ann hale likes scary movies…
For some reason, the fourth of October is always Scream day for me. Perhaps I get a bit too impatient after the first three days and just need a little nostalgia. Perhaps I just cannot last more than 3 days without a little Wes Craven in my life. For whatever reason, today I need to watch Scream.
I first saw this movie back in 1996 when it was released into theaters. My sister tried to take me but the bitch at the theater wouldn’t let me in, since I was only 12 and, despite her 18 years, my sister was “too young to be my guardian.” I ended up, instead, seeing the atrocity that is Home Alone 3. I then had to wait until it was released on VHS to rent it with my friend, Nicole, at our local rental place, who didn’t care how old I was as long as I had the cash to rent it.
We laid out some blankets on the floor and watched without knowing that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson had just changed horror as we knew it. Every rule horror fans had grown up knowing could now be broken. Our favorite TV and movie stars could now star in horror films. The killer could die and someone else would take his place. There no longer needed to be nudity to keep our attention. Horror had a new name and it was called change.
Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) is murdered at the hands of Ghostface, our ghost masked murderer. Soon, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) begins to receive threatening phone calls from the same person who had called Casey. When his attempt to murder Sidney fails and the school is closed down, Ghostface takes to killing off her friends and framing her father for the crimes. Unfortunately for Sidney, the killer is closer to her than she knows.
Whether you like teen slashers or not, Scream did usher in a new genre of horror. The idea is original, the cast is fun and, if you watched the Fonz jump the shark, you can now watch him try to dodge a knife.
