FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS LIVEBLOG: Scream (1996):”This is Not My Favorite Scary Movie.”
Welcome back boys and ghouls to Friday Night Frights! Our annual October marathon of weekly watches centering on some kinda spooky theme. For this year’s series, I thought it’d be fun to mix it up a bit and liveblog a bunch of movies that I haven’t seen in quite some time. And with the 7th installment of the Scream franchise looming on the horizon (just in time for next year’s 30th anniversary of the original’s release), that sounded like as good of an idea as any to me. Only with one caveat: We’re sticking with the entries that Wes Craven directed himself before moving on up to that big Elm St. in the sky. That’s right, nothing past the OG core four.
So go pop some popcorn, turn off the lights and flip on that caller ID.
It’s time to watch some scary movies.
- 29 Years already? Dang, glad I recently got that colonoscopy outta the way. I was in high school when this came out and remember going to see it on maybe the third weekend and it was still a packed theater. It was considered the “coolest” movie of the year for all of those idiots who hadn’t seen From Dusk Till Dawn about 11 months earlier.
- Going with Drew Barrymore as the first kill was a smart move. Everyone thinks she’s the lead because she’s a name actress and then "BOOYAKASHA!” Hanging from a tree. I like to thing that her last words were “Beeee. goood.”
- Even though I’ve always considered Director Wes Craven to be little more than a hack who got lucky, this movie is a nice blend of slick production and gritty violence. It’s got a nice “filmic” look to it. Good lighting, nice camera movements. Too bad he couldn’t cool it with all of the cheap “let’s crank the volume uuuuuup HERE!” jump scares.
- And she’s dead. Man, I turn away for 2 seconds.
- Now we’re in Neve Campbell’s bedroom where she’s yapping it up with her boyfriend Skeet Ulrich. Remember that guy? Yeah, I had to look him up on IMDB too. Her room is kind of weird. This is the mid 90’s but she’s got an Indigo Girls poster hanging on her closet door? Even teenagers in the 80’s who liked the Indigo Girls didn’t have an Indigo Girls poster hanging on their closet doors.
- So this boyfriend guy dude of hers is desperately trying to score here and failing miserably. I bet this role was good preparation for his real life post-this movie. Skeet, Skeet!
- Oh hey, that chick with the big cans who dated Marilyn Manson for a minute is in this movie. I’d forgotten all about her. Ross McDonald I believe is her name.
- Ah yes, and here’s Matthew Lillard and Seth Green-clone Jamie Fitzgerald Kennedy. So many famous modern leading men’s careers were launched with this movie.
- Looks like Neve Cambpell (Sidney from here on out) lives in a beautiful 2 story house out in the middle of some gorgeous seaside valley. She’s wandering from room to room scared about the murder her clearly entire upper class little town is chatting about instead of being concerned about what ethnicity the people are who just moved onto her block. Kinda hard to believe there, Wes!
- The killer guy just asked her if she liked scary movies over the phone and she almost passed out delivering one of the longest runoff sentences in movie history.
- And he’s trying to kill her already? This movie moves pretty fast for my old man eyes! It’s kinda too bad though that I can’t not picture Marlon Wayans inside of that Ghost Face get up though. It just isn’t a very scary costume design. Iconic, sure. Creepy, nope.
- Now it’s plot time! Lots of talking in police offices, high schools, etc. Sidney accused some dude named Cotton underwear of raping and murdering her Mother and the dude is now on death row and Courtney Cox is a reporter that thinks she falsely identified him. Also, The Fonz is the high school principle. I’m sure that will payoff at some poi- Oh hey, Linda Blair!
- Huh, so the script is planting all kinds of red herrings, going for that THE KILLER COULD BE ANYONE thing. I’d forgotten about this aspect of the story. It’s kind of cute watching Craven reach for such top shelf material.
- Poor Sidney is hiding in the bathroom listening to some 45 year old cheerleader talk trash on her mom. These kids, man I tell ya.
- David Arquette is surprisingly pretty great in this movie. He’s likable and just weird enough to be charming. I’m glad he doesn’t end up being the killer *whoops, spoiler alert!*
- And now is the time for Jamiford Kennedy to toss out all kinds of deconstructionist dialogue and at a video store no less. I wonder if kids watching this movie today will think they’re supposed to be in some Youtubers basement. Also, is there a word for the complete lack of charisma? If not, I’m inventing it right now: “Can, it ya Lillard."
- Nice The Howling reference. Points for some Joe Dante love.
- And whoa wait, slow down we’re already at the climactic house party sequence? This movie is pretty relentless when you’re half paying attention. Also slightly better than I remember. I guess multiple sequels and nearly 2 decades of mostly subpar horror movies will do that.
- Nipples.
- Beer.
- Nipples + Beer = You guessed it.
- And Ross McDonald is about to die in the garage. She called the guy in the ghost face mask “Casper.” Is it just me or does calling someone Casper kind of sound like a slur? Anyway, she’s trapped in the pet door and just got crushed by the automatic garage door. That’s a *burp* that’s a rough way out nips (R.I.P.)
- So despite the fact that Sidney is completely traumatized over her mother’s rape/murder twofer and she’s suspicious that her boyfriend may or may not be a psychopath, she’s still hanging out in a room all alone with him. And of course he’s using her weakened state to take a crack at those panties again. And it’s actually working this time!? C’mon, just play Smooth Operator in the background you wimps.
- The rest of the house is gathered downstairs eating popcorn and drinking beer. They’ve got John Carpenter’s Halloween playing on the tube. Now I’m no director, but having the characters in your horror movie watching a horror movie that’s about a thousand times better than the one we’re watching doesn’t seem like the brightest move.
- Jamie F. Kennedy just told everyone the rules of horror movies. There are a lot of critics and purists that think this movie sort of ruined the genre by deconstructing it too much but by the mid nineties, we needed a little shake up like this. Even if it launched a thousand sub par clones where high school students spoke like physics professors.
- Wow. She totally just lost her virginity. I’d forgotten all about that.
- And the killer just “killed” her boyfriend and Sidney is running around trying to get away. Welp, there goes ever having sex again.
- Ghost Face is coming after JFK and the music from the TV has taken over OUR soundtrack. That’s clever. Really, there should just be some sort of law enforcing John Carpenter to score all horror movies.
- Sidney’s got a gun. It’s down to Skeet, JFK and Lillard. I’d say do them all for their sake.
- Ok. The killer(s) have revealed their big plan in a dialogue heavy, blood splattered kitchen scene. Not too bad, but for all of the self references going on you’d think they’d realize the scene they were in and shut up after a while.
- Hey, the TV that was (still) showing Halloween was just used as a murder weapon. BRAVO.
- I just realized that this is all still going down on the night of the party. A scene that started 45 minutes ago. That’s pretty impressive!
- And the day is saved with a house full of corpses. Sidney makes a Schwarzenegger worthy crack after putting a bullet in the head of the guy who just popped her cherry.
ROLL CREDITS
Overall, I’d say Scream has aged pretty well. It’s a nicely polished entertainment machine and I can see why audiences back in ‘96 turned it into such a phenomenon. It’s no stone cold classic of the genre or anything but decent fun that I can imagine coming back to once every oh…I guess 30 years or so sounds about right.
