Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 30 of Scream (1:21:31-1:24:13)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 30
Length: 2min 42secs
Primary Characters: Gale Weathers, Deputy Dewey and Randy Meeks
Pop Culture References:
  • Halloween (It continues to be played on the TV)


It's this very scene that makes me chuckle with wonder at what Courteney Cox's Friends cast members must have thought of the movie she ha spent her summer vacation making. I like to imagine everyone of the cast returning from their summer vacations and discussing what they did; someone probably holidayed in the Caribbean or the French Riviera while others made failed attempts at capitalising on their newfound TV fame with a dull romantic comedy and then Courteney would have been there saying how she made a horror movie called Scream in which she had to run around from a masked killer who was murdering teenagers. And then she would've told them about the actor she met on the set... :(


I love looking at Gale run in this little shot as she wears her skirt and her heels.


I guess Dewey was very sure that the killer was inside the house, since he just left Gale to run around by herself. This shot kinda feels like a shot from Halloween, which is apt since by this stage the film was using John Carpenter's Scream score outright for its own usage.


I actually think this moment works particularly well. We all know that Halloween is playing in the house, but Craven and co have ramped the tension up so much with that last chase sequence that it's easy to forget and to think the sound coming from the TV is real. As fake scares go, it is certainly a bit better and more original than a cat jumping out from a shadow.











My favourite shots from this ensemble of images are shots #3, #4 and #7. Love the look of "oh shit, where is Kenny?" on Gale's face in that third shot, the imagery of her Hollywood shoots surrounded by pooling blood in the forth and, well, who doesn't love that seventh shot with the blood on the windscreen wipers. I do find it amusing that Gale tried to wipe the blood away from inside the windshield as if it was condensation or something like that.

Poor Kenny though. I like that Stu, in killer mode, was so proud of his unsuspecting kill on Kenny that he decided to take time out of stalking his victims (he easily could have just gone straight back inside the house and given Randy the ol' stabby stabby salute through the skull like he intended before he heard Sidney screaming (which, by the way, Randy did not hear, and yet there he is?) to prop him up on the news van to be violently discovered by someone. Throat slashing just isn't enough!


For some reason this specific shot seems very unfamiliar to me. Like, I've watched this films hundreds of times so I have obviously seen it, but until I screencapped it it had never really registered with me. I like how Randy is there trying to get up and figure out what is going on.


"Oh god, Kenny I'm sorry, but get off my fucking windshield!"

Love this line and Cox's reading of it. It's that wink of comedy and yet it feels so natural and organic. I mean, it would be kinda annoying to have a big ol' dead man on your windshield as you're trying to escape from a serial killer.






Okay, and now I have to call "Shenanigans!" on writer Kevin Williamson. I don't understand this moment. Gale is trying to escape, sees a bloodied Sidney (where that blood came from, I'm not sure, since the very last moment we saw her running away from the killer in the news van she did not have as much blood on her face!), and swerves to avoid her. Gale then goes careening off the road and into a tree, yet what does Sidney do? She runs back towards the house? That doesn't make any sense! You'd think you would try to go get whoever it was and try to escape together.

Furthermore, and this pertains to a later sequence, but we'll discuss it now, when Stu and Billy are surprised by Gale in the kitchen showdown they say she "looked dead" (in a manner of speaking) and yet... how? I've never understood that. The killer wasn't following Gale in her van (as far as we're aware) and the only one who saw her take the van into the bushes was Sidney. It's always confused me and it's the only plot hole that I can find in the first two movies that genuinely bugs me every time I watch them.

Can someone provide a tangible reason for any of this? Please?!?


Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29

8 comments:

Wings1295 said...

Wish I could. Bad editing? Sometimes, you just have to smile and let all the good outweight the not-so-good.

Joey said...

I remember listening to an audio commentary with Craven and Williamson, and I know they said the van wasn't supposed to hit the tree. It was supposed to roll over. I am guessing Sidney didn't go down to the van because she assumed the driver died. She clearly got a ride from Tatum so maybe she was looking for another survivor so she could get a ride out of there?

Anthony said...

Well Sidney knew Dewey was around. Why go try get help from stupid ol' Gale when Dewey is around, no?

And I NEVER ever thought of it this way. I think you kind of ruined it for me, ahha. WHY!? I can't have this movie ruined. Cause yeah, when the car flew off the road, Stu was in the house stabbing Dewey I assume. And then he went right to attacking Sidney. I mean MAYBE after Sidney escaped the cop car, Stu checked out the news van -- but no wait -- he was right there with Randy! Ah, doesn't make sense. There really is no sense to it. Ahha, but it's still so good you kind of have to ignore it.

Also, the shot of Gale driving away and Randy getting up in the background -- NEVER noticed Randy there until the last time I watched it. Love discovering new things about these movies. It's like finding money.

Anthony said...

Also, Gale acts so well being terrified in this scene, the first time I watched it, I kind of wanted her to die. Bitch got herself involved with the wrong story.

FranklinBluth said...

What the hell!? Why is Randy outside? Can someone explain, please.

Sydney's ridiculous attempt to stop the van always annoyed the SHIT out of me. It was always going to either:
1. get her run down, and killed, or
2. make the driver swerve like a maniac and get themselves killed

Idiot!

Glenn Dunks said...

Franklin, I've always assumed Randy heard somebody screaming (just like Ghostface heard Sidney as he was about to stab Randy).

Other than that I don't know why he'd suddenly get up and start walking around since he was so engrossed in Halloween.

John from Jersey said...

In regards to your question about how Stu could have checked on Gale's condition after the crash so that later he could inform Billy that she looked dead, I have to admit that until now I never analyzed it to the extent you have. And now I see that may have been a good thing because you do raise some good points about how "Scream" seems to be flying off the tracks a bit during it's frantic climax. BUT I will say that I will never fault the movie for not explaining how Stu got around to checking on Gale after the crash because that leads to Stu eventually saying to Billy right in front of an alive Gale "She looked dead, man... still does" which cracks me up every time. You gotta love caustic wit in the middle of a bloodbath.

Smashley said...

As it was stated by another commenter, the stunt went wrong with the van (but they liked it enough to keep it). If it had flipped, of course Sidney wouldn't have bothered with it when there was Dewey's police car in perfect driving condition back at the house.

I can only explain Randy's actions away by him being so drunk!

And no clue how Stu had time to go check on Gale, but I guess since it was his house, he knew his way around the property really well. He definitely got around a lot in these scenes!