since, but this initial film, and two teenagers going on this kind of killing spree in the film, I really can’t see it being made. And I don’t say that as someone who has a strong opinion one way or the other about that fact. I can’t imagine writing a movie about teenagers on a killing spree through their town. Back when I was in high school, I could have imagined such a film. But Columbine changed that. How does one make a film about that, knowing about the rash of school shootings in the United States? I don’t think making a movie today on that subject would change anything. I just don’t think I could sit through it, let alone make it.

I do think it says something about the talent and the artistry of the film that after that thought popped into my head (it’s been years, I forgot the identity of the killer) I didn’t shut it off and move on with my life.. If it was a bad movie, I wouldn’t have bothered.

There’s a way in which the film manages to deconstruct the genre, at least in its dialogue, but also is essentially a horror/slasher film, and is unabashedly so. Which if I’m honest, I enjoy. It’s a movie that loves the genre, and wants to celebrate it. Not elevate. Just enjoy it. I’m someone who enjoys genre, and I love work that leans into genre, and I think one way that genres grow and change is finding new ideas and avenues. Scream did that. I’m not sure it has a lot of appeal for people not interested in horror, though I think the dialogue brought people in back when it first came out. But Scream stands up. Even after all these years.