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Scream (1996)
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Join Nicholas and Mercedes as they embark on a NEW SEASON with the 1996 horror classic, Scream! In this episode, they're discussing what the movie means to them, breaking down the plot as they go along, and dropping insight from the writer/director commentary! It's a great one, and their longest episode to date!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Morbid Curiosities' and the 'Scream' Franchise
00:01:12
Speaker
What's up, everybody? we are back here again. we are Morbid Curiosities, and I am Mercedes Martinez. With me is my awesome co-host, the nefarious necromancer.
00:01:24
Speaker
Nicholas Ewers. Lovely morning today. How's it going, Mercedes? Not too bad. how How are things on your end of the world? Not too bad. Feeling pretty good today. I'm kind of excited about the movie that we're going to be talking about today. You want to take it away?
00:01:39
Speaker
Yeah, I will start us off. So guys, we are entering our new season. um We have mentioned it before, but we are now covering a franchise that is very close to my heart, Scream.
00:01:56
Speaker
So the first film, released 1996, directed Wes Craven, ah released in ninety ninety six directed by wes craven Such a classic film. And you said you only saw this one out of the entire franchise,
Nicholas's First Impressions of 'Scream'
00:02:10
Speaker
correct?
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, I have a little bit of just small knowledge of 1 and 2, but yeah, overall, this is the only one I had seen. And even then, I didn't have much familiarity with this movie. I've never, similar to Child's Play, actually, I've never sat down fully locked into this movie and paid attention to what was being said, what was happening. I kind of just remembered the iconic moments, mainly the intro. I feel like I've seen that intro a million times.
00:02:47
Speaker
But yeah, this was a very fresh experience for me actually watching this first movie again. Yeah, I have a lot of memories with this movie, this franchise and in total as well, but it's it's such a good film bring you back to the 90s just be able to appreciate a fresh look on the horror genre when it was released.
'Scream' Spoiler Alert and Initial Thoughts
00:03:22
Speaker
Yeah. um So spoilers ahead, guys, for Scream. I'm pretty sure everyone has watched this film, but if you haven't, please go watch it. It is such a fucking banging good time.
00:03:34
Speaker
I feel like I might jump around with some of the scenes and details in here because I love this film so much and I'm pretty excited to talk about it. So if I do, I apologize. You can pull me back wherever you need the conversation to go to.
00:03:50
Speaker
But yeah, are you ready to start us off? You know, let's just it's the Wild West over here at Morbid Curiosity. So just let's let loose with this one. you want me to go first? Or do you want to go first with your initial thoughts?
00:04:05
Speaker
I'll
Iconic Opening Scene with Drew Barrymore
00:04:05
Speaker
go first. I actually want to just jump right into the intro, actually. so you have the lovely Drew Barrymore getting a phone call in her house and you hear this velvety smooth voice coming from the other end.
00:04:24
Speaker
She doesn't know who it is. Guy claims he um dialed the wrong number, but then continues to call her because he wants to talk to her. The girl's making popcorn and it's the the stovetop popcorn.
00:04:38
Speaker
That was hilarious because I'm pretty sure regular popcorn was a thing at that time. How could it not burn? I feel like that popcorn would always burn. I've never made it that way, though, not to my knowledge.
00:04:50
Speaker
And it's funny, too, because because of the fact that, you know, scary movie is a thing now. that That's why i had liked when me and you were texting and you said you feel like this movie is a kind of a ripoff of scary
Parody Influence: 'Scary Movie' vs 'Scream'
00:05:05
Speaker
movie. know because I would watch that film a lot when it came out.
00:05:09
Speaker
All of those stupid details from those scenes are kind of like warped into the this film when I watch it because whenever they yeah revert back to the popcorn, I'm expecting it to be that fucking ginormous bubble popcorn.
00:05:27
Speaker
So when that doesn't happen, it's funny. I have that issue with a lot of movies that Scary Movie had ripped off. So and this is actually a good time to talk about this real quick.
00:05:39
Speaker
I had seen Scary Movie before I saw Scream. So that really did affect the way that I watched Scream the very first time. I had not been able to take it seriously. and No shit.
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah. I had seen Scary Movie 3 before I saw like The Ring, i think, the one that that's really parodying. So I couldn't take The Ring seriously at all.
00:06:02
Speaker
So Scary Movie did initially affect the way I watched this. But interesting detail, too. This movie was originally titled Scary Movie, and Bob Weinstein changed it to Scream.
00:06:16
Speaker
I mean, which do you think would have worked better with this film? Scream or Scary Movie? In retrospect, just because Scary Movie exists and has its own formed identity...
00:06:31
Speaker
I would have to say I like it the way it is, but putting myself where they, like, in their shoes back in the 90s, even though the Weinsteins are scumbag pieces of shit, as we all know, Scream is a better title for this movie, especially Matthew Lillard later in the movie. This is an ad lib line. We'll get into a lot of Matthew Lillard talk later.
00:06:59
Speaker
But he says it's going to be a scream like that. yeah yeah I kind of love it. And you don't get that without the title. And yeah, I think the change was necessary.
Cultural Impact of 'Scream'
00:07:12
Speaker
It's actually funny because I was thinking they could have called a scary movie Shriek if they kept this movie or this franchise as scary movie instead of Scream.
00:07:23
Speaker
But then I remembered there is a movie called Shriek if you know what I did last Friday the 13th. And they are making fun of all of the horror movies and stupid TV shows.
00:07:35
Speaker
Have you seen that? I haven't, but that just by the title, I could kind of tell what it' what it's all about. Yeah. Is it enjoyable? Did you like it?
00:07:47
Speaker
I did enjoy it. it's It's a stupid watch, but you have some yeah laughs in there, so would definitely give it a watch. All of that reminds me of a little detail that I won't say right now, but yeah, I remember a little bit about the future movies too, now that I think about it.
00:08:05
Speaker
Dope. See, it's all coming back to you. Yeah. This movie is just so in the the cultural zeitgeist. Like we were saying off mic, these are very important movies. At least this first one is, and aside from Psycho, the most important movie that we've we could possibly cover at least like within the first year or so of our podcast.
00:08:29
Speaker
Definitely. Unless we do like Halloween or something. We're going to have to cover that soon. i I'm too anxious or not anxious. I'm too excited
Meta Commentary on Horror Tropes
00:08:38
Speaker
for that season, but we'll get into that. And it's cool because they do have some parts of Halloween in here too.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah. Halloween is going to be like half a year of our lives basically. That's a year. Yeah. that's a good year yeah Yeah, but so the intro, you were getting Miss Drew Barrymore, her popcorn.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's the most important detail. But what's cool about this is, yeah, you you see her being a little flirtatious on the phone when... I mean, she's entertaining this guy. She still doesn't know who the fuck it is, but he's just asking her little questions. OK, what's your favorite scary movie? Iconic line.
00:09:23
Speaker
And of course, she says Halloween gives her some extra but brownie points right there. And, um um you know, once the conversation starts to turn because the guy on the other end says, I want to know who I'm looking at.
00:09:37
Speaker
And I remember first watching it as a kid. I'm like, what does that mean? But being able to really watch it now, it's like for its time to hear that back then,
00:09:49
Speaker
Even seeing her house with all the doors that have windows, it was fucking terrifying. So that whole setup in the beginning was such ah ah good way to begin this film.
00:10:04
Speaker
ah ah Good is not even a good word to describe this. iconic would be like better it's it's grown to be bigger than the movie that it's in i think this ah ah intro to horror it's this intro to this horror film it's subversive ah ah like at the time I mean, going into it for me, I kind of I knew already what was going to happen the first time I had watched it because I had seen a scary movie, actually.
00:10:40
Speaker
But it's it's ridiculous. But it still, it's built a reputation don't.
Horror Elements in the Opening Scene
00:10:47
Speaker
i don't think any horror intro will ever be able to really surpass like scream is just so unforgettable and it's in film culture horror fans as much as the horror fans in this movie reference other movies like scream has become that movie to reference and the scene is one of them um
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, with that intro scene, what I really do find creepy and scary about it is she feels so exposed with that big glass like back door type of thing leading to the pool.
00:11:25
Speaker
i and She feels very vulnerable. There's a clear entry point this guy feels like he could get in through at any point in time. Exactly. i hate houses that have doors like that, that are just made of glass and they have so many windows that don't have curtains on it.
00:11:46
Speaker
I get it. You want the natural light from the sun. you know the sun uh, beaming in the house, that's a great way to illuminate your house. But at night, fuck that. I don't want to just be sitting there, watching TV and, you know, imagining a silhouette outside because more than likely there will be someone standing outside and my case.
00:12:10
Speaker
But, to touch on the vulnerable, vulnerable but vulnerability aspect, if I said that word correctly. With her, you know, she's setting up to watch a horror movie herself. She's making her popcorn. She's getting ready to throw her VHS in the That's great to see those tapes.
00:12:30
Speaker
But she also, it's a random fact or detail that I saw. She doesn't have socks on. So to me, that makes her more vulnerable because she's supposed to be completely comfortable at home, just relaxing for the night.
Gore and MPAA Challenges
00:12:47
Speaker
Her parents aren't home yet.
00:12:49
Speaker
And now she's getting this threatening phone call So with her being close to all these windows, all the doors that seem to be unlocked for some reason, completely exposing her. um And once, you know, he's really threatening her that he is going to kill her.
00:13:11
Speaker
They ring the door. Well, he rings the doorbell. And i love the like shot of the camera. It's focusing on Drew Barrymore, her character, Casey Becker.
00:13:23
Speaker
But then it shoots back to the door and it's like come zooming out like backwards. So I don't know why that just makes me feel so uncomfortable because she really doesn't have anywhere to hide. She's just in the middle of her open ass house.
00:13:41
Speaker
And then even her door has like a little, a few of those little windows in there. So anyone could be watching her right now. Yeah, she feels completely surrounded, especially on rewatch and guys, spoilers again. i always feel the need to drop it a second time before I completely ruin the movie.
00:14:01
Speaker
But you watch it and you you realize there's two people that are fucking with her in this scene too. So it- on rewatch it plays even more horrific in a way because i always did wonder too the first time i'd watched it before i really sat and thought about what's happening in this movie i always thought how could one person be doing this how could someone like disembowel this guy and set up all of this stuff with him in the chair so quickly but
00:14:38
Speaker
Yeah, on rewatch, it was just very interesting. I'm like, yeah, there's clearly two people at play here. So yeah, everything just felt a bit more tense and kind of violating.
00:14:51
Speaker
Definitely. And then she ends up finally admitting, no, I do have a boyfriend. He he can come and kick your ass, you know, whatever. She's bawling her eyes out. But then the the guy on the phone is like, oh, his name wouldn't be Steve, would it?
00:15:08
Speaker
And then that's just like a fucking mic drop right there, too, because she's like, wait, what the hell? I didn't tell him my name. Sure as fuck didn't tell him his name. So how does he know his name?
00:15:18
Speaker
And then she sees him outside on her patio all tied up like you were mentioning. That's so fucked up. And I feel like a lot of people forget about that kill scene involving him.
00:15:31
Speaker
You know, he's just a a side character, not even a side character, just an extra kill count body. know But his death is fucking brutal, too, because, yes, imagine he has two of these killers abducting him.
00:15:47
Speaker
you know beating his ass ah ah just to make sure he's tied up in a chair. And then he sees he's at his girlfriend's house. And then i'm assuming he can hear the the two killers like on the phone with her if they're nearby, which I'm assuming they are.
00:16:04
Speaker
So just imagine what this guy is going through from the outside looking in. just That has to be even like more terrifying for him. Also knowing, you know I'm probably going die right now.
