Over 20 Years Later, Scream is Still the Best of Meta-Horror
There’s no shortage of meta-horror flicks these days. Whether you want to engage in the puzzle box that is The Cabin in The Woods, soak up Edgar Wright’s storytelling efficiency in Shaun of The Dead, or enjoy some hammy film-in-a-film shenanigans in The Final Girls, there’s something out there for fans of the genre to sink their trope-busting teeth into. Such films don’t hold many surprises anymore — even if they are fun genre exercises — but perhaps that’s because it’s all been done before, and in the best ways, in Wes Craven‘s stab at meta filmmaking in 1996’s Scream.
To say Scream is the king of the meta-horror world is like pointing out Drew Barrymore is wearing a wig in the film’s opening kill: obvious. But while Scream‘s twists and turns are so well-known now that they became punching bags for parodies like Scary Movie, it’s a discredit to forget the fact this was, at one point, an absolute thrill in its interrogation of tropes and genre, and in how it refreshed the very things horror critics would refer to as cliche and assumed. Scream may not technically be the first meta-horror ever to reach the screen, but it is the most mainstream and deservedly discussed. Nobody ever quite did it like this again, not even the Scream franchise itself in multiple sequels.
Scream‘s story is as follows: around the anniversary of her mother’s death at the hands of an unknown murderer a year prior, Sidney Prescott and the town of Woodsboro are targeted by ‘Ghost Face’, a masked killer who likes to make creepy cold calls and check if you actually did remember to lock that screen door of yours. Ghost Face begins picking off those close to Sidney, and before long has her so paranoid that she has to question almost everyone around her. Except, that’s not really the point, the point is that all of this is through a lens that cheerfully acknowledges pop culture’s familiarity with the slasher movie. What if the dumb teenagers in that murder movie knew the rules of a murder movie? Is that helpful, or does knowing our fate bind us to its eventuality? Don’t ask Sidney, she makes the biggest mistake a girl in a horror flick can make: having sex.
Sidney might not be clued up (Neve Campbell brings a lovable deer-in-headlights quality to her that is the glue that holds the franchise together) but luckily she has a few friends that can inform her of how to finesse her way out of a horror story as well as go in front of her in the line to the chopping block. Scream‘s cast screams 90’s: Skeet Ulrich plays Sidney’s boyfriend and (spoilers) one half of what is revealed to be the Ghost Face partnership, with Matthew Lilliard making up the other half as the excitable douchebag Stu. Tatum (Rose McGowan) takes up the sacrificial pretty blonde best friend archetype (brunettes have a better survival rate in this game), and horror-fanatic Randy is somewhat of an audience surrogate in a way Sidney can’t be. Courtney Cox and David Arquette play off each other as Gale Weathers, the world’s most intense news reporter, and an out-of-depth cop named Dewey respectively. Part of the joy of the Scream series is that it has always had its fingers on the pop culture pulse. Monica from Friends is in this, for goodness sake. Scream 4 plays this element up, opening with some of the 2010s most prominent young stars getting spooked and slashed.
But for all the consistency of the meta elements in the sequels, none of them live up to the original, which is a staple yet to be dethroned. Perhaps it’s in Craven’s creepy, home-invading wide angles, the chunky 90s landlines, or the popcorn sounds used to build tension in the film’s unforgettable opener, but the whole affair is just so worthy of sleepover worship. This is the kind of thing a 15-year-old puts on with a giggle at midnight with some friends, only to realize that the jumps and scares are actually rather unnerving. The humor of the film works in tandem with genuine atmosphere and frights — Kevin Williamson‘s revered screenplay sacrifices nothing, except characters of course.
The score is nothing less than magical, but the real trick up Scream‘s sleeve is how effortlessly it engages the viewer despite how unserious it is. It doesn’t insult the intelligence of its audience, instead, it finds footing in fans’ love for the horror genre, using their expectations to rack up ‘gotchas’ but also rewarding them for their affinity. Scream will just as quickly use a trope against you and keep you guessing as it will let you in on a secret the characters aren’t privy to. Sometimes, the lack of logic and clues is what makes the films’ mysteries so compelling.
When a drunken Ricky sits alone at a house party, breaking his own rules by wandering off without his friends, he watches Halloween on TV and pointlessly shouts ‘Look behind you!’ at Laurie Strode. Meanwhile, Ghost Face approaches from behind not unlike a villain in a kids’ pantomime designed to make children point and shout. Once the gleeful tension of the sequence passes, you realize it’s both a celebration of being informed well as something that puts us know-it-alls back in our place with a gentle reminder that we probably would fare no better if our lives suddenly turned into slasher movies. Craven and Williamson could have easily done some damage to Ricky here, but allow the moment to pass without leaving a scratch. Sighs of relief are just as memorable as knives to the throat.
Despite the bloody subject matter, Scream is so much fun. It captures a specific moment in time in a bottle, then shakes it with reckless abandon. Maybe now we know what we’re getting when we twist off that cap, but it’s doubtful cinema-goers in 1996 were adequately prepared for the ride they were about to go on.
With yet another sequel on the horizon, and with the trio of Sidney, Dewey, and Gale returning, one can only hope there’s some untapped greatness still to be mined in the franchise’s formula. Even if there isn’t, it’s still exciting to think about seeing these characters and returning to their extremely unlucky existence once more. Had the original not paid such attention to its characters, perfecting them as devices and personalities that kept us coming back for more, it’s unlikely we’d have got one sequel never mind five.
It’s not that meta-horrors should stop trying, or that retreading what Scream perfected is not worthwhile, it’s just so damn hard to ignore its influence and time-enduring endearing qualities, and why should we? – Trudie Graham