31 Horrors: Waxwork (#6)

Wherein I attempt to watch 31 horror films over the course of October. 31 horror films that I have never seen before, from obscure to acclaimed classics. We'll see how well I go in actually finding the time to watch and then write about them in some way.

Well, I guess it's horror?

Actually, "horror" is probably about third down the list of genres that this odd concoction could be placed in. I'd probably describe Anthony Hickox's 1988 film as a fantasy comedy before horror, but its reputation is quite strong and I'd always wanted to see it so I did and I'm not above saying is something horror for the purposes of October when it really, kinda isn't. That I didn't particularly enjoy it is another thing altogether, but I'm probably not going to bother with the second, Waxwork II: Lost in Time. At least not in October, anyway. Unless someone can give a good reason to do so? CAN YOU? Probably not, yeah?

Obviously riffing off of André de Toth's 1953 shlocker, House of Wax with Vincent Price, Hickox's Waxwork is a bizarre film that takes a more comical look at a mad wax sculptor's efforts to complete his macabre works. Filmed with garish, bright colours and with repeated use of the hideous "fish eye" lens (remember The King's Speech?), Waxwork has a unique look coming at it today, but I feel like this was definitely a style at the time. Am I wrong in remembering Peter Jackson's early horror work had the same same easthetic? As the core cast of teenagers find themselves in scary ("scary") situations involving famous horror identities (Count Dracula, the Wolfman, the Marquis de Sade, Romero zombies, the Mummy, and so on) it takes on the attitude of a somewhat self-referential film like Wes Craven's New Nightmare, but filtered through grand guignol bombastics.

I didn't find its sense of humour particularly funny, I must say. With its oddball personality placed very firmly left of centre, I think it takes a particular mood to get into it. I found the obvious low budget particularly distracting, which is disappointing. I hate discouraging filmmakers with limited resources from going out there and attempting stuff that is as boldly inventive with story and narrative as Hickox was with this, but I just don't think he was able to pull it off. The obvious use of model sets, human actors whose breathing is clearly visible, and some less than convincing make-up effects only served to pull me out of the experience that he so clearly had the faith in. And that's before the acting! The effort is certainly there with a number of the set-pieces - although an Egyptian Mummy sequence feels a bit like a piss-weak afterthought - but without the resources to truly pull it off at the level that they really needed. Its intentional hokeyness - at least what I saw as intentional - was off-putting, too, and I routinely find this device used in low budget fare as a way of nudging and winking its way out of a corner. No such luck.

Still, I did find myself occasionally being pulled in. I particularly liked the Dracula sequence featuring Michelle Johnson and Miles O'Keeffe, and when the film sticks to wide shots it impresses on a visual level. The initial wax set-ups are really quite novel. I got a kick out of the anachronistic use of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" over the end credits, and any film that includes cast members from Gremlins (Zach Galligan), Valley Girl (Deborah Foreman), Twin Peaks (Dana Ashbrook), and The Lord of the Rings (John Rhys-Davis) will always have at least some eye-popping retroactive niche value to it. As a pre-date to a lot of the films that seem to get people in a twist today (anything that remotely winks at audiences with references they can easily "get" and feel proud about; playing with alternate ideas of reality) it's of interest, but it sadly doesn't really work outside of that. C

I will say this though. Whoever did the casting on this movie did a great job. Apart from the aforementioned Galligan, Foreman, Ashbrook and Johnson, there's fun supporting work by Michu Meszaros (the man inside the ALF costume!), David Warner, Jack David Walker, and some really fine casting for Dracula. If you're casting a sexually provocative figure and famed seducer for a youth-leaning horror film then you may as well go sexy and matinee, yeah? Miles O'Keeffe as Dracula is, shall we put it, a quite attractive specimen. He was essentially Angel before David Boreanaz was ever on the scene.

Yes please, I'll take two!

...

Hmmm... maybe just one.

(photos nabbed via 'Male Vamps' blog, naturally.)

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 6 of Scream 3 (0:19:25-0:21:55)

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



SCENE 6 of Scream 3
Length: 2mins 30secs
Primary Characters: Sidney Prescott, Neil Prescott (Lawrence Hecht) and "Maureen Prescott" (Lynn McCree)
Pop Culture References:

• The Curse of the Cat People (Sidney's mother appears in her garden dressed in white, perhaps most reminiscent of this 1944 sequel)

I like this short bit at the start of this scene purely because it features...

NEIL PRESCOTT!