00:16:16
Speaker
Yeah, he also hears her say that she doesn't have a boyfriend, too, if he's listening to that phone call. Exactly. Like, bitch, I'm about to die here for you, and you're not even acknowledging our relationship.
00:16:30
Speaker
One thing... I learned from the writer director commentary actually is so the MPAA tried to give this movie an NC 17 rating. It seemed like they were hell bent on it.
00:16:43
Speaker
Most or especially because of the ending, but this disembowelment scene, as we go throughout each kill in the episode or yeah, each kill in the movie throughout our episode,
00:16:57
Speaker
I'll talk more and more about different MPAA things, but they had to cut down shots of that sequence of the disembowelment just to get it to an R rating.
00:17:08
Speaker
And same with Drew Barrymore. a few of her moments, too, with involving her death. It's fucking... Yeah, this movie almost didn't really get released because of a couple different situations.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah, which is crazy because i think when I did watch the actual tape for this film, when it came out,
00:17:33
Speaker
Could be wrong, but I feel like I saw, you know, all of the all of his organs like falling. Whereas every time I watch it now you and on this DVD, you hear it, you hear them like slicing them up and then you just see the aftermath. You don't see like everything just pouring out of him.
00:17:56
Speaker
Again, I could be wrong on that, but I do remember that fact. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of alternative, slightly more gruesome cut that was out in theaters and made its way to VHS and maybe it got toned down a little bit by the DVD era. Or it could be a case of you saw this movie at a young age and you filled in so many gaps with your imagination that it kind of played as like headcanon for the movie when you reflected on it.
00:18:25
Speaker
Because I've had that happen a few times. Yeah, this movie scarred me for my little life that I had when I watched it. When did you first see it?
Personal Fears and Impact of 'Scream'
00:18:36
Speaker
I had to be younger than 10, but I just remember my mom, she worked at this laundromat that was close by our house and I did not want to stay at home by myself anymore.
00:18:51
Speaker
like My siblings would be out doing whatever. My dad would be working. My mom would be working. And i was just thinking, well, what the hell am I going to do? i don't want to stay here. I'm going to get killed. And we still had house phones at that time.
00:19:06
Speaker
I remember the house phone rang and when I answered it, where I heard this guy's voice on there, but obviously it wasn't. i don't even think anyone was on the other end, which scared me even more. So I walked my sky.
00:19:23
Speaker
scaredy cat ass over to my mom's job. I'm like, nope, can't do this. Can't be by myself anymore. So yeah, this movie scarred me for life. And there are some times even with this watch for the episode, I had to look away at certain parts. Once they show Drew Barrymore's death scene with her hanging from the tree, I hate looking at that part. It is so fucked up the way they just zoom in on her.
00:19:51
Speaker
What's kind of cool about that is they did one long shot and then they removed every other frame, so it kind of has the skipping effect. I don't know if they did that because of the MPAA to hide it up more, if that was an artistic choice, but that was another cut they had to kind of make because the MPAA.
00:20:10
Speaker
And then Drew Barrymore getting stabbed in the heart. The MPAA was like, that has to go, and they lied and said, that's the only shot we got of this. it's We have to use it And so they put it in the movie. But yeah, almost every kill, the MPA was like this.
00:20:26
Speaker
It's got to You have to cut it down. And they drastically cut it down and kind of in Wes Craven's opinion, took away from important character moments because he was saying there's something human about the way a character reacts after they've been brutally like harmed or and are in the process of dying.
Portrayal of Ghostface and Realism
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah, when the killer is chasing her and then stabs her, i hate hear listening to that because the way she screams, it's painful to listen to.
00:21:00
Speaker
And then even when he's like pulling the knife out of her after impact, she makes another scream and it's just like, God, that is so like that alone is brutal to hear.
00:21:13
Speaker
So if they were able to continue on and keep all of the stuff they did want all of the scenes in here like this movie would have been even more insane, but it's still a classic.
00:21:24
Speaker
One thing that kind of bothered me the first time I had watched this, Scream, i had said before, if you guys hadn't listened to our 28 Days or Weeks Later episode, that ah grew up in a household where I really wasn't allowed to watch horror movies.
00:21:40
Speaker
Growing up, so I really had to project my own imagination onto these VHS covers that I would see at like Family Video or whatever posters I would see at the movie theater.
00:21:53
Speaker
And the image of Ghostface I would see like around Halloween time, especially people wearing the Ghostface costume. That was abundant.
00:22:04
Speaker
There was one where, like, blood would squirt through the mask itself that I remember, like, all, like, the most badass kids in school had that one. Like, the kids who were, like, the more grown-up kids. It was kind of funny.
00:22:18
Speaker
but So I remember, similar to Chucky in a little bit, I was kind of bummed when I found out that Scream had a little bit of comedy in it. And I remember being kind of upset that the killer kind of was a little goofy in his physicality and didn't know what he was doing.
00:22:40
Speaker
But this time around, especially with how reckless and like very like aggressive he is with the knife and how he stabs people and harms people.
00:22:51
Speaker
And no now knowing what I know about, you know, that it's these two teenagers who are just, you know, pretty in a way bad at what they're doing.
00:23:03
Speaker
I've really grown to appreciate the physicality Ghostface in this movie, and I'm kind of excited to see what they do with that character, since I assume the mantle changes from movie to movie.
00:23:17
Speaker
I like that you mentioned that because that leads me into how this movie is as a whole, even within the franchise. So I never knew what the term meta meant, but they are...
00:23:33
Speaker
but they are The whole crew in the movie are horror movie buffs, and they're very aware of, you know, things that can happen in horror movies. And then they start, they just reference all these other movies.
00:23:51
Speaker
So they're finding similarities of, you know, what happens in movies and what's happening in their ah ah reality at that time. And the horror genre, they had you know Halloween and Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. So you had all of these killers that they're technically looked at as a monster, like Michael Myers, Jason. Freddy, he's goofy too.
00:24:20
Speaker
But so here it's cool seeing like, all right, these two killers, they aren't monsters, so to speak. And they are not immortal or in any way. They are teenagers.
00:24:35
Speaker
So ah ah I think that kind of like made it even more terrifying for everyone to watch because, you're seeing these kids and you're thinking, okay, I know what's going to happen.
Sidney Prescott's Character Introduction
00:24:50
Speaker
I know this scene is going to happen. I know what is going to happen here and here, but this film goes through so many loops.
00:24:59
Speaker
Like even for the intro, Drew Barrymore dies, like how in Psycho, Janet Leigh died, like early on in the film. So with her,
00:25:10
Speaker
She was in all the marketing posters. Everyone thought she was going to be the final girl. So the fact that she got killed early on, everyone was so confused. And that just showed, okay well, what the fuck is this movie going to present to us now when they took away our main character that we thought was going to survive?
00:25:29
Speaker
No, it this movie does really throw you through a loop, and I wish I could watch it through like virgin eyes almost, just to really experience it in the way that the writer and director intended on it to be experienced, because...
00:25:46
Speaker
There's little hints that I've noticed, like when Ghostface is in the bathroom and his boots plop down. And then later the sheriff, who's also in Nightmare on Elm Street, puts out a cigarette with his boot.
00:25:59
Speaker
And it's the same type of boot that Ghostface has. And, you know, I make that connection. I get what they're doing there, but i'm i already know the ending to this movie. So it's i'm not they're not hitting me in the way that they're supposed to. but I do really appreciate watching this movie and kind of noticing the different things that the filmmakers are setting up in order to throw the audience off and trying to think about how that would have worked for someone who didn't know what the ending is to this movie. And then when you talked about how awesome this ending is, and we'll really get into it,
00:26:41
Speaker
it This is an ending which I've
Relationship Dynamics: Sidney and Billy
00:26:44
Speaker
started referring to on my other podcast, These Guys Got Juice, in our Long Legs episode, as a descent into madness ending, where it just feels like everything is crumbling apart.
00:26:56
Speaker
Anything could happen. It's just shit is hitting the fan left and right. Nobody has control. And I really, i didn't,
00:27:07
Speaker
noticed that the first time i had watched it but on this like these two rewatches i did for the podcast god damn it like the ending is like fucking ice cream to me well i'm lactose intolerant not ice cream it's like chocolate chip cookies to me it's fucking perfect just a delight you know So then we are introduced to main character in here, Neve Campbell. She plays Sidney Prescott.
00:27:40
Speaker
and She's in her room and her greasy looking boyfriend sneaks in and he... I can't remember if I saw him in The Craft first or in here. Have you seen the movie The Craft?
00:27:58
Speaker
I haven't seen The Craft. there There's been a couple people in my life who have recommended it to me, but I've never fully sat down and paid attention to I've been lightly exposed to it, though.
00:28:10
Speaker
Skeet Ulrich is in The Craft, though. He is. He doesn't have the greasy looking hair. He's still a dick, but I think The Craft came out after Scream. It says this Scream was released in December of 1996. No, it did come out earlier because The Craft was May 1996 and Scream was December
00:28:37
Speaker
That's something I find interesting about the Scream franchise is they live in December and January. As far as I know, i a friend of mine, Doug, actually, from These Guys Got Juice, had told me that it was always a winter release. And i I kind of appreciate that. these I don't really feel Christmas when am watching them, but it's cool that that's where they've grown to occupy their space in the theatrical release system.
00:29:07
Speaker
And it's another way to throw you off to give you a scary movie during Christmas time when everything should be happy, blah, blah. blah It's all about subversion, and I can appreciate that in a franchise.
00:29:22
Speaker
Horror movies do play very well around Christmas time. Nosferatu this past Christmas, that that played pretty well. Yeah. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that was marketed as the feel-bad movie of Christmas.
00:29:36
Speaker
i mean I re-watched Nosferatu the other night, so it brought me back to when it was released. you're Are you fan of Nosferatu? Yes. i and We got to cover that for this film too, or for the podcast as well.
00:29:50
Speaker
I would like to cover all three Nosferatu movies because, fuck, Werner Herzog, he directed Nosferatu in the 70s. Yeah, we'll cover all of them. We're going to have to have a season that is dedicated to vampires.
00:30:06
Speaker
What a season that'll be. i know. i I actually just logged some vampire movies out on our list. there's some There's a wide variety of vampire movies. We could spend a while really covering some interesting interesting movies because there's a lot of indie vampire movies that I'd want us to talk about too.
00:30:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah, we definitely will. But yeah, so you have si Sydney in here and then you have her boyfriend, Billy Loomis. You see that, you know, she's having some interest intimacy issues with him. he He says he's not trying to pressure her into sex, but he really is. He's being a horndog here.
00:30:46
Speaker
So that kind of sets up like how their relationship is doing at
Character Dynamics and Set Design
00:30:50
Speaker
the moment. You see that there's something on her mind. You just don't know what it is. In that scene too, it also sets up something I really like that I didn't notice until this last rewatch, but it sets up the door and closet, like setup that we get from Ghostface later because her dad tries to enter the room and I don't know quite how to describe it, but if the closet is wide open...
00:31:16
Speaker
And you try to open the bedroom door. The closet almost prevents the bedroom door from opening. And i really like that detail. It's so specific. And I don't think you'll ever get to do that in another movie ever again. You get to do that once. It's so specific.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah, you just have the closet door wide open behind her room door that is closed. So then that way, once her bedroom door is open, that doorknob hits the door of her closet, you know creating that barrier that no one can come in.
00:31:52
Speaker
And then, too, when her dad is trying to make sure she's okay, she's like, can you knock, motherfucker? He heard you scream. He has every right to go and check on you, you dumb bitch.
00:32:03
Speaker
I'm sorry. I love Sidney Prescott in here. No, she's a very... Very good final girl. One of the best final girls, maybe, question mark. But her dad seems like a good guy, actually. I know. She didn't have to do that to him.
