Spoiler Warning for the ‘Scream’ series.
Almost every slasher movie followed the same format: a masked killer chasing the main characters, who somehow wouldn’t die no matter how many times the killer was killed. Before Scream, horror films were serious, gory, and focused on purely scaring the audience. When I think about classic horror movies, films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Child’s Play come to mind. They all follow this formula, but the writers of Scream had a different vision. They weren’t afraid of disrupting that “perfect” horror formula.
What made Scream different from other horror movies is that it knew it was a horror movie and wasn’t afraid to poke fun at the genre. Characters like Randy Meeks constantly point out the classic horror rules that are never to be broken. For example, saying “I’ll be right back” while a masked killer lurks was supposed to be a death sentence in typical horror films. Another point is that in many horror movie franchises with masked killers, the killers never die. You may think at the end of the movie that the final girl killed them, but there’s always a sequel, or in some way, the killer always comes back.
Scream uses this and makes fun of the fact that no matter how many times Ghostface is stabbed or shot, the only way to kill him is by targeting the head. By doing this, Scream acknowledges the rules of horror movies, pokes fun at them, and does the opposite. It doesn’t always follow the rules, which keeps viewers questioning what will happen to the characters who break them. One of my favorite moments where the writers poke fun at the horror genre is in Scream 2, when a character mentions how horror sequels are never good, calling out horror franchises while also making fun of themselves.
Scream is not your average horror movie, as it shocked audiences in the opening scene. Scream featured Drew Barrymore, a famous actress, being the main character in the advertisement. She was in the trailer and on the movie cover of Scream, and everyone thought that she would be the final girl. It was advertised as so. But five or ten minutes into the movie, she is killed. It shocks the audience because now they can suspect that no one is safe. Even in the latter movies of the franchise, some characters who you think would never die end up being killed, showcasing to the audience that they need to expect the unexpected.
Scream did what mainstream horror movies could never do. It influenced a new genre of comedy-horror. Looking at horror comedies like Scary Movie or The Bride of Chucky, not only does it have a gory sense of someone being chased around and murdered, but it also has a comedy aspect. It lightens the horror mood and gives this movie a new lightness. Scream, being a comedy-based horror movie, can bring comfort to the audience as they are not just focusing on jump scares, gore, and gruesome killings, but an actual plot line that makes sense. As a whole, the Scream franchise changed the way mainstream horror can be produced. With plot twists and humor, it has created a series that anyone can enjoy.