I will give thoughts, opinions and my reactions to the events of each film as well as the TV series, I hope you enjoy this blog as I have put alot of work into it ...
The master of horror Wes Craven directed the film and it starred a cast of young, up and coming Hollywood stars like Neve Campbell, Rose McGowen, Jamie Kennedy, Skeet Ulrich, Mattew Lillard and a Hollywood Vet in Drew Barrymore rounding out the cast with Courtney Cox and David Arquette .
Everything about this movie works and weather you admit it or not this movie SAVED an entire genre from death . The cast was perfect, the script was beautifully crafted by Williamson and everything just clicked and that showed with the box office success that the genre had missed for many years . This movie was the shot in the arm horror needed and it was at a time when it was needed more then ever .
This movie had an interesting story line and it didn't follow the formula that Friday The 13th had setup back in 1980 which even thought I love that film I needed something new . Wes Craven said in the commentary of the blu ray that Scream when you boil it down is a murder mystery just as much as it's a slasher movie which is something that made this movie DIFFERENT then the slashers of the past.
The kills were original, they didn't have to rely on nudity and dumb tricks to keep the audience interested they kept fans on the edge of their seats with a few tools that weren't used in the genre very often... STORY and PLOT .
They wanted people to watch the movie and try to figure out who the killer was instead of it being an escaped mental patient, a child molester, or a deformed freak etc. That is what made Scream brilliant .
We had all grown tired of Jason, Michael, Freddy and Chucky do the same (basically) thing movie after movie, yes even die hard fans like me got tired of it and the declining box office of each franchise reflected that now don't get me wrong I love the genre and the classics of the lates 70's all through the 80's and the early 90's but they were getting old and slowly killing our beloved genre until Ghostface came along and slashed and stabbed his way into horror fans hearts everywhere .
Many people complain that Scream had "too many" survivors and it didn't make sense but I disagree . You had the core three Sidney, Randy and Dewey and Dewy was crushing hard on Gale so he protected her that was basically it for survivors .
Moving on in the series they upped the Fear and horror by moving the story to a college campus and having Sidney and Randy going to school together . The kept the suspense about WHO the killer or Killers were until the end and the reveal was PRICELESS in my opinion . The kills were on point in this movie continuing the trend from the original film . The story revolved around Sidney and her struggles with the events of the past as well as her continued friendship with Randy .
Fan to this day 18 YEARS AFTER the films release still debate if killing Randy in Scream 2 was the right thing to do and I was pissed about it for a LONG time myself because I'm very much a Randy however if you think about it with the big picture of the movie it was the RIGHT call to make and here's why , what does Mrs. Loomis say to Sidney that makes her go from fighting mad to just full of blind rage? "Randy talked poorly about my Billy and I got alittle knife happy" Randy was the reason she fought back so hard to end this with Mr. Loomis that's brilliant storytelling and writing folks .
This movie is a big departure from the style of the previous two films in my opinion with the story taking place as sort of a movie with in a movie and a twisting and turning story that is basically that something you thought was true from the beginning was true at all .
This movie for all it's draw backs does an amazing job of tying up the loose ends of the story into an awesome trilogy with the reveal that Roman Bridger is actually Sidney's Half brother and he pulled the strings to have Billy and Stu kill Sidney's mother because she got everything that was supposed to be his again brilliant storytelling . While some of the kills were lacking in this movie I love the storytelling and the character development of the big three characters .
Scream 3 while it wasn't as big as the first two films in the series was an excellent way to wrap up the trilogy and close out the biggest modern horror franchise .
This movie was very well written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven . we had the same formula of young Hollywood coming into the franchise with Kristen Bell, Anna Paquin, Lucy Hale, Rory Culkin, Amee Teegarden, Britt Roberts, Marlee Jaffe,Emma Roberts, and Hayden Panettiere joining the returning Neve Campbell, Cortney COx and Daid Arquette .
While this film widely gets trashed and talked down about this film carries on the tradition of brilliant writing and amazing storytelling weather haters want to admit it or not .
Ghostface returns to Woodsboro to confront Sindey once again as she's now a best selling author of a book titled Out of the Shadows . The killing starts with the opening of several "Stab" Movies and shows how popular this series has become . Upon finishing with this interesting opening the real killing starts with Jenny Randell and Marnie Cooper (Maybe a relation to Cici Cooper from Scream 2) .
