Screaming at Craven images
The killer in Scream, the latest scary movie from horror master Wes Craven, would read every word of this article. He would want to know exactly what Craven has to say about his new shocker. For that matter, so would his victims.
You see, the teens in Scream love scary movies. They have watched films such as Halloween and Friday the 13th dozens of times. They especially like Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (though not the sequels). When someone starts killing them in slasher-movie style, it seems that one may have taken that love of scary films too far.
'That's why I found this script so fascinating,' Craven said by phone from London. 'We look at a whole genre, and we actually see people watching them on screen again, and have them talk about the stars and inside information and sort of the scandalous facts and everything else.' Audiences have found Scream fascinating, too. Made for US$12 million (about HK$93.6 million), the film has grossed about US$100 million in the United States. It is the most popular horror film since The Exorcist. Not even Craven understands why it has found such a large audience.
'If I knew, I suppose I'd go out and turn them out like a cookie cutter,' mused Craven, 'I'm sure it has something to do with the combination of wit, real solid scares, almost a deconstruction, if you will, of the genre and its audience, so that you review it and then turn it inside out. And it's terrific whodunit, too. It's a combination that's never been seen before in a film. It has people talking and telling people they have to go see it.' Scream 's deceptively simple premise sounds like 100 other slasher films: a vicious killer in a Halloween costume is stalking and killing the teenagers in a small town. Pretty young Sidney (Neve Campbell) is a particular target, and her hunky boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich) is a prime suspect. So is Sidney's father.
Who will be the next victim? Who is the killer? Will Sidney survive? Do not let the standard setup fool you. Kevin Williamson's screenplay manages to be a slasher film, a gleeful homage to the genre, and a hip spoof at the same time, with plenty of suspense and screams along the way.
The film's characters are also unique. Unlike most slasher-movie teens, Scream 's heroes are intelligent and know the genre's conventions by heart. So as the killer stalks them, they watch scary movies and try not to make the same mistakes as the on-screen victims. Unfortunately, the killer loves the same scary movies.
Genre fans will find in-jokes in the casting as well. Drew Barrymore appears as one of the teens, and watch for a cameo by Linda Blair of Exorcist fame. Most of the rest of the actors are unknowns, but Courteney Cox of television series Friends appears as a manipulative television newswoman.