This week we got the Scream franchise and while Andrew and most horror fanatics don’t think this movie is scary, I didn’t trust myself, so I had him watch it. After reading this, I thought this movie was very confusing and at some points dumb, however it also seemed pretty interesting, so I’m excited for the rest of the series, even though I won’t be watching it. Anyway, here is the first movie in the franchise, Scream.
The movie starts off with a girl answering a phone call. It was the wrong number so she hangs up only for the guy to call back to say sorry for calling the wrong number…who tf does that shit..anyway, she hangs up again and starts making popcorn when the phone rings again. This is when we find out there’s more to these phone calls because the man on the phone asks for the girls name and when he’s questioned as to why he wants to know, he says “I wanna know who I’m looking at.” Now personally that’s when I would’ve called the police but this b*tch just keeps hanging up and goin back to making her popcorn like wtf. The person on the phone, who we can now assume is our killer, continues to play mind games with popcorn girl. There’s a knock on the door when finally she decides to say she’s calling the police…only to continue talking to the killer and not call the f*cking police..like seriously stop talking to the killer on the phone and call the d*mn cops. This is when she “threatens” our killer with the fact that her boyfriend is gonna come over and “beat his ass.” Surprise, surprise, the killer already has her boyfriend, Steve, tied to a chair in her backyard. Our killer, “Ghost Face,” then puts popcorn girl through a little test until she gets one question wrong so Ghosty decides to kill ol’ Stevie right in front of his girlfriend. After this first kill, Ghost Face asks popcorn girl “what door am I at,” and proceeds to throw a chair through her back door and then head on in to kill popcorn girl. Now, our girl winds up getting outside the house unnoticed and she’s got a knife now too, she spots a car and takes off for it but not before Ghost Face gets to her and takes her out. That’s when we find out the car that was approaching belonged to her parents. Of course she gets killed literally JUST as her parents get home, color me surprised. Her parents see the house in complete disarray and proceed to head back out to the car to get the police, upon leaving the house they see their daughter, bloodied up and hung from the tree in their front yard.
Now we cut to our main character, Sidney Prescott, as she sneaks her boyfriend, Billy Lumis, in through her window. The two proceed to get handsy, as people usually do in horror movies, before Billy boy leaves.
Then we arrive at Sidney’s school where the media has set up camp to report on the murdered teens, the ones from earlier. This is when we meet Sidney’s friend group, Stu, Randy, Tatum and, of course, Billy. Tatum’s brother, Dewey, is a police officer who’s helping with the murder cases. They sat around talking about the killings before Sid heads home. She winds up on her couch watching the news, this is where we see the reporter, Gale Weathers, talking about the killings.
Next, we cut to Sidney sleeping when..her phone rings..but it’s okay, it’s just Tatum calling to say she’s on her way over, they hang up and Sid tries to relax before the phone rings again. She picks up thinking it’s Tatum again but that’s when we here that familiar voice saying “Hello Sidney.” Now, Sid doesn’t know who’s on the phone and she thinks it’s her friend Randy playing a prank on her but she quickly finds out, it ain’t f*ckin Randy. Our killer tells Sid that he’s outside on her front porchso, naturally, she goes outside to take a look. Luckily he was bluffing and there’s nobody on the porch, but it’s clear that our killer is still watching Sidney. Sidney basically tells Ghost Face she’s tired of his shit and threatens to hang up. This is when we find out that Sidney’s mother is dead, presumably murdered as Ghost Face says “do you wanna die Sidney? Your mother sure didn’t.” Sid then says “fuck you” to our killer, never a good idea, and heads back inside, locking her door. Just as she turns the lock, the closet door behind her opens, revealing..Ghost Face. He makes a move and tries to stab Sid but she fends him off and contacts the police through her computer. That’s when Billy climbs in through her window and hugs her before dropping a cell phone. This leads Sid to believe he’s the killer and so she runs away out the front door to come face to face with the Ghost Face mask. As it turns out it was just Officer Dewey holding the mask, for some reason at eye level facing the front door? Anyways, the cops show up and arrest Billy under the suspicion that he’s the murderer. That’s when Gale shows up to report on the incident and we see that she can be kind of an ass. She’s rude to her camera guy and it seems she only cares about getting a juicy news story, no matter what.