00:32:20
Speaker
And then once you find out all the shit that's been happening to him, you feel so fucking bad, but I'll save that for later. But no, I do love Nev Campbell in here and her character I like that they don't really show nudity with her too. They kind of that's another subversion. These movies usually give you the nudity and this movie withholds it from you. And I really appreciated that. It it felt very tasteful.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. She gives Billy a little strip tease in a way, but then you don't see it. It's just something between them two. So yeah, good comment. It was very cute too, where she was like, can we keep it PG-13, something like that?
00:33:02
Speaker
was like, that's a very screenplay line, but I like it. It was a nice moment. Once they go to school the next day and they see all the news reporters, you see her just looking at this one reporter.
Introduction of Gale Weathers
00:33:19
Speaker
We're introduced to Courtney Cox right there in the most heinous-looking, highlighter-looking suit that I've ever seen before. Hot off of friends, too.
00:33:30
Speaker
I know, right? so oh my God. That was... Ew, I hated her wardrobe in here. She stood out like a sore thumb in here. then, yeah, all of them find out about the the kills of ah the murders of Casey Becker and her boyfriend Steve, the sheriff and David Arquette's character in here.
00:33:53
Speaker
They are investigating, you know, what happened, trying to talk to all the students and staff there. And then there, Sydney and the fucking cool ass group of friends that she has, they're all having their lunch at the water fountain.
00:34:10
Speaker
And then we're introduced to every other character in here. do you want to go into what you thought of her friend group? i Her friend group rubbed me the wrong way initially when I had first watched the movie. But no, it's something that that's grown on me, though. Again, this movie was all about, like or at least these rewatches were all about this movie growing on me. Because like I said before, when I first watched it,
00:34:37
Speaker
it wasn't the movie i thought it was gonna be so i kind of had a bit of a reaction while i was watching it but it was one of those things where going into it this time i was able to fully accept what it was and i really grew to like her friend group the the movie guy fucking annoyed me a little bit what's his name billy i was like randy i was like is that me am i the randy in people's lives that kind of annoyed me a little bit i do real quick before we get too far away from the intro one thing i do want to shout out is uh
00:35:18
Speaker
A little technical detail about the opening shot is there was a, the camera guy was actually standing on a crane with a steady cam rig and the crane lowered him and then he walked off and did a tracking shot of Sydney.
00:35:31
Speaker
That's very cool. But in the background, Linda Blair, I think is her name. I hope I'm getting it right. From the Exorcist. She's yeah talking about a cult in the school. Yeah, and i I never knew that. I thought that was really cool. I heard that on the commentary, and I appreciated that. But this is a very good setup and intro for all of these characters. This movie really efficiently lays out who everybody is, especially in relation to each other.
00:36:00
Speaker
You meet Dewey, and you realize like Dewey is Tatum. Is that her name? Yeah, Tatum. Tatum's sister? Mm-hmm. Dewey is Tatum's sister.
00:36:10
Speaker
You realize that... right Oh, Dewey is Yeah, Tatum's brother. You realize that Dewey and Sidney also know each other because Didney refers to him as Dewey and he's like, that's Deputy Riley.
00:36:24
Speaker
And it cleanly and efficiently tells you, here's all of our players, here's their relationship to each other, and here's the kind of people
Dewey and Gale's Relationship
00:36:33
Speaker
they are. Courtney Cox...
00:36:35
Speaker
has a line at the beginning i forgot what it was it was she says it to the camera guy and she's like when i say move it what i'm telling you is move your fat tub of lard ass or something like that it's just yeah you'd get everybody's gist immediately you get that dewey is kind of dweeb little bit like everybody's dismissive to him even though he's a cop it's I really did enjoy the characters and how they were set up a lot.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I even just intro in here, and I like Dewey. Dewey? I love Dewey, and what's her name? Sorry, I'm bad with the names right now. I'll get better.
00:37:20
Speaker
Dewey and Gale, I love their relationship. They have... such good chemistry and i watching it realized i was like oh yeah these two got married in real life it comes through the fucking screen i adore these two i'm glad that i know i mean that they have a future in this franchise Yeah, I think David Arquette was cast to be part of the friend group, but he was lobbying to play Dewey's character because he wanted to kiss Courtney Cox.
00:37:55
Speaker
So you can definitely see the fireworks between them. and how he's like bashful just talking to her it it is definitely cool seeing their their relationship you know spark up and in the film and then in real life as well so definitely yeah cool uh I'm excited because they got married in 99 and Scream 2 came out 97. So I'm excited to see if that chemistry is still just bleeding through the screen.
00:38:28
Speaker
But what did you think of all these characters in the friend group? I know I was a little lukewarm on them at first, but I did like really warm up to them.
Matthew Lillard's Performance as Stu
00:38:39
Speaker
I like them a lot, lot, um minus Tatum.
00:38:46
Speaker
You meet Matthew Lillard. He plays Stu, fucking dorky-ass dude, but he's one of the popular dorky guys. and Then you have Jamie Kennedy's character who plays Randy. He's the actual dork out of them. He's the fifth wheel.
00:39:06
Speaker
And then you have Tatum Riley, like you said, Dewey's sister. She's Stu's girlfriend. They're all just eating ah ah fucking bag of grapes.
00:39:18
Speaker
they're talking about all the questions they got from the sheriff and from Dewey. And just going into, you know, the the the murder of uh casey becker i like the way they all joke with each other and then they all get you know a little flustered with each other because stew is just blurting out oh this is how you gut someone and then not blurting out but he answers sydney's question
00:39:51
Speaker
Randy's the one that's like blurting out stupid obscenities and then just being like not tasteful at all, making all these dumb jokes. But it's cool seeing their, you know, their dynamic with each other because we're getting some humor in here after ah ah really fucked up scene happened in the beginning.
00:40:15
Speaker
So, you know, you can kind of buy that these people are friends, that they're close with each other. i loved the cast in here and they were all familiar faces that people knew. So was cool seeing them all together on this project.
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah, I enjoy but Matthew Lillard, especially. and In this intro, like like I was saying, the very first time around when I watched this, I didn't understand why his character really rubbed me the wrong way when I saw him on screen. But watching it this time around, I think it's something I have an appreciation for. it Him as an actor, he is so big in this movie, too.
00:41:00
Speaker
Physically, he feels like he takes up a lot of space and personality wise. He has such a big personality and he gestures wildly. He's very like big and open.
00:41:12
Speaker
He doesn't really seem to respect personal space. He's always getting really close to people. He clings on to people. near the end there's a real like almost homoerotic moment but between with him and uh billy when they're in the kitchen with uh what's her face with sydney and he's kind of behind billy a little bit just like really on him in almost like an intimate kind of way and yeah that's He doesn't really respect boundaries, but it feels very specific and real. and i really like i mean I've seen Matthew Lillard play like Shaggy, and he was in Five Nights at Freddy's playing a pretty reserved role. i'm I've seen him in more than just those movies, but he can go real toned down, and it's awesome seeing just this big presence that he has. It's something where... you
00:42:09
Speaker
I pinpoint why it rubbed me the wrong way, but years later, i now have an appreciation for it.
Randy's Comic Relief and Meta Commentary
00:42:15
Speaker
I think it rubbed me the wrong way because in real life, a person like that would kind of bother me. Someone that would be so disruptive to my personal space.
00:42:25
Speaker
I mean, he has another moment where he just puts both of his arms on the back of Jamie Kennedy, like on his shoulder, and then he starts fucking with his ear.
00:42:40
Speaker
and that was when Billy's like confronting Randy just, oh, well, if you think I'm the killer, how do we know you're not the killer here?
00:42:52
Speaker
so that whole part like stew's just staring at randy's ear and just smiling and looking at billy making eye contact with him too yeah no boundaries whatsoever he's making all of his stupid jokes i love his character though i i feel like i would vibe with a type of person like that in real life He's the best character in the movie now. I've said this before, maybe on this podcast, but Matthew Lillard is fucking magnetic in this movie. You can't take your eyes off of him, especially when he fully turns at the end.
00:43:31
Speaker
It's just I kept rewinding and rewinding just to watch every little detail on his face and his body movements. A lot of those lines, too, at the very end were ad libbed. There were some things that went a little wrong in shooting and he stayed in character.
00:43:49
Speaker
And it seems like you may know what I'm talking about. We'll get to the ending. There's a lot to dig into in that ending. There really is. Lillard is a fucking gem.
00:44:01
Speaker
i the There was a certain point before this rewatch, you know, I haven't been too vocal about this, but I guess maybe I've been pretty dismissive of Scream and how great it is.
00:44:13
Speaker
But Lillard, I did like find his thing kind of annoying and the level of praise that he would get. But it's well-deserved praise. He really, this movie is a whole star, maybe star and a half better because of Matthew Lillard.
00:44:33
Speaker
He elevates this movie. Hell yeah. When I was younger, i just adored Randy's character. i thought he was silly. he was funny.
00:44:44
Speaker
he looked like ah ah lame himself, which is what I felt like I was growing up. But now as an adult, it's like Matthew Lillard, he just steals the show in here. Yeah, Neve Campbell is the awesome final girl here, but Yeah, i I love this guy's character.
00:45:06
Speaker
So, you know, after their' like after this scene, you know, Sydney goes home. You see the fucking massive ass house that her and her dad live in It's secluded in the middle of nowhere. you see...
Sidney's House as a Horror Setting
00:45:23
Speaker
all this greenery behind her when she's on her back deck talking to tatum and it's just like this house is so unnecessary for you to like let me live there and deck it out myself but yeah yeah all these horror movies just have beautiful houses don't they? It is ridiculous. Like, y'all don't deserve it. You have, like, one person living here.
00:45:50
Speaker
but It's because they're so, like, low budget. They're just like, we need good-looking locations. It's production value. Like, this was 15 million, which I didn't know. it makes sense.
00:46:02
Speaker
But damn, that's pretty low. But at least seeing where she is, that makes you think, damn, she's going to be there by herself in this big ass house and no one lives near her.
00:46:19
Speaker
And there's a killer on the loose, so she's definitely going to be a target. And then you see little clips within the next scene when she's just getting her stuff ready to ah stay the night at Tatum's house, where, you know, in typical scary movies, you think, okay, someone's going to be hiding in the closet or hiding behind the the door once she closes the closet door.
00:46:46
Speaker
You hear the music change up a little bit into, you know, an eerie effect, but no one is there at the moment. So that's where the movie is kind of throwing you off again.
00:46:59
Speaker
okay we know this is what you're expecting, but we don't have that playing out right now. That's for later. Yeah, they do set up a good amount of moments where you think that the killer is going to come out and the killer doesn't. Or he comes out at times where you really would, where a conventional horror movie really wouldn't have the killer come out. But what happens after this moment, because Ghostface does inevitably come for Sidney pretty early on in the movie.
Ghostface's Call and Chase Sequence
00:47:29
Speaker
He does. So she actually goes to just chill, watch TV, and then she sees all these news broadcasts about the murders. So she's just trying to change it. And then she lands on one with- this where we hear about her mom- Yeah, yeah. So Gail Weathers is covering, you know, what happened with her mom. So you find out the mom of Sydney was raped and murdered a few years ago no, one year ago almost.
00:47:59
Speaker
And obviously that is a difficult subject for her to listen to. She turns it off. She goes and looks out the window and then falls asleep.
00:48:10
Speaker
which I don't know how you could fall asleep at that moment. But yes, then after she gets a quick phone call from Tatum, Ghostface calls her and they have their little...
