A Fool's Utopia 10.14.07: Scream Analysis

Posted by Ron Martin on 10.14.2007

This week in one man's utopia: Is Scream the perfect horror movie?, Scream Queen eliminations, Halloween in McDonaldland and I mention Bela Lugosi a lot.

-- Let me take you back. The year, 1996. The horror genre? Close to dead. Like most bleak situations in Hollywood, the production companies were trying to breathe life into a genre by rehashing old movie icons or actors. You ever tried to revive life with stale breath? It doesn't work out too well. Just like a Hollywood movie, when things look their bleakest, the lifeless body spits out a mouthful of water and breaths in sweet, sweet oxygen.

In 1996, that oxygen was provided by Kevin Williamson, and that life was…



I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "But Ron, what could you possibly have to offer us about this movie or the horror movie genre in general that hasn't already been offered on this site this month?" Well except for that one guy in Missouri – I know what you're thinking too mister and I won't dignify it with a response! What can Scream offer us? Only the closest thing we may ever see to a perfect horror movie.

Blasphemy, I know. When talking about the horror movie genre greats, Scream is often an "and also" when compared with Halloween. The Exorcist and Psycho. It often falls behind movies like The Shining, A Nightmare on Elm Street and (insert writer/reviewers favorite cult movie here) is the same sort of conversations. In fact, it is rarely mentioned when such discussions are had. Sometimes, it's even swatted away with a "eh, it was okay." Why? Because they don't know. They don't know what I'm about to tell you. They don't know about the levels.

Scream works on half a dozen different levels and excels at each. Let's take a look at them, shall we?



First of all, Screamworks on a blunt, straight forward slasher movie level. On par with the Friday the 13th series or the Halloween movies, Scream satisfies the brutalities of killing, the natural fear of death and the primal urge of survival. There is a guy in a costume killing teenagers. We've seen it before, but it's always a welcome guest. On this level, it's a plain good slasher flick. Unfortunately, most of the joes out there leave the movie at this level. If you care enough about movies and the entertainment within to read this column, you are obviously not a joe. I am sure you are aware of a couple of other levels this movie works on. Let's move on and find out.

The next level for Scream that works is the whodunit level. Now this was not groundbreaking material for horror movies, especially of the slasher subgenre. If you're simply watching this movie to try to guess who the killer is you're going to come away satisfied. Almost every character is given a motive/the opportunity to be the killer. Everyone from the crazy kid who loves horror movies just a little bit too much to the Fonz who is a little overzealous in his discipline of his teenaged students. The great thing about the movie is that even though at some point you suspect every major character outside of Sidney, you are still surprised by the reveal at the end of the movie.

Outside of that, the movie works as a virtual encyclopedia of the horror genre. Over 60 horror movies are referenced in some way or another during the course of this movie, whether it is in dialogue or a small as a video on the rack in the video store. You need your Halloween reference? Got it. Nightmare on Elm Street? That's in there too. Psycho? Yep. Carrie? Okay. The Wolfman? Check. From lines of dialogue, to allusions of storylines to actual blocking of the characters. Remaking classic horror movies sucks, but paying homage to them in original storylines? That seems to work.



Let's delve deeper. While paying homage to a number of classic horror films, Scream also manages to parody them. This is no more obvious than in the party scene when Randy explains the rules that allow you to survive a horror movie. Williamson is basically telling you ‘yes, we know all horror movies are basically the same' and pokes fun at it by breaking all the rules. Never drink or do drugs – unless you're all the kids at the party that drink and then just take off never to be seen or killed again. Never have sex – unless you're Sidney. Never say ‘I'll be right back' – unless you're Gail Weathers. Hey, we know what happens in horror movies, and we're breaking those rules.

Or are we? That leads us to our next level. Despite breaking all the rules, the characters of Scream who are unusually aware of their situation still fall into several horror movie traps. The most obvious, of course, being Sidney running up the stairs when she should be running out the door as she states five minutes before performing said act. Randy, perhaps the most aware of all, sits drunkenly on a couch yelling at the TV for Jamie to just turn around to see Michael Myers stalking her as Ghostface is lurking just behind him. The whole scene is replayed with the camera man yelling at the screen of what's going on in the house minutes later in the TV van. How many times in horror movies has someone supposedly died only to come back and be the killer when not properly checked on? Exactly.



