It’s been 25 years since Ghostface first graced our screens in Wes Craven’s Scream. The film didn’t just start a cult franchise that spawned multiple sequels, but it forever changed the face of the horror genre.
‘Master of Horror’ Craven was already considered a genre pioneer, with classics such as The Hills Have Eyes and A Nightmare On Elm Street already under his belt. However by the mid-90s, horror (and especially slashers) were in something of a decline. One person who was certainly not tired of the genre however was aspiring screenwriter Kevin Williamson. Over the course of just three days, Williamson developed a full-length script for a film titled Scary Movie (which was later renamed Scream) and outlines for two sequels. Once Craven signed on to direct the film, it quickly became a success story, and fans applauded the film for its humour and meta-commentary as well as its genuine fear factor.
Opening on 20 December 1996, Scream became an instant success, spawning multiple sequels and eventually a TV series too. But Scream didn’t just lead to a franchise, the film resurrected the slasher genre and forever changed the world of horror cinema.
The Who-Dunnit
One way that Scream stands out from the slashers that came before it is how it answers this question; ‘who is the killer?’ In Scream, the answer is no longer ‘the crazed mother of a child who “died” here years ago, while the victims have no connection to these events’ (yes Michael Myers was Laurie Strode’s long-lost brother, but this wasn’t discovered till the sequel and was then retconned in the reboot). Instead, we have the killers as two characters who have been present for the majority of the movie.
With the iconic line “we all go a little mad sometimes,” the first of the killers is revealed as Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), protagonist Sydney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) boyfriend. The second killer is then revealed to be Billy and Sydney’s friend Stu (Matthew Lillard). The great thing about Scream is the sense of betrayal in this reveal, felt both by the characters and the audience. This is not the usual slasher we’ve come to expect, and the question of the film changes from the usual ‘who’s killing these kids’ to ‘why are two of these kids killing their friends and classmates?’
The influence of Scream’s ‘who-dunnit’ can be seen in 1998’s Urban Legend. The success of the twist also inspired many slashers and other horror films to focus on the killers themselves, rather than following the events through the eyes of the final girl, and/or the group being picked off. Examples of this include two other 1998 films, Bride of Chucky and The Curve (the latter of which also starred Lillard, again playing a killer).
The First Death Scene
Having already twice rejected the offer to direct the film, it was the casting of Drew Barrymore that convinced Craven that Scream was worth taking a chance on. Despite this, and Barrymore already being an established and successful actress in her own right, she only appears in Scream for a very short amount of time. In one of the most iconic slasher openings, Barrymore’s character Casey Becker is brutally murdered by Ghostface in the first ten minutes of the film. This proved particularly shocking and against expectations. Barrymore was one of the more famous members of the cast, and one who viewers likely expected to have a much higher amount of screentime.
The immediate killing off of a recognisable cast member was recently echoed in Netflix’s Fear Street Part One: 1984. In the opening scenes of this film Heather, played by actress Maya Hawke (best known for Stranger Things), is stabbed to death by a character dressed rather like Scream’s Ghostface. Just before she dies it’s’ quickly revealed that the killer is a friend of Heather’s, much like the reveal of Ghostface as the boyfriend and friend of Sydney.
The Final Girl
Coined by Carol J. Clover, the final girl is traditionally the sole survivor of a group of people who have been hunted and killed by a villain. She will then have a final confrontation with the villain, either killing him (although usually he will not actually die due to some unexplained supernatural phenomenon) or being rescued by someone else who kills him. The final girl usually becomes such due to he upstanding morality and virtue, being the one who doesn’t partake in drugs, or drink, or sexual behaviour.
Scream introduces the viewer to Sydney Prescott, who quickly became one of the genre’s most iconic final girls. However, Sydney is not the traditional final girl we have come to expect from a slasher. Nor is she the only final girl. Arguably this title can also apply to Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). Neither Sydney nor Gale fit the description of the final girl as the “sole survivor” as clearly both survive, as do two other male characters.
This is not the only way that Scream subverts the final girl trope. While the final girl is traditionally expected to be the ‘virgin’ of her friend group the narrative of Scream allows for Sidney to both be a final girl and have sex, albeit with a character who is later revealed to be the killer. The other final girl, Gale, is hardly of the ‘upstanding morality’ expected of the trope. Gale is shown to be mostly interested in her work (going as far to secretly record a teenage party) and is also quite horrible to several other characters.
Both of Scream’s final girls fight back against the villain in a way that others previously have not. While there is some running and screaming and waiting to be rescued, there is a lot less than in other slashers, with both Sidney and Gale playing a role in injuring and killing both Ghostfaces.
The change in the final girl trope can be seen in many of the slashers that followed in Scream’s wake. Like Sidney, the final girl in What We Did Last Summer is able to experience sex and drinking and parties without the narrative punishing her for this. Similarly the change from the final girl being helpless to being able to fight is clear in the differences between the Laurie Strode of Halloween and Halloween II and the Laurie Strode of H20: 20 Years Later and the more recent reboots.
Scream’s impact on the horror genre has been seen since it hit the big screen in 1996. With a new sequel coming in 2022, who knows how else this franchise will continue to change the world of horror cinema.
Words by Isobel Pankhurst
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