Byron Lafayette
“What’s your favorite scary movie?”
It’s maybe the most famous opening line in horror history, and I’d somehow never actually watched the movie it came from. I know, I know, how does someone who loves movies avoid SCREAM for this long? The Ghostface mask is everywhere, from Spirit Halloween stores to Reddit memes, and I’ve absorbed so much of the film through cultural osmosis that I figured I basically already knew it. But sitting down to actually watch Wes Craven’s 1996 slasher for the first time, I realized I didn’t know anything at all.
I expected a fun ’90s time capsule with some clever winks at horror clichés. What I got was way more vicious and genuinely nerve-wracking than I anticipated.
That opening scene with Drew Barrymore? Absolutely brutal. I found myself gripping my couch arms. She’s home alone, making popcorn when some guy calls and wants to chat about scary movies. Seems innocent enough, maybe a wrong number or harmless flirtation. Then it turns sinister fast, he can see her, he’s got her boyfriend tied up outside, and he forces her to play a horror trivia game. She gets a question wrong about Friday the 13th (saying Jason was the killer when it was actually his mother), and her boyfriend gets gutted right in front of her. The whole sequence is this masterclass in escalating dread, and by the time her parents pull up to find her gutted and hanging from a tree, the movie’s barely started, and you already know this isn’t going to play by normal rules.
Here’s the genius part, when reading up on the film I found Drew Barrymore was the name on all the marketing. She was the star. Killing her off in the first twelve minutes tells you nobody is safe in this movie, and suddenly, all your expectations go out the window. I spent the rest of the runtime genuinely not knowing who might die next, which almost never happens with horror movies.
Horror Movies About Horror Movies
The actual story follows Sidney Prescott, Neve Campbell in full ’90s teenager mode, whose mother was murdered exactly one year ago. Just as she’s trying to move on, a new killer starts stalking Woodsboro, California, targeting Sidney and her friends. The killer wears this now-iconic white ghost mask and black robe, calls himself Ghostface, and has this weird obsession with quizzing his victims about horror movies before he kills them.
But here’s where SCREAM gets really interesting for me. The characters know they’re in a horror movie. They’ve seen all the same slasher films we have, and they talk about it constantly. Randy Meeks, this film geek video store clerk played by Jamie Kennedy, literally stands at a party and explains the rules for surviving a horror movie. Rule one: never have sex. Rule two: never drink or do drugs. Rule three: never say “I’ll be right back” because you won’t be back. The crowd boos him, they’re all drunk already, and then they proceed to break every single rule he just laid out, its dark humor at its best.
And that’s what makes this movie so fun, the film keeps messing with you. Some people follow the rules and still die. Others break every rule and walk away fine. You think you know what’s coming because Randy just explained it all, but then SCREAM zigs when you expect it to zag.
The Party Where Everything Goes Wrong
The party at Stu’s house is where everything comes to a head, and it’s this crazy long sequence that shouldn’t work but totally does. Randy’s sitting there watching Halloween on the couch, pointing out all the slasher movie tropes, while Ghostface is literally stalking around the house behind him killing people. The irony is almost too perfect, he’s the expert on horror movies, and he doesn’t even realize he’s in the middle of one.
Two Killers Are Better Than One
Then a funny thing happens, just when you think you’ve figured out who the killer is, the movie pulls its biggest twist. There are two killers. Sidney’s boyfriend Billy and his buddy Stu have been working together the whole time, and their motivation is absolutely unhinged. Billy’s mad because Sidney’s mom had an affair with his dad, which made his mom leave, so naturally the only reasonable response is to go on a murder spree and frame Sidney’s father for the whole thing. It’s deeply personal and completely psychotic.
The reveal scene is perfect because Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard play it with this manic energy that’s both terrifying and kind of hilarious. They’re stabbing each other to create alibis, bickering about who’s pulling their weight in the murder plan, and at one point Stu literally whines “My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!” SCREAM walks this tightrope between horror and dark comedy, and somehow it never falls off either side.
Sidney is a great final girl because she’s not just running and screaming, she fights back hard. She questions everything, she doesn’t trust anyone, and when Billy does the classic horror movie fake-out and springs back to life for one last scare (exactly like Randy said he would), she just shoots him in the head. It’s the perfect rejection of every tired slasher trope the film spent two hours deconstructing. Sidney’s done playing by horror movie rules.
The supporting cast really makes this thing sing. Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, this tabloid reporter, is wonderfully obnoxious but becomes genuinely heroic by the end. David Arquette’s Deputy Dewey is so earnest and sweet that you can’t help but root for him. And Rose McGowan’s Tatum gets what might be the film’s most creative death, she tries to escape through a pet door in the garage door, gets stuck, and when Ghostface activates the garage door mechanism, it rises with her trapped in it until her head hits the frame and gets crushed. It’s horrifying and inventive and somehow darkly funny all at once.
Why This Still Works Almost 30 Years Later
What really got me about SCREAM is how well it holds up. I was worried the meta-commentary would feel dated or too clever for its own good, but it doesn’t. The movie genuinely loves horror films, it’s not mocking them, it’s celebrating them while also asking why we find this stuff so entertaining. And it’s still scary! The Ghostface attacks are tense, the kills are brutal, and I found myself genuinely invested in who would survive.
As a Scream newbie coming to this almost thirty years late, SCREAM turned out to be the perfect horror movie. It teaches you how slasher movies work while simultaneously being a really effective slasher movie itself. The mystery kept me guessing, the scares worked, and I laughed way more than I expected to. I get it now, I understand why this thing revitalized an entire genre and why Ghostface became a pop culture icon.
Now I’ve got five more films to catch up on, and honestly? I’m excited to see where this goes. If the sequels are half as fun as this first one, I’m in for a good time.
Just don’t ask me to answer my phone late at night anytime soon….