We won't get too deep into these areas, but let's make sure we mention that the movie also works on a pure gore level, an innovative level (the garage door death, the rules, etc.), and a rewatchability level (to get all the hints at who the killer is, the figure out which person is doing the killing at which time). Let's add to that the fact that this movie resuscitated a then dormant horror genre and a just about completely dead slasher subgenre. A point I'd like to make about this movie that is almost always overlooked – it made everyone in it a bigger star. Kevin Williamson went from nobody to being given his own production company. Wes Craven went from has been to the talk of the town again. Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox got some big movie cred during their TV careers. It was a coming out party for Matthew Lillard and Rose McGowan who went on to become horror movie icons. It took Skeet Ulrich, David Arquette and Jamie Kennedy from "who are they?" status to chances at a good career. It resurrected Henry Winkler's career (this movie came out before The Waterboy). It gave Drew Barrymore another career "moment" to hang her hat on.

That's why this movie is as close as anyone is ever going to get to the perfect horror movie, or more specifically, the perfect slasher film. The only negative to the whole thing? It made production companies think we wanted to see Jamie Kennedy in lead movie roles. I'm still trying to fight that one off.

-- Looks like the Utopia is backing some TV winners! Life is getting good numbers following Bionic Woman, which is just getting unmercilessly panned by critics. Sure it pulled big numbers the first week, but anything with that kind of hype is going to attract some attention from the joes. Pushing Daisies, which was the Utopia's #1 choice until we saw the series debut of Reaper, is pulling numbers a lot better than I expected. I don't think the numbers for Reaper are stellar, but it's getting great reviews and that could keep it on long enough for the show to find an audience. I'm a little worried that The CW is going to keep the show on Tuesdays up against The Biggest Loser and eventually, American Idol which could kill it. This would be a very, very bad thing. I'm on record about my love of weight loss reality TV, but I'm cutting into my Biggest Loser to DVR episodes of Reaper. Top new shows we recommend, in this order: Reaper, Pushing Daisies, Life, Chuck and The Return of Jezebel James (midseason).

-- As everyone knows, I spent most of the last two weeks in Massachusetts. More specifically in Salem and Boston. For those of you who do not live in Massachusetts it is important to note that most New England towns roll the carpets up rather early and this includes the transportation systems. So to get back to my hotel room from Salem, I had to take a nightly cab trip of about 4 miles. Needless to say, while donning my Indianapolis Colts memorabilia, I took a lot of crap. One cabbie, when I offered the observation that Bill Belichick was a cheater (which he is), pulled the cab over and told to me to get out. Fret not, he took me to the hotel once I agreed to cheer for the Red Sox in the MLB playoffs. He was just joking anyways. I think.



-- Time for you $1 movie review this week: Bowery at Midnight

I won't say that I was actually looking forward to watching this movie in the same way I'm looking forward to a big Hollywood release like Fred Claus later this year or a cult favorite like Saw IV next week, but as far as anticipation for a movie made in the 1940s that I paid a dollar for at Wal-Mart goes, this is as high as the anticipation gets. By the way, I've seen this movie listed at movie sits for as much as $15 a copy. Save yourself a lot of money. That's a tip I'm giving you for free people. Why was I pseudo looking forward to watching this? Because of this guy…



Bela Lugosi, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, outside of the handful of Universal Studio flicks and the couple of Ed Wood flicks he did near the end, I haven't actual seen his stretch his acting chops too much. I still haven't. It seems the roles I have seen Lugosi (besides the terrible Ed Wood movies) in all have one thing in common – the story molds itself around Lugosi instead of Lugosi adapting to the role. That doesn't matter too much, as it seems to work out for him most of the time. We get the crazy stare and that's all you're really looking for, right?