00:48:24
Speaker
Not even banter, but just like a casual conversation because she keeps thinking that it's Randy fucking with her on the phone. Yeah. which Which I thought was funny too because it's like, I wonder how the killers felt knowing like, okay,
00:48:42
Speaker
I'm about to, you know, attempt to kill this person in their eyes. Like, I'm about to kill this person. But they're over here fucking thinking all of my hard work is this dumbass Randy's work. Like, because it doesn't really seem like they like Randy. But yeah, that just kept popping in my head. Like, damn, they can't even get credit where their credit is due in here.
00:49:05
Speaker
Are they looking for the credit? Well, they, yeah, they do make themselves known at the end. So it does seem like they, it seems like they want their victims to know that it's them at a certain point. I mean, Drew Barrymore gets the mask off and which person do you think she's seeing in that moment? Do you think she's seeing Stu or do you think she's seeing Billy? Yeah.
00:49:26
Speaker
At first, I thought it was Billy, but now just watching a lot of reviews on Scream, I think it was Stu. I was watching one called from CZ's World Horror History, and he was just covering the history of Casey Becker.
00:49:47
Speaker
And he was saying, you know, she seemed like she was a little unfaithful and just very flirtatious with guys in general because the way he broke it down, he was like, well, she has a boyfriend but doesn't tell Ghostface that when he asks her on the phone, do you have a boyfriend? But then ends up telling them, oh, yes, I do have one.
00:50:12
Speaker
and you find out that Stu dated Casey Becker for a short period. And then he said that he dumped her for Tatum.
00:50:22
Speaker
But Randy says, no Casey dumped her for or dumped him for Steve. So it's like, okay, his revenge plot was to be the one to kill her. Yeah, it really depends on who's in the costume at that moment, I guess. Because I get the idea that maybe only one of them is usually in the costume, but they're both like at play in each situation.
00:50:45
Speaker
Because in the scene we're about to get into Sydney, when Ghostface is going after her, I believe that's Stu, and then Billy comes in through the window to kind of bail her.
00:50:59
Speaker
stew out and then what I like is they both seem to be conveniently showing up almost to ah ah let the other off the hook when people start thinking that it's them who's the killer Right, and that part, looking at it or watching it now, it's like, what the fuck? You were just running for your life and you're hiding in your bedroom after you just made fun of all these female characters who just run up the stairs instead of running out the front door.
00:51:31
Speaker
yeah she does it. Exactly. um Exactly. um She runs in her room. She's trying to 911. Doesn't work. This is another part where I'm thinking, okay, they're going to type in white woman in trouble from scary movie, forgetting that this is screen.
00:51:48
Speaker
I guess they originally typed in something, something Elm Street, but they didn't have that shot in the movie. would have been cool. Yeah. But yeah, once she was about to type whatever, all of a sudden Ghostface is gone and then Billy comes in.
00:52:05
Speaker
And then once he drops like his cell phone or whatever, she freaks out and then runs out of her door. How do you not know Ghostface just not waiting by the stairs or whatever? I know you think it's him, but wouldn't it click in your head like Oh, couldn't there be two? No, I don't think it clicks in anybody's head that ah it's two people at all. I think to to all of our characters within the movie, they're all believing that it's one person. So she's sure that it's Billy in that moment.
00:52:40
Speaker
Because, too, this is like mid 90s. It's probably rare for somebody, especially a high schooler, to have ah a cell phone. I don't know. Watching it now, it made me mad thinking like, okay, well, I'd be afraid to leave my room at that point. Yeah, I am under the assumption that this guy is her boyfriend is the killer, but Ghostface was literally right outside her bedroom door. So i I don't know. And then it was just funny when she ran down the stairs and you have Dewey's dumb ass holding up the mask
00:53:13
Speaker
randomly when she opened the door. a cool bit. I love that part. I love that guy. He's awesome in here. Does he get startled by Sydney when she opens the door too? Yeah, like she screams and then he screams.
00:53:26
Speaker
Everybody screams. I do really like David Arquette's choice to play Dewey. like Pretty inept, a little underqualified, inexperienced.
00:53:38
Speaker
I guess they wanted that character to be good at his job and very serious and like qualified to be going after Ghostface, but...
00:53:49
Speaker
It's very endearing watching him kind of just be new to the force, basically, and nobody takes him too seriously. And he hasn't really earned the ability to be taken seriously just yet.
00:54:02
Speaker
yeah All of his scenes, he's doing something that is very kid-like, like just kind of jumping forward. He is talking to the sheriff.
00:54:14
Speaker
The sheriff is smoking while Dewey is eating an ice cream cone. ah ah At the same time, anytime he took a drag of the cigarette, he would lick the ice cream cone.
00:54:24
Speaker
really loved that touch. I thought that was so funny. Yeah, and times when he's trying to put his sunglasses on, he kind of fumbles with it a little bit. so Even with that, it's like, damn, can't even put on your sunglasses regularly. so All of his scenes in here, how...
00:54:42
Speaker
you see how ah He's trying to carry himself as someone who is a man of the law, should be respected, possibly even feared a little bit, but he's not at all. He's just a cute ass character. I love him. Yeah, Dewey is ah incredible. I'm really excited to see how his character develops across the movies that he's in. I'm not sure how many movies that they keep him around for, but I'm really liking him a lot.
00:55:17
Speaker
But basically, right after this scene, they lock Billy up. They are just sure that he's the one who did it. And Sidney goes to stay with Tatum, Dewey, and their family.
00:55:31
Speaker
And Sidney gets a call from Ghostface while they're there. A good example of when one person, when one of them starts to get implicated, the other will let them off the hook in some way.
00:55:42
Speaker
One detail I didn't notice that I picked up in from the commentaries, they keep Dewey off screen in another room that whole time. And right when the phone call ends, he comes out to kind of make the audience think that Dewey could be the killer as well. So that's another thing that I wonder if people in theaters were wondering, is this Dewey? Like how much of a question mark this ghost face guy was to audiences in 1996?
00:56:12
Speaker
Right. They were trying to throw like a red herring there to just... Which I didn't realize, too, until this time around as well because I did hear that fact.
00:56:23
Speaker
Okay, well, why was he hiding? And then all of a sudden, once you and don't hear him anymore and you hear like the the the line click or the phone call end, all of a sudden, Dewey comes out and he's winded, too.
Dewey and Gail's Flirtation
00:56:38
Speaker
so It's like, okay, well, could it have been him? And then his goofy self just answers it and is like, hello. And then they just transition the next scene where you hear a k Nick cave in the bad seeds.
00:56:54
Speaker
or Is it bad seed or bad seeds? And then they're singing Red Right Hand, which technically becomes like the theme of this franchise, which is...
00:57:05
Speaker
like a chef's kiss in a way. Sing it for us. No, I'm going to sing it for the next episode. i need to prepare my vocal cords for that because my allergies are, yet again, beating my ass.
00:57:18
Speaker
All this pollen everywhere. I feel your pain. I didn't quite catch the song that that you're talking about, though. I'm a bit disappointed, but I'll look up a clip of it before I go into Scream 2, so I'm prepared.
00:57:33
Speaker
But yeah, then they go into the little segment where you know Tatum and Sydney, they're eating breakfast and you see a news clip of this guy um named Cotton Weary. He was the one that supposedly raped and killed Sydney Prescott's mother, played by Liev Shriver of the X-Men franchise. mode People would probably know him from most likely, but i I was just like, was he just a small actor at this time to where he just got that...
00:58:09
Speaker
roll Yeah, they have him in there for that little close-up when he's in the car, and then that's it. so Which is funny, because when I first watched this years ago, I never paid attention to that part.
00:58:22
Speaker
So once he, well, a quick spoiler for part two, once he is reappears in part two, really I was like, well, wait, who the fuck is this guy?
00:58:33
Speaker
So I had to rewatch the first one again to figure that out. Yeah, Wes Craven said that he's bringing him back at like the very end of the commentary. But one thing I did appreciate when he said that is he said he handles part two with a lot of love and care. So I liked that a lot.
00:58:53
Speaker
Yeah, so Dewey comes in and tells Sydney, well, basically, Billy's not our guy. So, you know, this guy's still out there, but, you know, we're just going to keep a close eye on you, essentially. Yeah.
00:59:08
Speaker
It's funny when they go to school because she is obviously on an edge with everything.
Henry Winkler's Comedic Role
00:59:16
Speaker
and You have these fucking students in there wearing the ghost face costume and running around the school all crazy, like throwing their hands up everywhere and just scaring her. It's just like, where the fuck is like a teacher who's going to put an end to this?
00:59:34
Speaker
It's great that they get expelled by the principal, but it was funny. I was about to say, Henry Winkler comes in and puts a stop to this fucking... The Fonz himself. I love henry Henry Winkler so much. He does a lot of comedy.
00:59:51
Speaker
Recently, like, Barry, he might have got some Emmy nominations for that, but I... didn't know he was in this movie at all. i It sucked to see him die because I was like, I guess he's not coming back for the sequels.
01:00:06
Speaker
He said he really wanted to be in this movie and the studio asked him to go uncredited because they didn't want his name to take away attention from The other cast members, the younger up and comers, which is weird because Courtney Cox, I feel like might have been a name at that point. Maybe maybe that's not the case. I wasn't really that old around that time. But yeah, I love seeing Henry Winkler come in and rain fire. He's getting aggressive with these scissors.
01:00:36
Speaker
ah He calls the kids shits a lot. They actually got banned from filming at the high school they were filming at because a small community on the school board was protesting a lot of the content within the script that the students say.
01:00:52
Speaker
a lot of like the talk about murder. But also Henry Winkler's character was one of them because he's kind of like quote unquote foul mouthed for a principal. But yeah, I liked seeing it.
01:01:05
Speaker
Henry Winkler. Gotta love it. I mean, realistically, i love his scene in here because he is just destroying them, those two students. And at that point, just throwing professionalism out the door. i Like, dude, have some fucking common sense. Have some respect.
01:01:27
Speaker
Two of your fellow students were just fucking killed. And this is what you guys do. Like, and fuck you guys. I'm going to expel both of you. and It's cool because at that moment, no one's going to believe these two kids. Like, well, oh, yeah, he swore at us.
01:01:45
Speaker
No one's in that room, so they can't tell. And, you know, it is fucked up because later on, since he is dead, it's like, well, does anyone now know that these kids were expelled or did this guy have enough time to, you know, fill out that paperwork for it? You know, whatever.
01:02:03
Speaker
I don't know. It was cool seeing that because you don't expect a teacher or not a teacher, just any faculty member to react like that. So the fact that he did showed, you know, he's on edge because this happened to two of his students
School Community's Reaction to Murders
01:02:21
Speaker
in his school. And then you have little shits running around like this, like so insensitive. So, yeah, they deserved what they got. The expulsion. The kids didn't die, though.
01:02:32
Speaker
Right. Yeah. They didn't. They should have, but they didn't. So you're saying there's a chance they might come back for the sequel. They're the new ghost face duo.
01:02:43
Speaker
ah ah could turn out that they're the most important characters ever, you know, having seen the way fucking Star Wars wrapped up their saga and Mission Impossible wrapped up their thing. I mean, to everybody's important, apparently, to every storyline, no matter how big or small the characters are, blah, blah, blah.
01:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, I don't So they could turn out to be like the fathers of Courtney Cox or something. I mean, there is one film that has a ah very strange twist to it. i won't spoil which one it is.
01:03:23
Speaker
Listeners might know which one I'm talking about. But to me, it didn't make sense. It was just... Such a bogus way to end that film. I've even heard rumors that, you know, that killer might be in Scream 7. I don't know.
01:03:40
Speaker
If he is, it's going to be kind of weird. They better make it like a good reveal or something. But we'll get to that once we get to that movie. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have a lot of faith in Scream 7 considering like they fired one of their lead actresses and then their other lead actress left. And then I think the directors also left too.