I like that they didn't forget him in Scream 2, especially since the whole plot revolves around the original Maureen Prescott storyline that he is directly a part of. I think I read that there was meant to be a bit in Scream 4 that explained his absence. He supposedly died between Scream 3 and 4, but for some reason it was excised (like so much other stuff), which is disappointing since it would've made the whole family angle of that film even more potent since her Woodsboro relatives were probably all she had left.

"Psychos can't kill what they can't find."
But they can kill other people to get to you and to get you out of hiding. Well done, Sidney. Great plan.

No, but seriously, Scream 3 and Halloween H20 share a bit in common in this regard, just another way that film and the Scream franchise feel like curiously linked entities. Oh, and hey, both feature dream sequences!

I love that this shot mirrors the first film right down to the way Sidney is asleep on the couch and next to her is a table with a telephone and that very same photo of she and her mother. Of course, you think Sidney's about to get "the call", when really all that happens is a strange, out of place dream sequence. Or maybe since it is a dream sequence, that is why it mirrors the setup of her Woodsboro home? Hmmm.

Meanwhile, the same scene from Scream (scene 7, which I linked to just now with "the first film") I mention a similarity with Twin Peaks and just thinking about it now, this moment of Sidney having a nightmare about her dead, secretive relative on the couch is very much like what Mrs Palmer (played by Grace Zabriskie) did. Although with fewer dwarf's spouting dialogue like "fire walk with me." Naturally.

The best thing that I can see about this scene is that at least it's well lit.

Really well lit.

And yet so dumb.

Seriously.

I really do question the - to use a popular phrase on a show I just watched an entire series of, Project Runway - taste level of this scene. It irks me to see Sidney dreaming of her own mother this way. It comes off as crass and unnecessary. I much prefer the bed sheet mother scare later in the film because it's a genuine "WTF?" moment. This is never anything other than a dream (nightmare, sure) that fails to scare. If they had to have it, why not have Sidney think she's being stalked by the killer only to discover it's not him, and then have it revealed to be a dream? At least that makes sense for the franchise. The Scream films never went here and I wish they hadn't.

The scene doesn't even help set up the later mother scare. I mean, we can all assume that Sidney is "haunted" by the memory of her mother, we don't need this ghoulish scene to tell us this. Basically, I think this moment ranks alongside the "fuck Bruce Willis" quip from Scream 4 as the series' worst moment. Although maybe I've forgotten something else from Scream 3 that we'll discover along the way was worse than both. Martha Meeks, maybe? Nah, that scene is hilarious (for all the wrong reasons.

It did provide a good trailer moment though. Seeing the bloodied hand moving down the window had us Scream fanatics asking who it was? It looked like it was from a doozy of a chase and kill scene. Alas...

Likewise this shot, but it's such a superficial scare. I mean, these films are all about giving us the superficial scare to weaken the audience and then giving them the gut punch (gut stab?) of actual human violence, but this is just the filmmakers getting their money's worth from hiring the boo machine over a couple of weekends. It's not in aid of anything bigger, it's just there. If Scream 3 was really going to go there then why not get Wes Craven to work some of his old A Nightmare on Elm Street magic?


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, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
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, Scene 30, End Credits

Scream 3
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 11 of Scream 2 (0:36:38-0:37:46)

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



SCENE 11 of Scream 2
Length: 1min 8secs
Primary Characters: Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, Debbie Salt and Joel the Cameraman
Pop Culture References:

• None
  

Ack! My apologies for this project always getting to hopelessly pushed aside. Unfortunately life gets in the way and slows me down (that and I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer from season 1 episode 1 right through to the series 7 finale so I am guilty of putting TV I've watched before ahead of this project - my bad).

Especially since this scene is so short, I'm not sure why I didn't just do it earlier and get it out of the way. That "complete the project by April 14" idea looks laughable in retrospect.


Got this shot completely by accident and yet I absolutely love it. Don't you love it, too?


I love that they legitimately tried to pass Gale off as a suspect. I guess at the time it made sense, it just makes me chuckle in retrospect. The whole "Gale emerging out from behind the news van" thing seems so obvious, and then Debbie Salt say "Gale, you're just getting here?"

But, of course, doing stuff like that takes the focus off of the real killer standing right there in front of us. I wonder if anybody suspected that Debbie Salt was the killer back in 1997 as they were watching it for the first time. Kudos if you did.


