Scream (1996, 1997, 2000)

“No, please don’t kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!”

After reading about half of Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film by Peter Biskind — almost all of it dedicated to describing Harvey and Bob Weinstein as Nazis — I felt like I should watch a Miramax film. But I was too broke to rent anything. And based on Biskind’s description of the Weinstein brothers, I shouldn’t give them a cent.

So, I decided to re-watch the Scream Cycle (aka. “Scream”, “Scream 2″ and “Scream 3″) which is a part of the Miramax family under Bob’s successful label for genre films, Dimension. Yes, I now know way too much about Harvey, Bob and the founding of Miramax. Instead of doing separate reviews, I’m putting the Scream Cycle in competition with each other. May the best film win.

What’s it all about? The Scream Cycle is a series of horror films directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson and Ehren Kruger. Each film involves a psychopathic killer wearing a Halloween costume attempting to kill Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and the people involved in her life.

Scream (1996)
This movie came out when I was eight-years-old and it scared the living shit out of me. I was too young to get the humour. All I saw was the terrifying Mr. Ghostface breaking into houses and stabbing people. I remember that my older sisters were watching the movie in our basement a year after it came out. I can picture myself cowering on the basement staircase, hiding from my sisters’ ridicule and scared out of my wits. It was my first scary movie — and the last one for a very, very long time.

From that day on, I slept with my bedroom door locked. I woke up my parents countless times, whispering frantically about gunshots and footsteps. I think I slept on the floor of my closet once because I was assured that there was someone in my house. To this day, I’m jumpy. I’ve heard all these fabulous stories about how this or that movie changed his or her life. These movies are usually by Truffaut or Scorsese. Yeah, mine was “Scream” — and now I lock and double-lock my doors. After watching this movie again, you know, when I was twenty, I realized the film has more laughs than scares. By then, I had seen a lot more horror/slasher films, and I appreciated the tongue-in-cheek humour. Also, Randy’s rules about how to survive a horror movie are classic!

Scream 2 (1997)
In the sequel, Sidney is enrolled in university with best-friend and fellow survivor Randy Meeks. It seems as if Sidney has moved past the Woodsboro murders — but the audience soon realizes that’s not the case at all. After the success of Gale Weathers’ book about the murders, a horror movie has been made about Sidney. It’s opening weekend — and, of course, there’s another body in the morgue.

“Scream 2″ is a great sequel, managing to be funnier and scarier than its predecessor in numerous scenes. I was disappointed with some things though. For one, Mrs. Loomis wasn’t that great of a serial killer. Yeah, alright, she sure killed enough people. But Billy and Stu were much more involved in the narrative of the first film and the realization that they were the killers is shocking.

Also, I was upset that Randy was killed off. He provides much of the humour in these films — and geeky, besotted sidekicks are always great. While watching “Scream”, I was shocked to see Liev Schreiber show his face as Cotton Weary. I’ve always thought Schreiber to be a sophisticated Daniel Day-Lewis type, working on Broadway and directing his own movies. Why the hell would he show up for something like “Scream”? And for the love of God, he’s in the sequel? After two minutes of shock, I paused “Scream 2″ and Wikipedia’ed Liev Schreiber. Apparently, he’s been in a lot of crap that I’ve overlooked (see: “Kate & Leopold”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”).

Also, Sarah Michelle Gellar should have been in more scenes. If you have a Scream Queen, you’ve got to use her. Don’t make her just sit around on a sorority couch. And she was the DD. Doesn’t that make her a Final Girl? Sorry, my “Buffy”-bias is getting in the way. I wanted to see her kick some ass. But I digress.

Scream 3 (2000)
Everyone and their mother has a gun in this movie. I don’t remember there being this many guns in “Scream” and “Scream 2″. I guess I was always completely focused on the knife, but it just felt awkward to have the serial killer wielding a gun. Gun’s are too easy, too straightforward, less manic. I can’t picture Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees with a gun. Hell, maybe they have — there are too many sequels to keep track — but it just feels wrong in a way.

There was great self-reflexive humour in “Scream 3″ with the movie-within-a-movie concept. I laughed hard when I realized that the first character killed off (besides the opening murder of Cotton and his wife) is named “Sarah”. Essentially, Jenny McCarthy in playing an actress playing Sarah Michelle Gellar playing her role in “Scream 2″. Yeah, that’s confusing, but that’s what’s hilarious about this installment. What’s disappointing is that there is so much hype that “anything cn happen, the rules are gone, etc.” and then only secondary characters are killed off. Sidney (Campbell), Dewey (Arquette) and Gale (Cox-Arquette) are all standing in the end. And the murderer turns out to be Sidney’s apparent half-brother who we barely see throughout the film. He’s an even more outrageous suspect than Mrs. Loomis in “Scream 2″.

Apparently, “Scream 4″ is happening. There were rumours that it was going to be in 3-D — but those were just rumours. Don’t worry. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox-Arquette and David Arquette have all signed on. Wes Craven may direct. It was announced in 2008 by the Weinstein brothers, but it has yet to come to fruition. That’s all I have to say about the Scream Cycle. In all honesty, it’s a lot more than I  ever expected to write about a 90s slasher-comedy series. But I had a lot of time writing this blog post and watching the movies. Even though I do like one more than the other two, all three of the films are enjoyable tongue-in-cheek romps (that scared me stiff as a child).

And the Winner Is
“Scream” (1996)

Notes: Directed by Wes Craven; Written by Kevin Williamson, Ehren Kruger; Starring David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Liev Schreiber; Music by Marco Beltrami.

Tagged as: Bob Weinstein, Courteney Cox-Arquette, David Arquette, Drew Barrymore, Ehren Kruger, François Truffaut, Harvey Weinstein, Jamie Kennedy, Jenny McCarthy, Joss Whedon, Kevin Williamson, Liev Schreiber, Marco Beltrami, Martin Scorsese, Neve Campbell, Peter Biskind, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Wes Craven