01:04:06
Speaker
seems like Paramount's made a lot of bad choices behind the scenes when it comes to the Scream franchise. Yeah. It seems like it may start to bite them a little bit going forward.
01:04:18
Speaker
I think they kind of, they had people with a plan. They had characters that were a part of that plan. And it seems like they kind of lost a lot of that, unfortunately. But who knows? Who knows what is going on now with the production of Scream 7? I don't know if they're filming or if they've even found a new director or what the deal is. and But I think it's supposed to come out next year.
01:04:40
Speaker
Oh, shit. Okay, I didn't know that. Scream 7 is apparently going to be directed by Kevin Williamson. I did hear that. Going to be his second movie he's directed.
01:04:53
Speaker
Gotta say, usually not a good sign when they bring the writer in to be a director. They did that with David S. Goyer in the Blade series. He directed Blade Trinity.
01:05:04
Speaker
Usually kind of means the studio is like, We don't really have a guy, but the writer's familiar enough with the material, so we'll give him a crack at it.
01:05:15
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe he could have a good vision. That's not a big vote of confidence for me. God damn it, Paramount. Why can't you fucking manage your shit over there? That's why you had to merge with Skydance, because you can't fucking manage your own studio. so Tom Cruise is working for Warner Brothers right now. J.J. Abrams isn't over there anymore. Come on, Paramount.
01:05:36
Speaker
So yeah, everyone is, you know, kind of freaking out. Well, Sydney, she's hiding in a bathroom after she has a little encounter with Billy, actually. He's released from jail and she's thinking, okay, it's not you.
Sydney's School Bathroom Attack
01:05:52
Speaker
you end up finding out, you know, they're She doesn't want to be intimate or anything with him because she's still mourning the loss of her mother. And he's basically telling her, move on You know, my mom left too.
01:06:09
Speaker
So fucking shitty to say to someone who lost ah ah relative, especially that being their mother. I really did enjoy the writing in that moment, though, where he was like, okay, yeah, that that's a bad analogy.
01:06:23
Speaker
It worked for me. Billy isn't the... He doesn't have the most comforting touch, it seems. I really do enjoy, though, that it... You know, sometimes it seems obvious that he's the killer, and other times it just seems like a guy who just fucking says the wrong thing and does the wrong thing all the time and just can't...
01:06:47
Speaker
get it together So then she hides in the bathroom. Well, not hides. first, she just goes in the bathroom, but then she hears people talking about her. So then she goes to hide in the bathroom.
01:06:57
Speaker
These girls are trash talking her and her mom. Once they leave, she comes out and someone is whispering her name. and then that's when you see some boots drop to the ground.
01:07:11
Speaker
You see the the material of the ghost face costume. He just jumps out of the bathroom stall. cloak. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. And then she like slides on the ground under him to leave the bathroom and she runs out of the school, I'm assuming.
01:07:28
Speaker
There's a faculty member right there who sees her run out. She... You know, typically they bitch like, oh, no running in the halls, blah, blah, blah. But it's like you see her She's fucking scared out of her mind.
01:07:40
Speaker
Did anyone bother to go in that bathroom to check why she ran out of there or something? Because depending on who was in there, they could have fucking cracked the case right then and there on who the killer is.
01:07:53
Speaker
Yeah, but they just assume that she's just some loony tune running around the school. Just like, you know, that's just her deal. She is almost getting murdered constantly.
01:08:04
Speaker
One thing before we get like too far away from the school, I did kind of enjoy that their janitor is Wes Craven dressed as Freddy Krueger. Oh, yeah, that's right.
01:08:16
Speaker
Once that she dips out of the school, you get the initial interaction between Gail Weathers and Dewey Riley.
01:08:27
Speaker
So she's trying to, you know, poke at him to get information on the story going on. And he is, you know...
Gail's Ambitious Tactics
01:08:37
Speaker
getting a little shy because he's working and he obviously shouldn't be sharing certain information, but she sees, you know, i think I could work my charm with this guy. So let me, you know, kind of boost his ego, talk him a little bit. She's probably vibing with him for L2. And,
01:08:56
Speaker
and You start to see their onset chemistry um um take over. And then, yeah, just like sparks are flying between them. Yeah, I really enjoy ah ah her flirt, like flirtatious nature with him, how she's like, oh, my demographic is really ah like 11 through 24 year olds. And he's like, I'm 25. And she's like, damn, I just missed you. And at the end,
01:09:20
Speaker
She's like, he makes a reference to the show and she's like, so you do watch it? And he was like, I'm maybe 25 now, but it's 24 for a whole year. And I thought that was, again, it's a very written, like scripty kind of line, but I really enjoyed it. Their dynamic is so cute.
01:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, the those lines, they just work because even watching it again for this time, for this episode, I had never understood what that phrase meant before until I watched it now. i was like, oh, okay. So yeah, i it just works. Yeah. for as scripted as it is. It works a lot.
01:10:01
Speaker
But yeah, all the students are released um are released um early because the city is issuing a curfew. So Stu comes out, talks to Sydney and ri sydney and Tatum saying, oh I'm going to have a house party, you know, bring some stuff. Everyone's going to come.
01:10:20
Speaker
You see... the Fonz get killed in his murder scene. That's when they do show Wes Craven as, you know, the janitor, Fred.
01:10:31
Speaker
And then they cut to Sydney and Tatum talking on her front porch about you know, everything going on and then what rumors were being spread about her mom and her murder case.
01:10:48
Speaker
So she's just, Sydney's saying, you know, she's pissed off at Gail because she's the one spreading the rumors and Tatum is telling her, well, the rumors kind of go farther back about your mom's promiscuity or whatever. And You know, she you see like Sydney's hurt because her friend might be believing that.
01:11:10
Speaker
But then, you know, it's starting to you know, click in her head. okay well, if the person that I accused Cotton Weary isn't the person who killed my mom, then, you know, her killer is still out there.
01:11:25
Speaker
And another way they reference, you know, the movie being aware of themselves Tatum is just like, oh, don't go there. You sound like some Wes Carpenter film, just butchering his name, but combining it. It was cool.
01:11:39
Speaker
i So the idea, at least in Sydney's head, is that Liev Schreiber's character raped and murdered her mom.
01:11:50
Speaker
But it seems like, and what Gail Weathers is kind of pointing to, is that... her mom was cheating on her dad with a couple different guys that kind of comes into play too ah later in the movie.
01:12:03
Speaker
But that Liev Schreiber was someone that she was having an affair with, and then she was murdered by presumably Ghostface, this guy who's going around killing everybody else currently.
01:12:17
Speaker
And so Liev Schreiber got put away wrongly because it wasn't a rape murder. He just happened to have sexual relations with her before she was murdered by Ghostface.
01:12:29
Speaker
Yeah, so that whole story starts to at least tie in you know, why she is feeling this way. Obviously, you losing your mom is painful enough, but her mom was murdered, and then, you know, she saw her mom in a certain, like, in a certain light.
01:12:51
Speaker
Just, you know, this woman who raised me, you love her, but then you have... Everyone thinking and saying all of these horrible things about her that is just like a whole different lifestyle about your mom that you don't know about. So obviously you don't want to believe that, but then you have, News reporter Gail Weathers spinning her whole story on it and defending the guy that Sidney is accusing.
01:13:24
Speaker
So that has to be in itself a whole other level of stress to deal with.
01:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, but, and so she inevitably does kind of come around, though. She has an interaction earlier where she, and I think it was earlier, where she punches Gail Weathers, and then later, yeah and then later comes and talks to her and kind of tells her, like, you know, maybe there is something to what Gail is saying. Maybe I did falsely accuse someone. At least I think that's what had happened in that scene.
01:13:58
Speaker
But yeah yeah, she does kind of come around a little bit to Gail's perspective, it seems. Yeah, so then she's you know thinking of all all of that. Her and Tatum are going to get ready for the party.
01:14:12
Speaker
Then you go to the video store. Everyone and their mom is in there trying to rent all the horror movies.
Video Store Speculations
01:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, I've never seen a video store that packed before. Right, exactly. and It just brought me back to the days of fucking Blockbuster and Family Video because you have all the tapes out and then you have the actual or the case of the tape and then the actual tape behind it. Where did you go?
01:14:36
Speaker
i went to Family Video. Once we found a family video, but we were going to Blockbuster, but they were expensive. But yeah, it was cool just seeing all the the like a lot of the movies, they were being rented because you could see some of them were flat against the shelves. But then you see just a few of them still had their tapes behind them. So everyone's in there getting prepped up for the curfew and
01:15:05
Speaker
Stu's talking to Randy a little bit. Randy admits that he has a thing for Sydney and is then saying, you know, it's probably Billy who's the killer. Stu's trying to throw him off saying, you know, it's probably her dad. You know, no one has found him.
01:15:23
Speaker
So, you know, what's he's what is he doing? And Randy's like, he's probably dead. and then everyone's looking at them like, Uh, you're getting a little loud in here. And then that's when Billy confronts him and is just like, okay, well, you're probably the killer if you're fucking over here accusing me of that. And then you get that weird little,
01:15:44
Speaker
show of affection. my God. Sorry. jesus You get that weird little show of affection from Stu playing with Randy's ear.
01:15:55
Speaker
That whole scene was just so fucking uncomfortable to watch. In regard to the dad, I think they do mention him being like tied up with his teeth. kicked in or something like that.
01:16:07
Speaker
And they're kind of close to his fate a little bit at the end. His teeth aren't kicked in His mouth is duct taped, but he is he is tied up. Then they reference the dad being like a red herring. like It's not the dad.
01:16:20
Speaker
The dad's always a red herring. And this is one of a couple times where they're really... They're talking to each other, but in a way, they're kind of talking to the audience. Like, hey, here are the typical horror tropes.
01:16:32
Speaker
Here are the things you expect. We're going to do some of them, but we're also going to try to subvert them as we're doing it or make you think we're going to do it and then swerve at the last second.
01:16:43
Speaker
It's kind of them setting up what we're going to get later in the movie. Exactly. Then they bring you to the house party And Stu's house, fucking big ass farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.
01:16:56
Speaker
What the hell do these kids' parents do to afford this these places of residence?
Party at Stu's House
01:17:04
Speaker
Like, my God, I like his house a hell of a lot more than Sidney's. What did you think of his house in this location?
01:17:12
Speaker
I thought it was a ah ah really solid and beautiful house. I actually have some details about it that are a little bit sad. So just warning to our listeners, you might get kind of sad, but I guess this, the house was originally built by an elderly couple And shortly after they had built it, one of them had passed away.
01:17:33
Speaker
And then a month later, the other passed away. So their three kids just had this big house and were like, we don't really know what to do with it. So then when they were location scouting, they came across the house and were just like,
01:17:47
Speaker
Hey, I mean, you could let us use it for your movie if you wanted something to do with it. So they let him use it for the movie. It was kind of cool. And ah ah don't let me forget, but I want to go into ah ah a detail about the mask a little bit too before we end the episode.
01:18:04
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, and isn't his house or the house that they use like an Airbnb now? I think it is. You can pay to stay there, which I really want to do. oh do Is it in California?
01:18:17
Speaker
It is in California, i believe. Yeah, it's in California. Yeah, it seems worth it. I mean, if you can, I'd say go for it Try to Airbnb at the Scream Murder House. You can recreate the kitchen scene with all the people that you go with.
01:18:33
Speaker
I know, right? I'll be scaring myself like, oh my God, this is where this happened. This is where this happened. And then I'll hear like the house settling and just freak my own self out.