"It's happening again, isn't it?"
These two are totally all "secret rendezvous behind the van after the next shot, okay?" - you can see it in their eyes. Also, how very giant-from-twin-peaks, no?



"Don't fuck with me!"
I somehow don't see the giant from Twin Peaks saying this, however.


Indeed, Joel the Cameraman. Indeed. That is most definitely the appropriate response to that line.


"Courteney Cox is... The Closer's sister/CSI's newest recruit/SVU's worst enemy/etc"

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, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10

The Full Blossom of the Evening: Some Thoughts on Twin Peaks

Please note that although this blog entry discusses a lot about Twin Peaks there are no actual plot spoilers if you haven't seen the series and wish to do so. Feel free to keep reading.


I noticed today that David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has made its way to Blu-Ray. That's great news in one respect for fans of the series and the film, but it's disappointing to note that this release still doesn't include the two hours of deleted scenes that David Lynch excised from the finished product. I know the history of why we've never seen them - legal wranglings between the European production company and New Line Cinema - but it's still a damn shame!

Nevertheless, seeing the Blu-Ray release reminded me that I had never spoken about "Laurathon", an event held in November at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) here in Melbourne. I love living in Melbourne, have I mentioned that before? Yeah, I do, because of events like this! 9 and a half hours of Twin Peaks goodness on the big screen in a room lined with red curtains and a seemingly endless supply of donuts at our disposal. It began with the pilot episode, which is - in my humble opinion - the greatest episode of television ever crafted. So, really, not that big of a deal. Alongside that episode they screened episode 7 ("Realization Time"), episode 14 ("Demons" where Laura's killer was reveals), episode 30 ("Beyond Life and Death", the series finale) as well as the movie prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

That pilot... will it ever be topped? Who knows what television has in store for us, but it's just a slice of perfection, that pilot, isn't it? So many memorable moments that are forever branded upon my brain. If I had to choose but just two - my two favourites - I would have to go with Ronette Pulaski's walk across the train tracks since the imagery is so frightening with those "twin peaks" in the background and the tattered dress that'll make you really question where the series is going. Secondly, I'd choose the school sequence towards the beginning, starting with Audrey's smoke in the locker, her flitter of fingers in home room, the screaming girl across the school yard and that eerie tracking shot down the corridor towards Laura's homecoming photo in the displace case. The entire scene really captures that feeling of other-worldliness... I can recognise it as the real world, but there's a quality there that just feels slightly alien. The characters act just slightly off, don't they? Twin Peaks was always the best with it straddled that line delicately. Both are viewable below.


Episode 14 is - here we go again - probably the second greatest episode of television that I can recall. In fact, just the other day I was at my mother's house and turned on the Foxtel and what should be on? Episode 14 of Twin Peaks! Needless to say I rewatched it even though I've seen it many times, including as recently as a month earlier. Such powerful stuff, and yet, in everything that happens in that episode, you know my absolute favourite moment? Favourite of moments above all?


"I want you /
Rockin' back inside my heart"
There's something about that moment that speaks to the innocence and the childhood that these characters (Donna and James) have lost, and that Laura had lost long ago. It's a moment is minute beauty surrounded by so much doom and gloom. Love.It. Plus, the song is pretty great, too!

The final episode? Yeah. I can't even go there.


Of course, the movie is something else entirely, isn't it? Yowza! I'd never seen it on the big screen with a proper sound system, and it's a glorious thing to behold. Admittedly, I am a huge fan of the film - I'd rank it somewhere behind Mulholland Drive as my favourite David Lynch movie - unlike some people, but to see it projected onto the big screen is an experience to treasure. Lynch knows how to work sound and he certainly turns the volume up to 11 here.

The final 30 minutes are, of course, some of the toughest cinema you'll ever see. Fire Walk with Me is rated R18+ for a reason (equivalent to America's NC17 if you'd like). The culmination of two series worth of mystery, intrigue and wonder combined with the film's near-apocalyptic sense of menace and dread, all rolled up into a terrifying package. The sort of horror you don't even find in more traditional horror movies. Scarier, too.

And that ending... wow. As much as I would be intrigued to see where Lynch would go by picking the story up again 25 years later (and it most certainly will remain a rumour, but an interesting one nonetheless with Laura's "you will see me again in 25 years" comment don't you think?), I think the final few minutes of Fire Walk with Me (below) are the perfect coda to the entire Twin Peaks saga. If you watched everything in a through line - pilot episode through to Fire Walk with Me, despite their flip-flop narrative - then I can't imagine a more apt ending. Laura and Dale, the two driving forces of the show, together in the black lodge as Angelo Badalementi's haunting synth score floats overhead, an angel appearing as if by pure virtue of David Lynch's oddity and then.... the laugh. It's just perfect. I know I'm typing similar things a lot in this entry, but it's one of my all time favourite endings.


