Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 20 of Scream (0:53:01-0:55:47)

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

SCENE 20
Length: 2mins 45secs
Primary Characters: Randy Meeks, Stu Macher and Billy Loomis
Pop Culture References:

• Frankenstein (movie plays in video store)
• Mother's Boys, Smoke, Clerks and Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (film posters hang in the store)
  
• Prom Night (Randy mentions this as the key to the crimes)
• The Howling and E.T. (a customer inquires about both)
  

I think this scene acts much like the Principal Himbry murder scene in that it merely gives us more time with certain characters (specifically Randy) and gives just a little bit more to mull over for the home stretch. The way it makes it so obvious that they're trying to make viewers think Billy is the killer (I remember it being a big surprise that there were two so at this stage first time viewers wouldn't be thinking of a duo), so much so that I'm sure many thought "nah, that'd be too obvious."


Whatta klutz!


"We've had a run in the mass-murder section!"
This here, ladies and gentlemen, is the very middle of Scream. I think that line of dialogue is quite an apt one considering the success of Scream less to a rush of horror titles. This shot is the 196th screencap that I have taken so far for this series, which sounds like a lot... because it is. Yikes. I was kinda hoping it would be the 200th, but unfortunately that didn't pan out.


"What's that werewolf movie with ET's mom in it?"
Before I discovered IMDb and before I knew who Dee Wallace was (oh, the humanity) I used to think this line was a joke about someone incredibly ugly ("ET's mom" as in his alien mother) and not just an actual bit of movie trivia. The answer? The Howling. I like that Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes had a reference to Steven Spielberg's Jaws and then all these years later he's doing it again!

Just look at this shot for a second though and consider the last time you ever saw a movie rental place that big. In light of Blockbuster going bankrupt I'm sure there will be a few obituaries such as this one, recalling the good ol' days. I even have a blogger tag labelled "VHS Memories" about anytime that I discuss my fondness of visiting the local video store as a child/teenager (first family owned business and then eventually Network Video, Civic Video and Blockbuster) and perusing the isles, looking at all the amazing video sleeve artwork and wanting to watch them all. Sigh. Good times.


Jamie Kennedy looks like such a baby in this movie. I mean, he actually got kinda hot in Scream 2 and these days he's fugly and gross, but he was definitely hot in Scream 2. Just wait and there's be plenty of screencapping for that!


If you squint it almost looks like Randy and Stu are about to kiss. Considering how homo-erotic this movie is I wouldn't put it past 'em.


That is the 200th screencap. Amazing. And to think, we've still got half the movie to go!! I like that Randy pieced (almost) everything together before everyone else though. It's fitting. He correctly guessed Billy as the killer and Stu as his "lapdog" and he was right about Sidney's father being a part of the killer's plot ("his body will come popping up in the last reel somewhere!"), he just didn't predict there'd be two killers. That's where Randy's movie knowledge slipped him up, always expecting a lone murderer when he should've known whoever it was was going to do something different.

I want to bring to light my favourite extra. She clearly didn't listen when told "don't look at the camera!"






Then she just shakes her head and walks away. I love it! Who she is, I'll never know.


That really was in poor taste, Billy.


The best bit about Stu's weird hyper moments is when he comes back down and says stuff with such deadpan sincerity like this moment. "No I don't. At all. No."

"This is standard horror movie stuff. Prom Night revisited, man. ... if they'd watch Prom Night they'd save time. There's a formula to it, a very simple formula. EVERYBODY'S A SUSPECT!"

Oh, Randy!

I'm trying to remember Prom Night and I don't recall how any of that movie relates to the goings on in Woodsboro. I only saw that Canadian horror movie for the first time earlier this year and wasn't the killer in Prom Night Jamie Lee Curtis' BROTHER? In fact, that movie did try to position the final girl's father (played by Leslie Neilson of all people) as the prime suspect, but her boyfriend it was not. Of course, maybe Randy was just getting confused with the amazingness of Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou?


It's no wonder the video store "fired his ass" ("twice!") if he does stuff like this on a regular basis.



It really is amazing how much Billy appears to be trying to come off looking like the killer. Threatening people in broad daylight and all.


Was there a lot of gay slash fiction written after Scream? I can't imagine a world in which there wouldn't be? Was it so completely obvious to everyone in 1996 how gay this movie was? Like, actually very homoerotic (we've always discussed this, but it bears repeating.)