This movie is on point with the story like I said the kills were freakin' brutal and in many ways shot in a way that seemed personal to the killer(s) . I like the fact they nailed the technology aspect of this film with the killer(s) filming each murder and uploading it to the web to make them more famous and their work last forever .
Some say this movie tries too hard to make it seem like everyone is a suspect but I think it's very effective in doing that for example when Deputy Hicks is in the hall and explains that her and Sidney went to school together that was awesome another one would be when Sid walks into Jills room and sees Trevor there and it takes her back to the night Billy climbed through her window all those years ago making him look alittle shady . This movie is my second favorite of the series only because I LOVE the original so much !
Then came news that it wouldn't follow the movies in any way and that Wes Craven would act as Executive Producer on the pilot and series . After hearing this bit of news I knew they had something because I feel that Wes would never do anything to hurt the scream franchise .
The next piece of news shocked alot of fans including me that Ghostface wouldn't be the villain in the series and they were going to redo the mask to look different as well . This makes sense if you think about the news up until this pointy in time in that if the TV series isn't following the storyline of the films why would they use Ghostface or the costume, they needed something fresh and new for fans to sink their teeth into and they delivered in my opinion . The series follows many of the steps the film series does with hot young Hollywood stars filling out the cast along with a few horror folks in there as well.
The story is a twisting, turning tale of deception, lies and half truths as the tag lines goes "Everyone has secrets, everyone lies" . The story focuses on Maggie Duvall and her daughter Emma and their sorted past in the town of Lakewood as it relates to the local legend of Bradon James and horribly deformed boy who had a thing for Maggie and he always called her "Daisy" . Which is something else I want to comment on during the teasers and commercial leading up to the show they played a song that used the word Daisy alot and I was like "What the fuck does that mean" as the show unfolded I got it and it was a brilliant thing for them to do because it hooked us in .
The show starts out quick with a murder just like the films but then it's a slow burn to the big reveal of who is under the mask and more importantly WHY they were under the mask . I thought the reveal was awesome in the season one finale and unexpected . The writers kept us guessing from week to week we would have a prime suspect and them WHAM ! they would be brutally murdered !
Note : The fact that I was surprised at who the killer was says something because I've been able to pick the killer in all of the scream films
This season is picking up steam quickly and I love the pace of it and the new characters to the story like Emm's dad, Kerian's Aunt and cousin (who is a shady fucker) and the new love interest for Noah (This generations Randy) who is obviously hot for Audrey . I really love that they killed one of the "Lakewood Six" in the first episode that was huge and shocking to me . I think the influx of new shady characters will lend itself to the story in terms of guessing who the killer is .
I can't wait to watch the show every week it takes over my night, I just finished a binge watch of all six episodes of Season two and while I have an idea who MIGHT be the killer I'm not going to say here I will wait to see the finale .
I really hope they have the foresight to make this a trilogy and really do something different in terms of how a TV show works, especially a horror TV series . Scream which I didn't think could work in a TV series format is one of my favorite guilty pleasures and I never miss it and I often will rewatch each episode to see if there were any clues I missed moving forward . Who is the Killer and how much does Audrey know or should the question be how much does the killer know about what Audrey has done ?? Watch every week to find out !!
I'm a Proud Scream fan and I want to tackle a few things that people have been asking me lately before I end this blog.
1. "Did I make Mortis look like Ghostface on purpose" .
Yes I did because I wanted to honor Wes Craven, and how he inspired me to become a horror film maker the major difference between Mortis and Ghostface is Mortis doesn't have a face on his mask it's simply blank and the blank represents the darkness in all of our souls, no matter how "good" a person is there is darkness in all of us, that is what the Mortis costume is all about .
2. Did you take story / plot elements from Scream to write Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis ?
Yes I did, I have never and will never deny that fact but again it's not for a lack of creativity more of a way for me to honor the movie while changing things to fit my story . I LOVE the Scream franchise both the films and the TV series and if borrowing things from them is wrong in the eyes of the fans then call me wrong if you must . I know where my heart was in making those choices for my scripts, my films, and my franchise ....
STAY HUMBLE, STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS :)