by Emily Costello
By the mid-90s, the popularity of the horror genre was beginning to wane. After the blood and gore-soaked seventies and the summer camp slashers mass hits of the eighties, fresh ideas had started to dry up, and the repetitive low-budget films no longer drew the audience they once had. Wes Craven, already a smash hit with his earlier slashers, The Hills Have Eyes (AA WC MW, 1977) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) answered this waning faith in the slasher subgenre with one of the most popular and long-lasting horror franchises: Scream (1997, Wes Craven) .
Scream answered the new generation’s cynicism, with its mockery of itself and the slashers that preceded it. Frequently playing up horror tropes, utilising films-within-a-film, and meta-referencing became essential techniques vital to the success of the franchise.
An important key to the film's (and to an extension, the whole franchise’s) success is the motivation of the killers. While Halloween (John Carpenter, 1979) has its unstoppable Boogeyman, Michael Myers and Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980) has the vengeful Jason Voorhees, the believable and uniquely ‘teenage’ motives in the original Scream were crucial to its success. Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), the murderous duo, are inspired by horror films to commit their crimes and describe how “movies don't make psychos, they just make psychos more creative”. This and the fact that Scream is inspired by real murders done to gain notoriety is part of the film’s clever popularity. Billy and Stu are not freaks of nature, they’re humans, who kill for fun in part, which makes them almost more terrifying. Their description of their horror movie influences only further shows Scream’s excellent continued use of intertextual references to horror movie lore.
Randy in Scream 1, Spyglass Entertainment.
For example, the character of Randy (Jaime Kennedy), who prominently features in the first two films is a horror (or slasher) movie expert and a large part of the film's dry humour is his varying theories and predictions of who the killer could be. In one sequence, the teenagers are at a house party, whilst the killer is still on the loose. They watch John Carpenter’s masterpiece Halloween, but rip it to shreds for budget and ‘predictability’, reflecting the attitudes towards such ‘cheesy’ horror during the nineties. Randy lays out the ‘rules’ to surviving a traditional horror movie, ironically laying out the fate of the characters the spectator has grown to love. By subverting these tired horror conventions and inviting the audience into the world of the slasher film, they become enjoyable again. He describes some of the well-known tropes; never have sex, never drink or do drugs, and never, ever under any circumstances say, “I’ll be right back!”.The film's humour and success relies on both the upholding and ironic subversion of these rules like allowing the final girl, Sydney Prescott, to survive even though she has had sex.
The film also plays up the classic horror movie roles, like the final girl Sydney, but also the dumb blonde, the evil love interest and the hopeless police force. Tatum Riley, Stu’s girlfriend, fits the dumb blonde archetype perfectly. When confronting the killer, Tatum even jokes about being in a horror film, showing Craven’s frequent and effective meta-referencing, “No, please don’t kill me Mr Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!” Tatum, unfortunately, doesn’t make it to see the sequel, cementing the horror trope that the ‘slutty’ blonde must die by the end.
It would have been easy after the mass success of the first film for Craven to follow in the footsteps of many others before him and quickly rush out a subpar sequel under studio pressure which disappoints expectant audiences and has caused the death of so many potentially great horror franchises. However, Scream 2 (Wes Craven, 1998) is a creative and fun continuation of the series and is sometimes argued to be even better than the first. By switching up the setting from Woodsboro to college but keeping the dry humour, in-text references, and mystery elements that made the first film such a smash hit Wes Craven drew even more popularity for the films.
Scream 3 (Wes Craven, 2000) , the third installment of the franchise was not nearly as well received, even if you ignore Courtney Cox’s awful bangs. Though technically successful theatrically it was slandered by critics and is often considered to be the worst film in the series. The franchise was considered over until its revival in 2011, Scream 4 (Wes Craven, 2011) which received mixed reviews but can be praised for its humour and performances, and newer take on the themes of the franchise.
Another successful element of the franchise is its ability to adapt to the times, without becoming ‘cringe’. With Wes Craven sadly passing in 2015, the torch was passed to Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Their contribution to the franchise, Scream 5 (MB TG, 2022) , the fifth installment, is set twenty-five years after the events of the first film and was heralded as both a fitting tribute to Craven’s legacy and an excellent refresh for the franchise. Scream 5 coins the term ‘requel’, discussed by the films ‘Randy’ equivalent horror movie expert Mindy. A ‘requel’ is a sequel that doubles as a remake and Scream 5 perfectly displays this, with its links to the original film and plot similarity.
For example, the first few characters to be killed by Ghostface are related to the original victims, like Stu’s sister. The opening directly parallels the first film's iconic first murder but revitalised for a new audience. One of the main characters Tara (Jenna Ortega) even references ‘elevated horror’ like The Babadook, horror films that have a deeper meaning or significance as opposed to the traditional gratuitously gory slasher film. This is another example of the franchise’s meta referencing as in the text it ironically references its past negative criticisms and cements itself again as a successful and enjoyable series in the contemporary horror world despite its lack of ‘elevation’.
Legacy character of 'Kirby Reed' in Scream 6.
The latter films in the franchise introduce a key part of the franchise, the term, ‘legacy characters’. ‘Legacy’ characters are characters that have appeared earlier in the franchise who return. The most obvious examples of this would be Sidney, Sheriff Dewey Riley, and Gale Weathers, who are all in all or most of the films of the franchise. Scream 6 even brought back Kirby Reed from the fourth film. This helps keep the fans happy and links the films together, whilst also continuing to utilise Scream's greatest strength, its ironic intertext referencing.
Although every entry into the franchise has not always been as successful as the first, each Scream film has brought fresh ideas and new enjoyment for its fanbase, whilst managing not to lose the techniques that made it so brilliant.
by Emily Costello, June 2023.