The story here is Lugosi has 800 different secret identities. He's a writer. He's a professor. He runs a soup kitchen. More importantly he runs a crime ring through the soup kitchen. I think. I got a little confused when the bums eating at the soup kitchen starting going all Shakespeare on us. Anyways, Bela uses the soup kitchen to find new criminals. When he's done with the criminals, he kills them. Everyone knows criminals are as disposable as Kleenex. So Bela is double crossing everyone – his wife, the bums, his criminals, UC Berkley and random people he meets on the street. The one thing he doesn't quite account for is that someone is double crossing him. His apprentice/buddy/doctor guy is taking these bodies of his disposed criminal force and re-animating them. That's right -- zombies, baby! Or I think. The zombies are supposedly kept in a secret room off of a secret room and they get maybe seconds of screen time, so it's anyone's call.

It's this very double crossing nature that does Lugosi in as the good doctor backs him into the secret secret of zombies where we are left to assume that Lugosi met his just fate.

Doing research for the movie (yes, I research, you punks) I discovered that this movie is the first appearance of zombies in a domestic movie. So that's kind of cool. Other than that, the movie wasn't as terrible as some movies that I have dealt with in the past. The zombies seemed kind of an extra added bonus to the crime boss storyline. The acting is nothing to write home about or anything, but like always the movie forms itself around Lugosi. This is the beginning of the downward slide in Lugosi's career, so it's worth a look from many horror historical points of view. There are worst ways to spend an hour. Like with the skuzzy old lady down the street.

I'd pay at least $.54 to watch this movie again. And happily so because I could get rid of 4 pennies. Nobody likes pennies.


-- Sadly, we must say our goodbyes to some very important people. Last week, we eliminated four of our scream queens from ultimate scream queen superstardom. Unfortunately, we have to sacrifice four more this week. This week, we are trying to be objective by looking at the quality of the films the queens have been in. I scored the films between 1-5, with the right to subtract for any films/TV that might take away from their scream queen image. (Read: +1 point for appearances on The Twilight Zone and -1 for appearances on The Love Boat)

First up, the Golden Era queens. Last week we ditched the object of the Creature's desires, Julie Adams. From there the top scorer this week was Evelyn Ankers who leads the way with roles in The Wolfman, The Son of Dracula and The Ghost of Frankenstein. Basically it came down to Janet Leigh and Fay Wray for elimination. Psycho vs. King Kong. While both are iconic roles, King Kong's place in the horror genre is questionable at best. So, this week we say goodbye to Fay Wray.



Now for the classical era where we ditched Adrienne Barbeau last week. What will this week bring? In what is by far the most competitive division, I think we have a little bit of an upset. Jamie Lee Curtis is safe for her recurring roles in the Halloween franchise as well as appearing in movies like Prom Night and The Fog. The upset comes a little later on as everyone's possessed darling is outscored by horror icon Dee Wallace. While Wallace was never in a movie as huge as The Exorcist, her resume reads like no other. Not only did she never appear on The Love Boat, but with roles in solid films like Cujo, The Frighteners, The Howling and Critters just to name a few, she can not be denied. So bye-bye Linda Blair.



Let's slip into neoclassical mode where we are minus one Christina Ricci. Rose McGowan becomes the safest as she has really come on in the horror/exploitation scene earning points for both Grindhouse movies, her recurring role on Charmed as well as her role in the original Scream. The remaining race was a close but ended up going to Sarah Michelle Gellar because of her upcoming roles in the movies Alice and Possession. This put her over the top even though I took off points for her refusal to talk anything Buffy. So this week we eliminate the star of the movie I diagnosed at the beginning of this column. The Scream franchise and The Craft weren't enough to save her as I took off points not only for her role on Party of Five but also because she wanted out of the Scream series. Bye Neve, even if you have the best teary eyes in the business.



Finally, we have our B-movie queens. We ditched Camille Keaton last week. Who's next? Well, this one was fairly easy. You see, Debbie Rochon and Linnea Quigley have done nothing else other than low budget, bad horror. Our exitee for the week is taken out for trying to spread her wings and gain her acting chops wherever she could. That may be fine for the real world, Andrea Roth, but here in The Ultimate Scream Queen competition of utter destruction, it doesn't cut it. My old roommate will kill me if he reads this column, but I have to say bye to Ms. Roth.



