Do You Like Scary Movies? - 20 Years Since Scream

It's now 2016, twenty years after the first Scream film hit theaters. In the years since its release, the horror film revived the dormant teen slasher courtesy of that sub-genre's paramount Wes Craven. Not only did Craven and the bard of '90s teen culture Kevin Williamson resurrect the slasher, they did so in a tongue in cheek manner which was a mix of loving tribute and satire. Though Scream itself fell victim to the overlong franchise syndrome it parodied, it has earned critical acclaim and the original film has gone on to become a cult classic.

In the wake of Scream's popularity, a host of inferior teen slashers plagued the screen, most of which lacked the irony which kept it from simply being a bad film. This is where Scream's status as a work of art becomes difficult to assess. I remember watching it for the first time as a teenager. When one sees a film that is ostensibly "realistic" in its lack of monsters or magical fantasy elements, one strives to experience rather than view a film from an outside perspective. When I first attempted to identify with Scream's clueless, privileged suburban royalty helplessly baiting themselves to killers with Terminator-like strength, I frequently buried my face in my palms not out of fear but annoyance.

Craven and Williamson were perfectly aware of those grating movie conventions and Craven can be even credited as one of their creators. Though it features some surprisingly frightening moments of violence and dread, Scream is essentially a loving parody at its core, a cheesy horror film that honors cheesy horror films. Indeed its characters obsessively quote and analyze the classics from Psycho to Friday the 13th and Craven himself appears in a cameo as "Fred", a janitor who wears a familiar red and black striped sweatshirt. Much of the film's dialogue reads less like a teen drama and more like a round table discussion of B-grade horror films.

 With all of its "whodunit" plot lines and jump scares that truly bend realism, it's hard to judge the performances in Scream in a traditional manner. There isn't much bad acting per se, but at times it seems as though Neve Campbell and the rest of the cast are on the verge of cracking up over the lines they're forced to recite with such a range of emotions, mostly dread and terror. The characters themselves aren't cliche nor are they innovative, essentially refining the geeks and jocks of John Hughes' films and placing them all a little higher on the social food chain.

Though it's decidedly a thriller in tone, it's best to view the film with the knowledge that it is dripping with satire, otherwise it might play as a simply bad teen movie. I grew to appreciate Scream for its nostalgic connection to the Third Eye Blind era, now that it has long been replaced with more "atmospheric" ghost stories and the unfortunate found footage format. In spite of all its straddling the line of artistry and camp, I'd say Scream ultimately succeeds  as a film in the truest fashion: it's just a lot of fun to watch.

3/4