01:18:43
Speaker
Yeah, that'll be a good time. So yeah, everyone shows up at the house party and You see Gale and her cameraman, Kenny, they also show up. They're trying to be sneaky, just making sure no one sees them. Dewey pops up and talks to Gale. You see he's all excited. It's cool with these high schoolers drinking.
01:19:08
Speaker
yeah Exactly. He's acting goofy with them too. or Not goofy, but just yeah just trying to be laid back. You see that Gail puts a like a little hidden camera so she can just watch everyone.
01:19:22
Speaker
That is so fucked up to do. You're like recording some minors here for your fucking job. Ew. No. Yeah. When you put it that way, it does sound pretty fucked up. I didn't think anything of it.
01:19:36
Speaker
that is i mean, letting her do this. I don't think he knows about it but because she does it like very sneaky. like but Imagine if everyone dipped out and instead of Randy being the one watching TV there, you got a couple doing like their Netflix and chill session and then these fuckers are recording it.
01:19:59
Speaker
Anything could have happened. That's illegal now. Exactly. Exactly. But no, she needs her story. so Then they cut into Tatum's scene.
Tatum's Death Scene
01:20:14
Speaker
Stu asked her to go get him a beer.
01:20:16
Speaker
She goes to the garage to- get them one, then gets locked in the garage, tries to press the large garage door opener to open, but then it closes and then ghost faces there.
01:20:32
Speaker
And then again, another time, she thinks it's Randy. So again, I'm just, I'm thinking, I yeah wonder how they feel about that. You know, they're doing all this fucking work and Randy's getting all the credit.
01:20:44
Speaker
I think they're fine. They're like, oh, they aren't even thinking it's me right now. They think it's this other guy. It's easy for them to pin it on Randy because later, Stu at the very end is quick to be like, Randy's the killer. And you have the two of them pointing the finger back and forth at each other. Yeah, and true. this This Tatum death that we're about to get into as well.
01:21:08
Speaker
This is another thing. The MPAA made them cut most of it, so we see very little of her actual death, which makes me feel bad for the fucking effects workers who probably worked very hard on making her head get crushed. Even when I watched that first or that scene the first time, it freaked me out because I thought, like oh, it just crushed like her her stomach because I thought she was halfway out. But once you see like her head is getting crushed, ew.
01:21:39
Speaker
so yeah they The MPA were being a bunch of bitches with that. It's very reminiscent, too, of a moment that happens in the new Final Destination. Ooh, what part are you talking about? I can't remember. Involving a garbage truck.
01:21:59
Speaker
Oh, right, right, right. Okay, yeah. I was thinking more of Child's Play 3 with that, watching that. Except Child's Play 3 was lame. You didn't see shit when Child's Play did it.
01:22:12
Speaker
And it was like his arm or something. Child's Play 3 sucks. It really does. Let's not go. Final Destination Bloodlines is good. Scream is good. Child's Play 3 sucks.
01:22:24
Speaker
But then, you know, unfortunately, she she gets killed. at least she tried to put up a fight, a good one, too. And then they show Sidney trying to leave, and then Billy pops up, and he gives to the most
01:22:42
Speaker
the awkward stare he's like smiling at stew and like raising his eyebrows like okay yeah you know you know what's going on and stew lets them go upstairs to his parents room that that whole interaction should have let me know the first time i watched it like okay for sure for sure these fuckers are in on it together but
Billy and Sydney's Relationship Issues
01:23:05
Speaker
of course it didn't until the ending Either that or they're like secret lovers of some sort.
01:23:12
Speaker
Probably. get Yeah, you get kind of homoerotic vibes from these two. But yeah, Billy and Sydney go upstairs to have sex. They you know subvert the virgin trope that these movies all set up, which I feel like this movie does...
01:23:33
Speaker
earn this moment unlike a lot of other horror movies they don't really earn their sex scene and we don't really get an actual sex scene we don't see any nudity really it's again tastefully done it also feels like kind of weird knowing you're watching even though they're adults they're adult actors they're playing high schoolers so would be kind of weird like demanding we see nudity or something titillating that would be kind of odd right but then after their big sex stew is wait no everybody ah ah before actually we get to what happens with stew and billy and we keep cutting back to the kids watching their movie again and they're explaining the rules while they're watching halloween right yeah i wanted into that
01:24:28
Speaker
Yeah, I love that the Halloween score is now just making its way into Scream, and there are movies within Scream that are punctuated and emphasized with the Halloween score. I thought that was a really cool use of that movie playing in the background. I kind of loved it. I don't know if I've really seen that be done before, where the score from a different movie that's playing on TV is...
01:24:57
Speaker
bleeding into the movie that we're watching and now it's like a diegetic horror score yeah so i think that made this movie even more difficult for me to watch the first time around because again i was so scared to watch halloween and because of the score so that you know you hear it in the background here and there and even the kill scene that they show from Halloween, hated that one too just because of it being a jump scare.
01:25:28
Speaker
so It intensified this movie for me the first time I watched it. There's a specific moment where Dewey walks in the house gun drawn and it's
Integration of Halloween Score
01:25:37
Speaker
the actual... like been and a done It's like yeah yeah a full section of him walking through the house to like the most tense moment of the Halloween score where Michael's like on the loose looking for Jamie. it's really If the score bothered you as a kid, I could see it really having an effect on you, especially in that moment. Because Dewey, too, his character's scared, and he plays it pretty scared, too. It's a really effective and well-done moment.
01:26:08
Speaker
Yeah, even that part where he's searching the house, at that point, no one is there. And, you know, he's just there on his own. But you can definitely feel his fear while he's walking in there just looking around while the score is playing from Halloween.
01:26:26
Speaker
And then back to when, you know, Randy or they're watching the Halloween film, it's a bunch of them still at the party. It was funny just because Randy was explaining all of the rules of, you know, okay, this is how you're going to survive a horror movie. You can't have sex, you can't do drugs, and you can't say, I'll be back. And they are breaking every single one of those. So another way this movie makes it aware of itself.
01:26:55
Speaker
But you end up thinking like, oh, is that really, you know, the rules of... a horror movie and like the survival of it. So because later on, you know, this film doesn't even follow its own rules. So I like that they have those little like bits of information in here.
01:27:15
Speaker
I like that Stu's the one who says, I'll be back too. And the way he plays it, he's in on what's happening. Like, obviously now having watched the movie, but it just, it's very well executed. I think them going through these tropes and who they have going through the tropes and who they have saying what in the moment.
01:27:37
Speaker
Then Sydney and Billy, they're you know getting dressed and she's just asking him questions. Okay, who did you call when you were in jail?
01:27:50
Speaker
And he's trying to ask her, you know what do I have to do to ah prove to you that I'm not a killer? and then Ghostface just pops in, stabs him a few times, and then starts chasing Sydney.
01:28:06
Speaker
At that point, everyone has cleared out of the house because... Who the fuck called Stu's house to let him know that the principal was killed?
01:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know who made the call, but yeah, they just found out the principal died and everyone's like, well, we got to go see or whatever because they found his body somewhere or whatever.
01:28:29
Speaker
Yeah. Everybody just bails. Nobody notices Tatum's body hanging from the garage too. I thought I was like, oh, people- People are going to notice at this point and nobody notices.
01:28:42
Speaker
It's just irresponsible teenagers. This fucking idiots. Yeah. No one even notices the news van right there. Well, they, they knew that Gail was there. Nevermind. It was a good way to clear the house though. They said like that was a writing issue. They had was how do we get the house empty for the events of the final act?
01:29:03
Speaker
So yeah, Randy's just there by himself watching the rest of the the Halloween movie. Gail and Dewey, they're walking on the road but like arm and arm with each other being flirty and everything.
01:29:16
Speaker
then the kids zoom by them, almost hit them. And then they end up fucking like falling into this brush of trees right there. and then, you know, they have their moment. They they share a kiss with each other.
01:29:31
Speaker
And then Dewey's like, sorry,
Sydney's Thrilling Confrontation with Ghostface
01:29:32
Speaker
I'm on duty. Like, dude, you already kissed her. like why not? Yeah, is that predatory behavior? No, because she was the one. Well, wasn't she the one that kind of like moved inward to kiss him? Or was it he was he the one to move in and kiss her?
01:29:48
Speaker
i don't know. From my mind, they ended up on top of each other. But am I thinking of Scary Movie right now? No, because that's what happened. Yeah, don't remember the exact events of the kiss. but I don't know. but yeah Then they find Sidney's dad's car just right in that brush of trees. and They're like, oh, fuck. Well, let's get back to the house. you know Why is he here?
01:30:12
Speaker
More so like, what the fuck? Why would you ask? Why is he here? or What's he doing here? Clearly, his car is hidden in there. Well, I guess that's another way of them thinking, oh, you know he's probably hiding here. could have referenced misery there.
01:30:30
Speaker
That too. That too. I'm over here thinking they crashed his car in here to hide it, but no, clearly that's not it. so yeah Everyone has cleared out of the house.
01:30:43
Speaker
They have Randy's cool scene where the watching Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween and he's trying to say, like you know, behind you, Jamie. like You're going to turn around. and then I love that moment. behind I know. he He's so oblivious to it, obviously, but then fucking Sydney's running outside Ghostface hears her. so Randy is spared at that moment.
01:31:11
Speaker
Sydney had done like a whole chase sequence with Ghostface in the house, was able to like jump out of the fucking... attic window and finds Tatum's dead body and then yeah just trying to you know run for her life and everything. Everyone is getting killed at this moment.
01:31:32
Speaker
I must say, i find Sydney's encounters with and confrontations with Ghostface to be really exciting. I think they're the strongest action in the movie. When she falls out of that window and lands on, I think it's like a boat that's maybe covered, or she lands on something.
01:31:56
Speaker
I like... jumped for a second and was really glad that she ended up landing. I was i get very invested when she's in the car and Ghostface has the keys and he like dips down like the face that she's making. I'm so locked into everything Sydney's doing when she's confronted with Ghostface.
01:32:17
Speaker
Man, I hope the sequels really hold to that, like the power of these two coming face to face. One thing that we do get in this moment too, so she, after she gets out of the house, ends up in Gail's news van and the the this ah ah So earlier in the movie, we kind of get an example of the fact that there's a delay in this camera. We see them having a conversation inside.
01:32:49
Speaker
Then we cut to outside the vent outside with Gail and her camera guy. And we're seeing a little bit of a conversation we got already. At first, i was like, oh, that's weird editing. But then I realized in the same moment that they realized it,
01:33:03
Speaker
This camera has a bit of a delay and Ghostface is already out of the house when we think that he originally was about to kill. um um i keep forgetting their names. Randy.
01:33:16
Speaker
Randy. Yeah, when
Dewey's Stabbing and Trust Issues
01:33:18
Speaker
we think he's about to kill Randy, and then this camera guy gets his throat slit. And another thing the MPAA made them cut, which Wes Craven was talking about, he said when he gets his throat slit, it lingers on the cut a little bit, and the camera guy gives Ghostface just a look. And he said the look he gives him was a very human look that is lost because of the MPAA.
01:33:42
Speaker
But I do like that we were able to get him... It is, yeah. But i I do really like that we were able to get him signaling to Sydney, like, hey, close the door, close the door. He seemed like a good guy.
01:33:55
Speaker
he calls Gail Weathers like a goddess bitch at one point. he she He gets happy when she thinks she's going to be a genuine person, but then she's only concerned about her book styles, and she lightly slaps him. Slaps him. I like...
01:34:10
Speaker
Yeah, I liked having him around. He seemed like a good guy. he was funny. I liked him. Even the part where they show up at Sydney's house when Ghostface tried to kill her initially.
01:34:26
Speaker
She gets out of the car and she sees everything, so she's like, Jesus, the camera, hurry. And you just hear him say, my name isn't Jesus. It's just such a funny little line. like that. Yeah. At this point, like...