Next week, we'll take the remaining Scream Queens top three horror films and put them head to head to determine each division's champion to represent them in the Ultimate Scream Queen competition of utter destruction!

-- Oh, crap. It looks like it's about that time. Time to learn how to pop and lock, walk around town with a boom box on your shoulder and practice how to perform ‘The Crane". That's right, it's about time to get all RETRO and stuff.

While cruising through a local chain department store recently, I came across many Halloween items. Of note, I saw several different types of Halloween goodie bags. Now, let's not fool ourselves, while bags shaped like a ghoul's mouth or a witch head are nice to look at and cheap to buy, it's just not practical. No self respecting kid would ever find himself with one of these shallow, gimmicked treat receptacles on Halloween night. They just don't hold enough candy. There's only one night a year when little vagrants are allowed to go begging from door to door and they have to make sure they make the most of it. Pillow cases and large grocery bags it is. However, let us not forget one of the greatest Halloween promotions known to man. Let's check it out.



Don't get the wrong idea, these McHalloween Pails would never be used on the big night, but man there was no feeling greater than knowing that you had to pry a witch's head open in order to get your paws on the greasy little tangy hamburger. Having long since discarded my many, many Halloween Happy Meal pails, I managed to purchase a battalion of the things (vintage 1986) for about $4 on eBay a few years ago. Why? I have no idea. A couple sit on the top of my shelves in my living room staring down at me with stoic looks on their faces as if they are just waiting for the right time to pounce. Worry not, for I am prepared for this inevitability and have been secretly training my devil ducks to counterattack when the time comes.

But enough about pails and ducks, let's get to the important stuff – the candy! Or as Garfield would say "Candy! Candy! Candy!" Now, when I was but a youngster approximated 350 years ago, the treats seemed much different the objects of drooling little snotrags everywhere's are now. I'm looking at the candy bags now and seeing gummy body parts, fudge eyeballs, individually wrapped peeps and even small bags of popcorn. This is a far cry from the dribble I received as a tot. If you were lucky – incredibly lucky you might get a rock hard piece of "gum" with a classic monster carved into it. That was about all when you looked at Halloween-themed candies. Of course you had your minibars and your suckers and small bags of candy corn, but not haunted candy corn like they have now. To top it off there was always a lady who somehow didn't realize it was Halloween until you came up to her door dressed as Mr. T even though you were a white kid. This lady would somehow always have a large bag of loose M&Ms in her house and tossed a few in your bag. This was back when you could take your bags of candy to the local police station to have them x-rayed for razors. Do you think my mom's going to let me eat free falling M&Ms, lady? What's worse is the lady always took a long time and looked at your costume keeping you from valuable candy grabbing time. Does this lady still exist?


-- It's time for something a little different around here. While looking at the virtual roll call of horror movies being reviewed/worshipped/hissed at here at 411 this month, I noticed one thing missing. Movies are being torn apart and dissected by the ability of the actors, the writing, the entertainment value, yadda, yadda, yadda; we have missed some of the best reasons to watch horror movies.

In two weeks time, just before Halloween, I will present to you the practical guide to horror movies. What's the practical guide to horror movies you ask? I will give you the best horror movie to watch in the following situations;

For a first date
To lose your virginity to
During a Halloween party
To watch alone at your house on a dark and stormy night
Series to watch a marathon of
To watch to get yourself in the Halloween mood outside of October
To be an official horror geek
To alert your girl(guy) that you want to breakup without having to say so
To initiate someone into the horror genre
To have a "private moment" to (before the blood and guts)

I am willingly and enthusiastically taking votes/suggestions for each of these categories, so if you so desire drop me a haunted email at [e-mail] and let me know which movie you think works best for each category.

-- Seriously, can Darrell Hammond just not get another job? Not that I haven't enjoyed his time on SNL, but there comes a time when everyone must go. Even Darrell Hammond.

I must leave you now.

I know this makes you a sad panda, but I'll be back next week with more scream queen eliminations, spouting off about cool things about my childhood and taking a very special look at the elusive Halloween specials. Until then….don't try and hump me or I will toss your face onto the stage!