Spooky Movie Month Day #23 – Scream

October 23rd

Over the last few weeks, we’ve slowly inched our way up the horror scale but tonight, we’re just gonna rip off the bandaid altogether. Tonight’s movie, at Lion’s request, is Scream. 

Another installment from the late 90’s horror explosion, Scream took center stage in 1996. Directed by Wes Craven, written by Kevin Williamson and a collection of the very best in teen 90’s film actors, Scream pulled no punches. It delivered us a gory, silly, graphic slasher film that deliberately makes fun of itself by following the “horror film formula” as its explaining that formula. 

Full of stars who have made frequent appearances in some of our favorite mystery, horror and suspense, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Drew Barrymore, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy, Matthew Millard and that’s just off the top of my head – ALL made this movie a teen favorite and truly changed the face of horror.

It was the start of a whole new generation in horror films – one that took itself literally, gives the audience everything (no cut away scenes of dead and mangled bodies here – you see it all) and while some aspects may be comedic throughout, the story is very real, very heavy, and even a little bit sad. 

While it’s not my favorite, I cannot deny its place in the horror universe, as it was hugely instrumental in shifting the current of how scary movies were told. Not only that, but it’s a story that has endured, as Scream VI just came out this past spring! 

So what did the younglings think?

Dragon watched the whole thing then had a breakdown after. They no longer want to watch anything “slasher, gory or about murder”. I can 100% respect that and we are going to shift our movie watching from here on out. 

They did actually like it, they said, and thought the death scenes were actually kind of funny and clever now that they’re thinking about it the morning after. Especially “death by garage door”. They also observed the fact that the killers get injured throughout, reminded them of Scooby Doo. Hit by a freezer door, kicked in the crotch… They commented, “they didn’t have nearly enough bruises to have gone through all that!” Then after the reveal stabbing each other and then “death by TV” had them rolling. 

Even with the “fun and funny” parts, overall it was still too much and now we know where our line is. 

Lion loved it, but admitted, it was probably a little too much.  The boyfriend, Steve, is not an image you get out of your head very easily. 

Awww… Baby’s first mangled corpse…*sniff* how time flies!

The big thing, though that I HAVE to mention here – 

They both figured it out in about 10 minutes. I was dumbfounded.  

The SECOND Dragon saw Billy, he knew. 100%, no question. Then, in the next scene at school with all the kids talking, Lion noticed how Stuart was acting and said – okay if it’s not Billy, it’s definitely Stuart. Neither of them wavered on their opinions no matter how many scapegoats and attempts to throw them off the scent were laid out… nope. It’s Billy or Stuart. Period. 

Then while the killer is chasing Sidney around the house at the end, Lion yells out – “Oh crap! There’s two of them!! It’s both!!”

You can imagine their cheers of vindication as the reveal proved them both correct. 

Yet, even though they had a great time and there were aspects they loved, overall this movie pushed them just over their line of comfort and we are officially done with slasher movies for this year. 

Tomorrow and the rest of this week will be insanely busy as we prep for the Zombie Pageant, the Fall Concert with Inland Master Chorale and then Halloween after, so we may be too busy to stop and watch a movie every day, but we’ll see. 

Check back regularly for more as The Mothership enters the foggy, dark realms and into the last seven days before Halloween.