Scream

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Every horror movie fan eventually recognizes the predictable tropes of that fright-filled genre: The killer’s-really-not-dead twist designed to make you jump. The black-guy-has-to-die rule. The fact that teenagers must be killed after having sex.

You know ‘em.

So did “Scream.”

This perfect-for-Halloween film is showing Monday night at Tropic Cinema as an entry in its Classic Fright Nights series.

Directed by frightmeister Wes Craven (“Nightmare on Elm Street,” “The Hills Have Eyes”) back in 1996, the film’s genre-friendly screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson (“I Know What You Did Last Summer”). Following this success, Craven and Williamson went on to collaborate on three more “Scream” movies.

These days Williamson is known for creating TV series. He came up with “Dawson’s Creek,” based on his hometown of Oriental, NC. He also gave us “The Following,” “Stalker,” “The Vampire Diaries,” and even “Scream: The TV Series.”

It was “Scream” that launched Williamson’s career. An out of work actor, he got the idea for the movie while housesitting for a friend. Nothing to do, he turned on the TV and watched a special on the Gainesville Ripper. Inspired, he cranked out a screenplay … and horror film history was made.

“Scream” pretty much reinvented the teen slasher movie. It’s very self-aware. The characters know what’s going on, because they are fans of horror films themselves. The frequent references to classic horror movies, and reversals of accepted horror clichés are fun to watch. 

The tone is set in the first ten minutes when a mysterious caller murders a high school student (Drew Barrymore) after she fails to correctly answer follow-ups to the question “What is your favorite scary movie?”

The story then focuses on Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends (Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, etc.) as more mysterious phone calls precede attacks by a scary figure they call Ghostface. A deputy sheriff (David Arquette) and a TV reporter (Courtney Cox) get involved. More people die.

“I don’t like horror movies,” Williamson says. “I hate them. But, if you can make emotional horror movies, I’m in. If I can care and root for the main character, then I’m in. I don’t like stupid stories about people I don’t know. There is a slew of low-budget horror films out there, where you just don’t give a crap. But, once in awhile, something will come along, like ‘Halloween’ in 1978, and there’s this one girl, Jamie Lee Curtis, who’s that young, sweet girl, in the midst of all of this, and you just root for her and feel for her, all the way through the chase scene. You have to figure out how to do that and care for the characters.”

Needless to say, Williamson’s favorite horror movie is “Halloween.”

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com