01:34:40
Speaker
Everyone's getting killed. Even like Gail, she Gail and Dewey get back to the house. He's trying to see where everyone is at. Gail finds a blood in her van and then sees that Kenny was dead on top of her van, nearly runs over Sydney and then ends up crashing into a tree herself.
01:35:03
Speaker
Sidney tries to run back to the house, finds Dewey coming out of the house, and he's stabbed in the back. There's a part where she's hiding. I loved the way he acted that too. David Arquette, when he's stabbed,
01:35:19
Speaker
Sorry to cut you off. It was just this moment is really what there's always a moment in a movie that I feel like I'm truly grabbed and David Arquette walking out of the house.
01:35:30
Speaker
And then it's revealed. I think he's like Sydney. And then it's a reveal that he's stabbed and he stumbles and falls to the ground. There's something about his behavior that shot. When I was talking about that movies that devolve into madness and That is the moment where I was like, this has truly become fucking madness. Like, this is out of control. And i that's where I really grew a love for this movie that I didn't have. It was that exact shot, that exact moment where David Arquette goes down. I loved it.
01:36:05
Speaker
Right, because the the guy that you know everyone does like, they like his character, and you know just he's supposed to be the one to make sure everyone is safe, even though not that many people buy it.
01:36:20
Speaker
He looks like he was killed, so now you're just like, fuck, she's by herself now. no one's going to be able to help her. She has a little bit with Ghostface while she's trying to find safety in Dewey's car.
01:36:36
Speaker
But then Randy pops up. No, I think Randy popped up when Gail was in the van and and she like beats him with a phone or something. Sydney is able to run back to the house and then Randy and Stu pop up and they're both trying to like get her to shoot the other one with Dewey's gun.
01:36:56
Speaker
She can't decide who's the killer and who isn't. So she just locks herself in the house. I mean, what other choice do you have at that point? You don't know who to trust and both of them are just trying to, you know, for lack of a better word, manipulate you to kill the other person.
01:37:15
Speaker
I trust
Billy's Villainous Revelation
01:37:16
Speaker
Randy more than I trust Stu because I've seen Randy with Ghostface in the same room on camera. So immediately Randy's got a little bit more to his story than Stu. I haven't seen Stu and Ghostface in the same room.
01:37:32
Speaker
I've seen Randy and Ghostface in the same room. That's true. But she doesn't know that. Oh, yeah, she does know that. She saw it, obviously. Yeah, she there. Yeah, never mind.
01:37:44
Speaker
Well, she makes some interesting decisions in this film, in this franchise.
01:37:49
Speaker
Yeah, I i mean, i did enjoy it. Who do you think sold their case better, Stu or Randy? Randy. I don't know. like I feel like Stu did more just because of how out there ah he reacts to things, like how you were saying he gestured. He's more charismatic.
01:38:06
Speaker
Yes, he does a lot of like talking with his arms and his hands. like Randy, I don't think he was a good scared character in that part.
01:38:17
Speaker
but yeah Now that you mention it, she should have just fucking believed Randy and But then what how how would have how would have that revealed been if she found out that he was the killer first?
01:38:32
Speaker
Because once she's hiding in the house, you have a Billy tumbling down the stairs showing that he's alive. So you think, oh, okay, well...
01:38:43
Speaker
She's okay. Now she's not alone. They let Randy in and then then ah he's like, well, man, Stu's flipped out. He's gone mad. And then Billy turns around and quote psycho. Like we all go a little mad sometimes and then shoots Randy.
01:38:59
Speaker
Poor Randy. Didn't do shit. And he's getting his ass beat by everyone and getting shot as well. Poor guy. Yeah, I felt bad for Randy in that moment.
01:39:10
Speaker
But basically, yeah, this is when Stu and Billy fully kind of reveal themselves. Stu, watching it, I was like, those didn't look like he was actually stabbed. And that was kind of right. It was just corn syrup.
01:39:26
Speaker
No knife penetrated him And, yeah, they basically reveal everything to Sydney right then and there. They make their way into the kitchen and kind of corner her.
01:39:39
Speaker
This is where it gets, yeah, kind of weird, kind of sexual. They start going into talking about Sydney's mom and...
01:39:51
Speaker
uh what is it billy's like she couldn't close her legs like sharon stone and then matthew lillard's like but she's no sharon stone it's like such a he's like got spit coming out of his mouth it's like this dude just fucking lost it like yeah it's such a cool and effective turn for these characters i my very first time watching it i didn't buy it but i really love how weird these characters become. And ah like I said, it plays almost like they're secret lovers in a way.
01:40:25
Speaker
There is something like very sexual about their act of killing. I know I have mentioned it before on a different episode, but like the penetration of a knife being a very ah sexual type of thing and being read in horror as almost like sexual act from these characters.
01:40:44
Speaker
killers
Unraveling of Billy and Stu's Plan
01:40:44
Speaker
It's very violating in a way. And this movie kind of takes that and makes, gives the scene very like weird sexual undertones in my opinion. It does, and then you end up finding out that you know Billy's motive for all of this was because Sidney's mom was having an affair with his dad, and that is why his mom ultimately left both of them, and Stu didn't even know that. like He was in it for just you know the game of killing everybody.
01:41:16
Speaker
so Yeah, just all of that tension in the air. i do agree with you on that. And just the way fucking Stu goes just off the rails with his acting in here and his ad-libbing.
01:41:35
Speaker
let's Let's just get to that part. like him and Him and Billy, they're trying to sell like, okay... They pull her dad out. They had him tied up throughout the whole fucking movie.
01:41:47
Speaker
and this poor he's been in there all damn weekend pretty much or however long it's been. And, you know, doesn't know what the fuck is going on. Doesn't know why this is happening. His daughter is getting deflowered upstairs that night.
01:42:02
Speaker
And then now is finding out, OK, they're about to frame me for my wife's murder. and kill my daughter and i'm just tied up here and then um they're about to frame him as being ghost face entirely too they like plant the little speaker device in him that they reveal when they're going through this whole spiel i think they might be putting their cell phones on him yeah they're making it seem like he's been behind all of this Yeah, that's their grand plan of everything. and Then they try to sell it by saying, oh, we're going to be the ones that were left for dead, but we survived.
01:42:43
Speaker
They take turns stabbing each other. and It's just funny seeing how Stu reacts to it. he just it was so hard to watch. It was hard to watch. just like you You know what to expect just on screen, but just thinking about it like, fuck, you're just letting someone stab you right now.
01:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, I was watching this a couple nights ago with my girlfriend, and ah ah when that moment was happening, I was like, is it weird that I kind of feel bad for Stu? No. just...
01:43:18
Speaker
yeah it it just Matthew Lillard really sells all of this. And I do really like to, this movie is coming out in a time, especially like, you know, the late nineties, early two thousands censorship was such a big thing. The Clinton administration, especially, I remember hearing stories about them really cracking down on censorship and media And this is a time where a lot of people were pointing at horror movies and saying, are these things responsible for why teenagers or people commit horrific acts? And I do like that this movie is kind of looking that in the face and presenting it in front of audiences at a time where people are like, are horror movies this influential? And this whole time, all of these people know horror movies.
01:44:12
Speaker
All of these characters know the tropes of horror movies. They're all so aware. And they, I mean, they even call out themselves. We're not influenced like this. It's just by, we're not influenced by horror.
01:44:25
Speaker
It just makes us a bit more creative. But I do really like that in a time where this is such a sensitive area and people are like, oh, horror movies, do they corrupt our children This movie is presenting that dead in the face like, hey, here's movie about how horror has permeated our society and is in the lives of our children and is in front of the youth of America right now. And they're watching it and they're taking notes from it and not even in a bad way, though. It is honestly more for survival.
01:45:04
Speaker
Yeah, they do explain that a lot in that short scene. And they kind of go back to that in part two as well. We'll get to that when we get there.
01:45:20
Speaker
so their whole plan, they're just trying to, you know, hash it out. And then Gail pops up and stole the gun that they had right there. The Stu's gun.
01:45:31
Speaker
tries to shoot, Billy, but he tells her all the safety's on So he ends up like kicking her against like this railing outside Cute little devastating moment because you think she's about to die along with Dewey right there because she falls on him.
01:45:49
Speaker
But then Stu sees that Sydney is gone and so is her dad. How did Sydney drag her dad and into the bathroom without them hearing?
01:46:02
Speaker
and she did it so quickly too. But yeah, she... She's calling the house line and poor Stu, he's like coughing up so much blood and he's just like, man, I'm hurting right now. so It's cool because of how he starts to steal the show with this scene.
01:46:25
Speaker
And this is where he's really starting to ad-lib to. When the gun is missing and Courtney Cox has it and he's like, Houston, we have a problem. That's ad-libbed.
01:46:36
Speaker
There's the moment where Billy throws the phone at him. That was an accident. He was supposed to throw it at the table, but the phone stuck to his hand and hit him in the head.
01:46:48
Speaker
And Matthew Lillard stayed in character and was like, you threw the fucking phone at me. or something like me like that me with the phone dick that's so iconic that was great the line where he's like my mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me that's ad-libbed and then the last one i took note of is where he hops on sydney is like i always had a thing for you sid that was ad-libbed so this guy every like iconic line this character is known for basically came from matthew lillard he like injected this final sequence with
01:47:26
Speaker
so much life. i I mean, he's a gem. He really is. You couldn't have had this ending in the way that it is without Matthew Lillard. i love all of the scenes with him in it. he's He's goofy. He's just so crazy out there. And the fact that they made him one of the killers was such a fucking cool spin because it's like you you were expecting it just by how he talked his behavior his boots and then you're like no he can't be it because you know he's he's too stupid he's just you know whatever but him being you know just a crazy teenager
Iconic Ghostface Mask Design
01:48:10
Speaker
just
01:48:11
Speaker
helping out his friend and joining in on his sick, devious plan to kill people, he literally looked like he was in there for the fun of it. And then once it started becoming real, like, fuck, man, I'm hurting. I wasn't supposed to be hurting this much, you know, whatever.
01:48:28
Speaker
and then it started to, like, hit him, like, you know, my mom and dad are going to be so mad at me. I love all of his lines in there. Fucking amazing. One thing too about Matthew Lillard's character specifically and his turn on Billy, it's, it's almost like these characters, they, they've been subjecting all of these other people to so much like pain and horrific things, but it's like they themselves have not been subjected to on the other end of the violence. And it's almost like when they feel what it's like to actually have the knife insert in them, like something in them changes
01:49:07
Speaker
But also from Wes Craven's perspective, what he said he was trying to go for is in this moment, Stu has always idolized Billy for his capability to commit all of these horrific acts.
01:49:23
Speaker
And in this moment after Stu's been stabbed and is actually in pain, he's starting to kind of realize, oh, Billy isn't this person that I've been idolizing in this moment. Like, he's just as vulnerable.
01:49:38
Speaker
He doesn't really care about me. He doesn't have a plan. So Stu kind of, like, organically just makes this natural, this turn against Billy, which I really...
01:49:52
Speaker
I like how that ended up working out. Like there is something about that stab that does change Stu fundamentally for the rest of the movie. Yeah, because you do see the way he looks at Billy is different because Billy's like, give me the knife. And he's just like, no.
01:50:11
Speaker
And you could see like Stu, even in his eyes, it's just different because, yeah, he's not looking at Billy. There was a part where he kind of hands him the gun like in a. Like a presentational kind of way.
01:50:26
Speaker
exactly. But now this time he doesn't even want to hand over the knife because he's like, no, if I do that, you're gonna stab me again um um out of spite. So, yeah, you can definitely see that bleeding into it. And then when
01:50:44
Speaker
Billy's going crazy looking for Sidney. He gets distracted by the bathroom when um one scene of Halloween and is playing. and Then Sidney busts out in the ghost face costume.