Speaking of Twin Peaks - obviously - I recently did a piece for Trespass Mag that looked at the fates of the actors and their subsequent careers after the untimely demise - or was it perfectly timed? - of the series. Whilst I was at Laurathon I gave a little bit of a vox pop soundbite to the Boxcutters crew (Australia's best - only? - TV-themed podcast, run by exceptional people I'm glad I know in real life) and you can listen to it here.

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 11 of Scream (0:37:24-0:38:19)

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

SCENE 11
Length: 1min 26secs
Primary Characters: Sidney Prescott, Tatum Riley, Deputy Dewey, Mrs Riley, Cotton Weary (Liev Shreiber)
Pop Culture References:

• None
  

Oh look, an American flag! Worth mentioning is that this scene brings us to the Scream franchise's theme song of sorts in Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" having appeared in all three films of the trilogy. Will it be in Scream 4?


This shot reminds me of why I kinda became obsessed with the USA in the first place. My first real memory of truly wondering "what is this country and why is my country so different?" came through music videos like those for - and I'm not joking - Wilson Phillips' "Hold On" and Julian Lennon's "Saltwater" (ignore the music during the latter since YouTube rules the song and the video can't go together for some reason, blerg). I used to love reading atlases and books about geography and as I read more about America - most of my favourite musicians being from there and all, I was a music fiend before a cinema fiend - I fell in love. Something about how their nature looked so much different to our nature. As I started to watch movies and seeing things like skyscrapers, which living in a town like Geelong I had never seen before, and wondering why Australia was so different.

I've been to America twice now and am planning a third visit (which won't eventuate for a good 2 years or so) and it is this third visit where I intend to finally see some of this part of America. The stuff I was originally so hooked on. I'm sure it can't possibly live up to the nostalgic memories I hold, but I'm willing to take the risk.

So, yes, this shot reminded me of all that. Vividly. Australian towns just don't look like that when I was growing up. Well, not Victorian ones, anyway. Don't get me wrong, growing up here had its own beauty, but much like FBI Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks and his obsessed with Douglas Furs I guess I'm in love with this sort of imagery that Australia just doesn't have. Scream was filmed in Santa Rosa, California, so maybe I should mark that down as somewhere I need to visit. Experience it for myself and soak it all in. It is fascinating that I can drum up so much from one simple shot, to think that as a kid I used to wish I could live in one of these sort of American towns with the two story house (always with the two story houses, you Americans!) and parks that look like Yosemite. I'm sure if I saw these places in person they'd look much the same to what we have here, but I guess old memories die hard and it's why I will always have that yearning for this kind of stuff.


Firstly, I love that Dewey still lives at home. Secondly, don't "Corn Chex" sound like a disgusting cereal? Thirdly, this is Tatum's third hairstyle of the movie. First she had her normal hair with nothing done to it, then she had a ponytail and now plaits. Adorable.


One night as I was watching the Golden Globe Awards with my mother and brother I said I was cheering for Liev Shreiber to win the award for his performance as Orson Welles in RKO 281. My brother shot me down saying I only wanted him to win because "he was in Scream" and my brother was right. That's the hold that his trilogy had on me for a good long while. I do like seeing Shreiber these days having so much success knowing that the first two Scream movies were pivotal moments in his early career.


"We're checking every cellular accounts in the county. Any calls made to you or Casey Becker are being cross-referenced. It's gonna take some time but we'll find him."
The telephone lingo in Scream is often hilarious. So dated!!


A light, consoling punch by my gal Tatum! I want a light, consoling punch from Tatum. ME!

Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 7 of Scream (0:21:14-0:29:49)

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

SCENE 7
Length: 8mins 35secs
Primary Characters: Sidney Prescott, Ghostface and Billy Loomis
Pop Culture References:

• Tom Cruise and All the Right Moves (Tatum suggests watching it)

As someone who has watched this movie more times that he can count, I find myself always noticing little things that amuse me. I always forget about this moment in which Sidney steps off the school bus and heads towards her house with Sidney's enthusiastic friend waving at her and screaming "CYA SIDNEY!" and what does Sidney do? She doesn't even acknowledge her. Oh Sidney, you really are a bit of a bitch, aren't you?