"What would be your motive?"
"It's the millennium; motives are incidental."
"Millennium. Millennium, I like that. That's good, millennium. Good kid."
Nothing dates a movie quite like millennium references. Why not throw in a "Y2K bug" joke just for fun?


Love that evil look that Billy gives to Stu as if to say "we're total badasses." Also, Probably the only time in the entire movie that Skeet Ulrich is attractive.


My "Movies in Movies" series used the Mother's Boys poster shot up there for this movie, but this scene also features clearly visible posters for other Miramax titles such as Smoke and Clerks. One poster I did not expect to see, and I only just picked it up now as I screencapped the movie, was a poster for Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. Now, I know Weinsteins obviously just filled this video store with posters for their own movies on the off chance that some obsessive weirdo such as myself was paying attention (there are more posters in the background but I cannot make them out), but Just Another Girl wasn't a particularly popular movie in 1992 when it came out, so I'm not sure why this video store in northern California would have a poster for it up in 1996.

Nevertheless, I really like Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.. It's flaws are obvious, but they're forgivable when the lead performance by Ariyan A. Johnson is so strong and the sense of place that director Leslie Harris creates in these districts of New York City is so evocative. I wish they'd release it on DVD.

Okay, that little detour was brought to you by my bizarre ability to recognise a blurry movie poster for a movie almost nobody knows. Next extry will be back to Scream.

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

The Incredible 1980s Power Looks of Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou

Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou (or Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II depending on what country you're from) is a horror film from 1987. It shares literally nothing whatsoever in common with it's predecessor, Prom Night, other than, yes, a prom is involved in each. This sequel revolves around the ghost of "Mary Lou" (Lisa Schrage), a high school slut who died at the prom in 1957 and has now taken over the body of "Vicki" (Wendy Lyon), a plain - some may some homely - schoolgirl who was recently nominated for Mary Lou's coveted Prom Queen title.

The movie is generally uninteresting and, much like Prom Night, is kinda boring and has that washed out look that a lot of 1980s horror flicks have. What is incredible about this movie is how completely and utterly 1980s it is. The fashion! The hair! The new wave music ripoffs! As I watched this movie I got the unsinkable sense that Flock of Seagulls had been really popular in Canada at the time. Oh yeah, this is a Canadian movie! It's basically what would happen if the cast of Degrassi performed an amateur production of Carrie!


Sunglasses... on a chain (but not at night)! Oh lordy.


A pearl necklace, floral knit tops, big pop star hair and chunky earrings. Oh yes.


I had a "boombox" just like that when I was a young'n.


You cannot deny that this is incredible.



This is Beth Gondek playing "Jess" who looks like Joan Cusack in Working Girl, but even funnier because, umm, this is set in a Canadian high school, not New York City. Jess has a secret - at first I thought she was a lesbian who was in love with Vicki, but it turns out she's just preggers to a creep who won't call her back! Mary Sue's demonic spirit throws her out a window. Poor Jess. POOR JESS' CAPE!


I see so many different hair styles in just these two images. And that's a big "Hello!" to the shirt that guy is wearing in the first picture (I never caught that character's name.)


Is that scene set in a gymnasium or a fashion mall? I never can tell with the 1980s.


I just find this picture amusing, don't you?


I love that people wore this shit TO SCHOOL!


I'd like to point out that that first image is a school teacher caressing the buttocks of Vicki. Yes, a teacher. Amazing. That second picture? Okay, there's an entire scene in Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou in which Vicki chases her next victim completely starkers. And I don't mean in any Austin Powers sorta way, I mean complete head to toe nudity. Way too much vagina in this scene, thank you very much. It's the most ridiculous thing in the entire movie and that's saying something!


I love that this Prom looks like nothing more than an Oingo Boingo videoclip with some fluorescent stripping.


Look at that computer! It makes The Net look positively modern!


What losers.
This next shot, the final one thankfully, isn't particularly "omg how funny were the '80s?" but I found it equally as hilarious. It's right after Vicki has won the title of Prom Queen and she stands on stage accepting her crown, but she's not elegant at all. She stands up on the stage in the high school auditorium like she's Ethel Merman on a cruise ship.


And that's basically all I have to say about Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou other than to share with you my favourite moment from the movie. Favourite because it was so unexpected. Don't have the volume on at work though, kids!