Scream (film)
"Scream" is a 1996 horror film directed by Wes Craven that revitalized the slasher genre by blending traditional horror elements with a self-referential, postmodern approach. The film follows high school student Sidney Prescott, portrayed by Neve Campbell, as she becomes the target of a serial killer who uses horror movie tropes as part of his deadly game. The characters, aware of horror film conventions, often discuss the "rules" for survival, which they frequently ignore, adding a layer of irony to the suspense.
Notable for its humor and character-driven moments, "Scream" balances scares with comedic elements, supported by a talented cast including Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Drew Barrymore. The film's box office success, grossing over $100 million, catalyzed a franchise that includes several sequels and a television series.
The impact of "Scream" extended beyond its immediate success, effectively revitalizing the horror genre and influencing a wave of teen-oriented films and series throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2022, a new installment was released, affirming the franchise's enduring popularity and relevance in contemporary cinema.
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Scream (film)
Director Wes Craven (1939–2015)
Date Released on December 20, 1996
This film revitalized the horror genre while introducing a self-reflexive viewpoint and proving that horror and humor could effectively mix.
By the mid-1990s, the phenomenal popularity that horror films had enjoyed in the 1980s had waned so much that some critics were declaring the genre dead, much like Westerns and musicals. Director Wes Craven—a longtime genre veteran with such films as Last House on the Left (1972), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)—brought an experienced hand and a fresh eye to screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s postmodern take on slasher films with the 1996 horror blockbuster Scream. The plot is fairly standard: A serial killer is murdering his way through a group of high school students, with heroine Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in particularly grave peril. The twist is that these characters are media-savvy and dedicated horror movie fans, and they act the part. One of Sidney’s friends, Randy (Jamie Kennedy), often recites the “rules” for surviving in a horror movie; the characters in Scream often disregard these rules at their peril, unaware that they are indeed in a horror movie. At one point, the famous theme music from horror classic Halloween (1978), playing on a television, momentarily becomes the theme music of Scream, further blurring the boundaries of reality, film reality, and film-aware reality.
Unlike many earlier horror films, Scream has much overt, character-driven humor, which occasionally verges on slapstick. That this comic element does not detract from the terror is due in part to Craven’s precise balancing of laughs and scares, and an unusually talented cast including Courteney Cox (of the then-popular television series Friends), David Arquette, Rose McGowan, and most famously Drew Barrymore, who is terrorized and slaughtered in an opening sequence that has the shock value of the infamous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
As with most of his films, Craven encountered difficulties with the Motion Picture Association of America Code and Rating Administration, which termed Scream’s original version a perfect example of an NC-17 movie. Cuts required for an R rating amounted to approximately twenty seconds of violence and gore. The film's soundtrack was also toned down after the original was considered too intense.
Scream was a tremendous box-office hit, with gross profits of over $100 million, making it the most commercially successful horror film of 1996. It also spawned a lucrative franchise that included three sequels directed by Craven: Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), and Scream 4 (2011). Before his death in 2015, Craven was also involved in the creation of a spinoff anthology television series titled Scream, which consisted of three seasons released between 2015 and 2019.
In January 2022, a new film entry, also titled Scream, was released. Billed as a relaunch of the franchise, the film was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and saw the return of most of the original cast, including Campbell, Cox, and Arquette. The film was a box office success, and many critics praised it as a welcome return to form for the series.
Scream’s success brought the supposedly “dead” horror genre back to robust life in the late 1990s, particularly teen-oriented films and even television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), whose star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, appeared in Scream 2.
Impact
The success of Scream proved that the horror genre was indeed viable and led to its resurgence through the remainder of the 1990s and into the twenty-first century.
Bibliography
Campbell, Christopher. "Scream First Reviews: a Bloody, Funny Thrill Ride that Honors Wes Craven's Legacy." Rotten Tomatoes, 12 Jan. 2022, editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/scream-first-reviews/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2022.
Marriott, James, and Kim Newman. Horror: The Definitive Guide to the Cinema of Fear. London: André Deutsch, 2006.
Robb, Brian J. Screams and Nightmares: The Films of Wes Craven. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 1998.