By the way, I always seem to remember there NOT being a girl on the bus. Is it possible that they digitally added in a girl for the DVD? I distinctly remember chuckling many years ago when Sidney's invisible friend would talk to her and yet the proof is right there. It confuses me.


Gah! I want to live here.

One thing that disappoints me about this scene - and there's really not much of anything that does - is that they show so much of the house, both exterior and interior, and yet the chase sequence utilises so little of it. There's an entire patio there and so many rooms and corridors inside and yet it's only a one-way chase.

"...it's like deja vu all over again!"

Yes Sidney, that's what deja vu means. Something happening again. Unless you've already experienced deja vu and now you're experienced the deja vu again. Wow. Complicated. Let's move on!

I do like that they made Neve Campbell wear rather plain clothes. Ya know, the sorta clothes you wear when you're just hanging out at home by yourself and not, like, some $300 top from a trip to LA or something.


Aah, the blessed fake scare! At least a cat didn't jump out. One thing I like though is that whenever opens a door or, basically, does anything that you expect the killer to pop out from is is actually just setting the scene for when something does happen. Such is the case here when you expect the killer to be inside only to find nothing and then later when Ghostface does lunge out later in this scene or in Scream 2 when CiCi (Sarah Michelle Gellar) opens one door and we expect to see the killer only to have him/her/it jump out from a different one.


EXPOSITION ALERT!!!

Gale Weathers is, without a doubt, my favourite character from the entire Scream trilogy and I love how this very brief moment with her sets up this mysterious case between the two. The look of Sidney's face says there is a history between the two, but we still don't know what it is.

I actually think a lot of my very initial love for Scream came from my obsession with Friends. I was a total Friends addict from seasons 1-6. Monday night was Friends night and I had posters upon posters adorning my wall. Courteney's "Monica Gellar" was my favourite despite Phoebe and Rachel stealing more episodes outright. So, yes, part of my initial Scream fascination was by seeing my favourite actress at the time play this bitch reporter in a slasher movie. There's even an episode in season 4, "The One With the Embryos", that aired in 1997 right between Scream and Scream 2 where Monica lets out a big scream and I got a bit of enjoyment outta that. She was rehearsing for her big lung belter during Scream 2's news van sequence.


Just by the way, isn't that episode just the best? I actually think it's my favourite episode of Friends from all 10 seasons. Even the less than stellar ones at the end had some great episodes, but I don't think anything quite beats that episode.

Moving one.


Our first glimpse of Sidney's mother, and the realisation of what everyone has been walking on eggshells to sidestep, comes in this 50th screencap for the project. Fitting then since she is catalyst and motivation of the killers in each movie. Even in Scream 3, which we'll obviously be discussing later, when the insertion of her into that felt overplayed and a bit forced, she's a constant presence in the entire trilogy so it's apt that she's here at the 50th screencap mark.

In fact, even though this trilogy has absolutely no connection whatsoever to the universe of Twin Peaks, I like that the story of Maureen Prescott (at this stage seen only in photos of actress Lynn McRea) mirrors that of Laura Palmer. Both lived seemingly innocent lives in idyllic American towns and yet under the surface lived a life full of adultery, sex and scandal that their family is not willing to admit despite everyone in their hometown being well aware. Both are memorialised somewhat in video (Maureen later in Scream 3, Laura in the pilot episode) and both are, obviously, murdered before the start of the narrative.


These three consecutive shots on sundown are really quite gorgeous, but I really like how they match the colour of the artwork of The Town that Dreaded Sundown, a title that is referenced later on in the movie.


"Practice ran late, I'm on my way."
"It's past seven!"
"Don't worry. Casey and Steve didn't bite it until way after ten."
"Oh, that's comforting."
"I'm gonna swing by the video store, I was thinking Tom Cruise All the Right Moves? You know if you pause it just right you can see his peeenis!"
"Whatever, just hurry, okay?"
"Ta ta, Sid."
I love this little dialogue exchange between Tatum and Sidney. It's the sort of stuff that actually makes you believe they were friends before the movie began and not just because the screenplay said they were (if that makes any sense). Plus, it's true (NSFW). One thing that will be interesting about Scream 4 in that regard will be how they do that sorta thing since friends don't telephone each other anymore. It's not exactly dynamic drama to have people text messaging back and forth. Reminds me of this that a mate of mine created.


I seem to be going off on a lot of tangents in this entry, don't I?


