Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Cast: Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Drew Barrymore
Runtime: 111 mins.
1996
For being someone who claims to be a fan of horror, I feel poorly-versed in the history of the medium. Horror fans, even more than other subcultures, tend to display an encyclopedic knowledge of genre history and conventions. Maybe this impulse towards comprehensive understanding was in some ways birthed by Wes Craven's Scream.
The film simultaneously parodies horror tropes and enacts them, following characters who are constantly spouting horror film trivia and debating ways their lives are or aren't like movies. The first scene shows young, blonde, vivacious Casey (Drew Barrymore) having fun with a mysterious caller who asks about her favorite horror movies. It turns out the caller is a killer, and Casey is slaughtered, just the sort of thing that happens in the films they were discussing! Later on, a character is watching Halloween and imploring Jamie Lee Curtis Just look behind you! while Scream's masked murderer creeps up behind him--moreover, because of hidden camera shenanigans, a pair of other characters are watching him and shouting at their screen, Look behind you!