01:50:56
Speaker
We can start talking about the mask, but she stabs him with an umbrella. but Then one of the times when she stabbed him, i guess she missed the protective vest that he was wearing.
01:51:07
Speaker
So she actually stabbed him. So that scream that he made was real. it You could feel it It looks like she hit him in the fucking collar. Right? That was painful to fucking watch. Almost the neck.
01:51:23
Speaker
Because they said the mask was very hard to see out of. Yeah, the mask, these masks already existed before the movie, and they were a part of a line of masks at a Halloween store called Fantastic Faces.
01:51:36
Speaker
And the name of this mask was specifically the Peanut-Eyed Ghost, but they changed it to Ghost Face later on to make it ah ah sound a bit more scary. But it came in a bunch of assortments of colors.
01:51:50
Speaker
You could get in, like, orange, white. They originally wanted it in white, but one of the producers, was like, how about black? but that Black would look a bit more scary. But yeah, they wanted just something that anybody could buy at any store. And Bob Weinstein kept trying to get them to add fucking teeth to the mask. And thank God they didn't do that.
01:52:12
Speaker
But yeah, it could have turned out very differently. But yeah, just a little side detail about the mask. I thought it was kind of interesting. Yeah, that is. um i i even remember one time in junior high, my history teacher, she made us do like a project every fucking month. I hated it.
01:52:32
Speaker
And
Gail's Heroic Actions and Film's Conclusion
01:52:33
Speaker
then for Halloween, we were doing Day of the Dead and My family had a bunch of masks around, and so there was one that was like a wolf that I gave to my friend.
01:52:50
Speaker
the This other girl that was in our group, she dressed up as like... a pixie fairy some stupid shit. So I was like, all right, whatever. And then I was setting something up and I had a mask that was like a version of the ghost face mask.
01:53:07
Speaker
And it's funny because as soon as I put it, put it on and turned around, like everyone fucking gasped because they were all scared compared to the like wolf mask that I had my buddy wear.
01:53:18
Speaker
So yeah, that mask, very iconic. Everyone knows it. Just looking at it, you can freak out. So it's a good mask. Yeah, I dig it. I've never actually owned or worn one like that before.
01:53:33
Speaker
and don't know if I ever will, but it's one of the most memorable parts of Halloween for me as a kid was seeing that ghost face mask just completely detached from Scream itself as a movie.
01:53:47
Speaker
It's very cool. Yeah. One thing I did want to shout out, we kind of went past it a little bit, but earlier on, Gail Weathers, when she pops in with a gun, she has a line that I really like and kind of foreshadows how the actual movie will end.
01:54:05
Speaker
But when she's got the gun pointed at him and she was like talking about you know going through all the events of the movie and she was like, Gail... uh journalist gail weathers saves the day and then sydney's like i like that ending i don't know i i wish i remembered word for word what it was but i really really liked gail and everything she had to say in that moment the news reporter left for dead comes to stumbles upon you two dipshits or whatever finds the gun foils your plan and saves the day i know that's not word for word but it's pretty close i'm sure of that It's pretty close, closer than I got. Then Sydney's like, I like that ending.
01:54:45
Speaker
yeah i I didn't even think of that being like foreshadowing, but yeah, it is because what was it? Randy comes back, Billy punches him, and then she or wait no two comes back first.
01:55:04
Speaker
and yeah like yeah she like siney is running away in the house Yeah, they have a full-on chase. That's when he's like, oh, I've always had a thing for you. i got to say, too, I really like that the climax is nobody in the ghost face costume. It's these two guys ah ah just fully exposed. I thought that was a cool route to take.
01:55:26
Speaker
Yeah, that is. It makes it like... You want to say less scary because now you know who it is, but that makes it more intense to watch because you're like, okay, it were like the killers were just these two teenagers that we started to grow attached to a little bit.
01:55:49
Speaker
Yeah. It makes it darker for me because it's like it's two people, your boyfriend and someone who was in your friend group, like people who you've known for a long time.
01:56:01
Speaker
They were probably at like her mom's funeral consoling her when all of that happened. And now Stu's on top of her trying to kill her being like, I always had a thing for you, Sid. It's very twisted.
01:56:15
Speaker
Yeah, and even um in the beginning when Randy was trying to say like, oh, you know, did Stu go over and kill Casey Becker? But Tatum was like, no, Stu was at my house.
01:56:29
Speaker
So, okay, you know, they were, you know, doing their thing and then... Billy went to Sydney's house after to you know and try to stir up some fun between them. so It's like you guys just committed a brutal murder and then just went to your girlfriend's house and you know tried to do the devil's tango or it did do it in Stu and Tatum's case. and Yeah, definitely makes it more twisted because they weren't affected negatively about that at all.
01:56:59
Speaker
But so then after all of that, Sidney ends up dropping a TV on Stu's face. And part of me wonders if that's the last we'll see of him. We don't get a definitive, like, dead body. So a little bit of me is like, maybe we'll get more Matthew Lillard. I don't really know.
01:57:17
Speaker
But then after Stu's done, this is where... Is this the moment where Billy gets rammed with a the umbrella and all of that?
01:57:32
Speaker
No, that part happened already when I was explaining he got he got stabbed for real. That happened before Stu dies? Yeah.
01:57:42
Speaker
He pops back up and punches Randy because Randy is alive and was talking to Sydney. And he's trying to choke Sydney. So thank God I'm still virgin. Yeah, yeah. Billy is now choking Sydney and then says, you know, say hello to your mother. But she...
01:58:02
Speaker
has the gross idea by putting her finger in his little wound hole right there in his chest. I love that. I love that so much.
01:58:13
Speaker
So he screams, he's about to stab her, but then Gail pops up and then shoots Billy. And then they have to shoot him one more time because Randy is like, hey, this is the part where...
01:58:24
Speaker
Yeah, she comes to save the day. Gale Weather saves the day. He comes back for one final scare. Billy like screams like a generic jump scare.
01:58:36
Speaker
And then, yeah, Sidney's the one to administer the final bullet in his head. and then They have one last jump scare.
01:58:46
Speaker
you find out that Dewey's still alive because all the ambulances are there and they're pulling Dewey out on the stretcher. i had a feeling when I was watching that, part of me was like, that feels like a reshoot or like Dewey probably tested really well with audiences and they thought to themselves, okay, we need to have something to signal that they're still alive.
01:59:13
Speaker
But yeah, Wes Craven thought about that day of like, let's just get something to let the audiences know that he was alive. So it didn't even make it to test screenings. That was a Wes Craven like on set type of realization that they need to keep him alive.
01:59:27
Speaker
Which was a ah ah great fucking thing because he is one of my favorite characters in here. Dewey, I love him. Love him to death. That last shot too of Gail Weathers talking.
01:59:41
Speaker
So that's supposed to be sunrise. They filmed it. It's actually sunset. They had one shot to do it. It was their last day of filming at that location. And they wrote all that dialogue in the moment.
01:59:52
Speaker
They had one take to do it. They told Courtney Cox, You have to nail it. You have to learn all this right now and get it. And they pulled it off and they got it before the sunset and they played it off as sunrise. I thought it was pretty cool. Again, this movie is like all the best movies are lightning in a bottle where things just come together and they're made with just people problem solving as opposed to the big studio budgets and money being thrown at problems.
02:00:20
Speaker
That's such a cool fucking fact because looking at it now, it does... i don't know like how, but it does kind of look more like sunset instead of instead of sunrise.
02:00:36
Speaker
Oh my God, I love that. i love that so much.
Reflection on 'Scream's Influence and Future Plans
02:00:41
Speaker
But yeah, overall, this fucking movie is just... Amazing. what What is your favorite kill scene in here? i want to have that be in all of our episodes, our favorite kill scene. What is yours?
02:00:54
Speaker
All right, favorite kill scene? I wish I knew this beforehand. I would have been better prepared. So if any of the deaths are open game, including Stu and Billy, I'm to go with Stu. That's my favorite death.
02:01:10
Speaker
Really? The TV to the face. Yeah. If he's even dead. I don't know, folks. I haven't seen the sequels. Right? Yeah, I think I like Drew Barrymore's death the most just because of how much it scared me when I first saw it and just insanely drawn drawn out it was. They could have easily just like broke into her house, killed her hung her well before her parents got home, but no, they wanted to toy with her and play this little cat and mouse game.
02:01:46
Speaker
And then fucking ended up killing her and then hanging her. So, yeah, she has ah very intense scene to watch. But yeah, overall, this movie is such a fucking classic.
02:02:00
Speaker
the The Drew Barrymore death is probably the ah ah objectively the best kill in the movie. i It's the most iconic in the whole series, I'm pretty sure. It's the one that I'm the most familiar with from the outside looking in.
02:02:16
Speaker
So that's not a bad pick. i I really just loved Matthew Lillard in that final moment. So when we're counting, when you're saying the death scene, I'm imagining that whole last, like from the kitchen all the way to the TV, smashing his face and all the ad lib stuff. I'm like,
02:02:34
Speaker
lumping in there but when it comes to execution and from a technical perspective and all around just an audience punch to the face the drew barrymore one is probably the one that takes the cake any final thoughts on the movie before we wrap up the episode I loved it.
02:02:52
Speaker
So I've watched it three times in total right now, the first time years ago, and then two times in preparation for this podcast. And I truly like have become inspired by this movie. There's a movie that I've been working on and,
02:03:08
Speaker
my own time, like a horror script that I've been writing and watching scream. I didn't realize, you know, I wasn't too familiar with it, so I didn't lift any ideas, but I didn't realize how indebted to scream. My idea actually is And i have really started paying attention thinking what is this movie doing that really works and I found it really inspiring I have grown an attachment to it since we you know in the past couple days i've I think I'll be re-watching this often i love the characters I'm really excited to see them return one thing that this movie and watching the commentary kind of put in my head a little bit was that
02:03:53
Speaker
A lot of people think that horror brings out some type of like grossness or some type of bad behavior in people. But this movie is kind of about how horror actually brings out fear in people.
02:04:09
Speaker
The reaction is fear. The reaction isn't violence. And I kind of really appreciate that there is a horror movie out there, even though it's what, 30 years old were approaching.
02:04:20
Speaker
Even though this movie is pretty old, I'm glad that there's something that exists and existed in the time that was kind of putting this in front of people's faces, especially coming from like a household where I did where we weren't allowed to watch horror.
02:04:33
Speaker
It really is nice seeing something where it's like, hey, this isn't evil and kids can enjoy it. There can be a takeaway, but the takeaway isn't necessarily violence.
02:04:44
Speaker
I originally was going to say i appreciate this movie more than I love it before I started these rewatches, but now I have a total change of heart. and i really This is one of the best movies we've covered for the podcast, I think.
02:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, it was necessary and just going forward, it's all going to be a fun ride. I say that for all the films, but yeah, Scream, definitely very popular franchise and again, one that I truly, truly love.
02:05:18
Speaker
so Yeah, everyone just stay tuned for the next episode. We'll be covering Scream 2 next week. Don't forget to rate us five stars. Let us know what other movies you'd want us to cover. Just stay tuned. We got a lot of fun things coming up. Yeah, leave us a five-star rating maybe and say what you would like to hear us talk about. And, you know, that is a very effective way. We will listen to the five-star ratings if they, you know, we'll we'll let that sway us potentially.
02:05:49
Speaker
Won't throw off our schedule, but we'll listen. We'll really pay attention closely. But, yeah, so hopefully you guys can do that for us. We've been Morbid Curiosities. Whisper to a screen.