"Hello Sidney..."
And so it begins.


This is probably one of the defining moments of the entire trilogy. The franchise's first true indication that not only have the characters within it seen horror movies, but that they know the clichés that you yell at the TV screen as you watch one. To the mysterious voice's question of "What's your favourite scary movie?" she replies:

What's the point? They're all the same - some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who's always running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door. It's insulting.

"Are you alone in the house?"
"Randy, that's so unoriginal. I'm disappointed in you."
"Maybe that's because... I'm not Randy."
"So who are you?"
"The question isn't who am I, the question is where am I?"
"So... where are you?"
"Your front porch."
I am on the record for thinking Kevin Williamson's script is very, very good (Oscar-worthy, even - well, nomination worthy). Dialogue like this is just so spine-tingling. Gets me everytime. Those moments where the caller says "Maybe that's because... I'm not Randy," and "Your front porch" so nonchalantly are just as creepy as "I wanna know who I'm looking at" from the opening scene.


Despite knowing that stupid girls run upstairs in horror movies, Sidney apparently doesn't know the unofficial (it's not in Randy's speech later in the movie, but it is a valid "rule" and one that Ghostface acknowledged in our last encounter with him) that you should never go outside to investigate (whether it be "a strange noise" or to call a mysterious phone caller's bluff). Not only could she have easily been attacked right then and there she left her front door wide open for someone to enter. Sidney falls victim to the rules of a horror movie despite being a smarter cookie than most.


"If you hang up on me you'll die just like your mother. Do you wanna die, Sidney? Your mother sure didn't!"
Yikes. Not a friendly mysterious phone caller, is he?



I like the story about how Harvey Weinstein apparently thought the "Ghostface" mask was stupid and demanded it changed, but then once he actually saw a scene with it he promptly changed his mind. There's something so disconcerting about seeing this odd-looking Halloween costume used as the mask of evil in a film. Especially since at the time of originally seeing Scream all the horror titles I had watched were of either fantastical originals (Freddy Krueger and various other killer dolls/ghouls/ghosts) or inhuman beings like Jason Vorhees, Michael Meyers or zombies/vampires. Even the "real life" horror villains I had seen had elements of outside forces to them such as Carrie. I don't recall seeing a horror film in which the killer was quite clearly a human with normal human abilities and all that jazz. And wearing this sort of cheap mask gives it an extra "what the fuck?!?" sensibility to it that really ramps up the scariness.



There Sidney goes, running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door (how insulting!) Alas, at least she tried to go out the front door, but damn those chain locks! Worse than deadbolts, I swear! Still, it is fun seeing Sidney succumb to the very cliche she chides horror movie heroines from doing. Note that the "big breasted girl" of this movie, Tatum, has the most original and unclichéd death of them all! Tatum may break the common sense rule of "don't try to escape through a cat flap", but it's certainly not a cliché.



There's that weird design flaw again! It works so well, doesn't it?

Oh hai Billy! Fancy seeing you here.

What intrigues me most about this scene is what purpose it serves. Were Stu and Billy really trying to kill Sidney in this scene or was it merely a way to frighten her? If they were really trying to kill her why didn't they try harder? If it was merely a rouse to frighten here then Stu (the one in the mask) seemed to be trying awful hard to get to her. It would make sense that the plan all along was to have the final climax to their plan take place as it does later in the movie, but what if this plan to merely frighten her went wrong and they were injured or killed? And so it goes...

...did Billy deliberately drop his phone so that he would become a suspect only to be released and to make Sidney feel bad? What if Billy being arrest backfired and they actually discovered something that made them believe he killed Casey and Steve like the police question him over (a couple of scenes ahead of myself here).

It seems to me that Stu knew Tatum was going to be picking up Sidney at some point and that's why they had to do their attack earlier than they did with Casey and Steve, but then Tatum was late so were they running behind, too? They really were a bit cocky, weren't they? I guess the trick is that Sidney (and Casey, for that matter) live in houses surrounded by vast nothingness so it'd be easy for them to get away if interrupted. Actually, fun fact! The Becker house is right next door to the house in Cujo!

This scene brings up so many questions related to logic, and yet I still just do not care because it's a fantastic sequence and one that sets so much up so perfectly. One last piece of confusing logic...


Why is Deputy Dewey holding the mask up like that? That just seems cruel to whoever he expects to open the door!

But, then again, it is Deputy Dewey and who can't find him adorable?


No one!

Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6