Now we’re at the police station where the cops are questioning Billy. He, of course, denies being the killer before being told that he’s going to be held at the station until they can pull his phone records to confirm that he didn’t call Sid. Tatum shows up at the station to comfort Sidney and take her to Tatum’s house. Gale Weathers also shows up to further report on the incident and she gets an “interview” with Sid, who promptly sends her fist right into Gale’s face before walking away.
The girls arrive back at Tatum’s place and are about to go to sleep when Tatum’s mom comes into the room and says there’s a phone call..for Sidney..I think we all know where this is headed. Sidney picks up the phone to hear “Hello Sidney” once again, showing her that Billy isn’t the killer as he’s still at the police station. Ghost Face taunts her and, upon being asked who he is, ends the phone call with “don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough, I promise.”
The film cuts to the next morning where we see Sid and Tatum watching the news about a man named Cotton Weary, the man that killed Sid’s mom. They shut off the television and Dewey enters, stating that Billy was released due to the fact that his phone records came back showing he never made the calls. The girls head off to school with Dewey in his police car where Sid immediately gets bombarded by a reporter asking how it feels to have almost been killed. Like, who tf asks these questions. After this little encounter, Sidney walks over to Gale and talks to her about Cotton Weary. Why? Because apparently Cotton might not actually be the murderer, Sidney believes he is but Gale seems sure that he’s innocent. Gale then implies that the true killer may still be on the loose and that the murder of Sidney’s mother might be linked to the recent killings. The encounter ends with Sidney walking away and Gale gushing about how she might’ve just found the story of a lifetime.
Sidney heads into school and encounters Billy, the two get into a fight and we cut to the principal yelling at two students who were dressed as Ghost Face. This scene ends quick and we’re back to Sidney, she’s using the bathroom when she’s hears someone call her name, only there’s nobody else there. Or so she thought, as she looks around the empty bathroom two boots come to the ground in one of the stalls and the real Ghost Face jumps out at her. Sidney gets away yet again. Officer Dewey shows up to the school and winds up talking to Gale, the two seem to flirt but, knowing the bit that we do about Gale, she’s probably just trying to use him for information. The two’s conversation is interrupted by the school’s principal announcing that school has been closed until further notice and there is a city wide curfew that’s been placed by the police department. Sidney and Tatum are leaving the school when Stu shows up and tells them he’s throwing a party. He and Tatum convince Sidney to go before we get another look back at the principal. He’s messing with the Ghost Face mask when he hears a knock on his office door. He opens the door to see nobody there and proceeds to look through the whole office before being stabbed several times by our killer.
After that fun encounter, we’re back with Sid and Tatum chatting at home. At the end of their talk it’s revealed that the two are being stalked by Ghost Face, hiding in the woods. Stu and Randy are talking at the DVD shop about whether or not Billy is the killer. Randy still thinks Billy might be responsible but Stu offers another idea, perhaps it’s Sidney’s father. This talk leads to Randy screaming “EVERYBODY’S A SUSPECT” and saying that it’s definitely Billy. Billy hears him say that and grabs Randy by the shirt and basically just scares the hell out of him.
Sid and Tatum go grocery shopping and we see that they’re still being followed by the killer. This is when we find out that the person who’s apparently been making these calls is, in fact, Sidney’s dad. Kinda weird how Stu said that literally like a scene or two before this, maybe it’s a coincidence but, I don’t believe in those when it comes to horror movies lol. Anywho, Dewey takes Sid and Tatum to Stu’s party, after the two girls go inside Dewey hangs around the premises to keep an eye out for any trouble. He then sees Gale and the two head into the party to check things out, leaving Gale’s camera man alone in their news van while ominous music plays.Gale and Dewey make it inside where we see Gale hide a camera in the house. That’s when Tatum heads into the garage to get some more beers for the party-goers and she gets locked in. The lights go out and so she opens the garage door only for it to stop halfway and go back down. Tatum turns around and sees someone dressed as Ghost Face standing by the door switch. Tatum thinks it’s just Randy screwing around so she makes a few jokes before the killer cuts her arm. She gets her arm free of his grasp and tries to fight him, hitting him with a few glass bottles before making a beeline for the cat door that’s attached to the garage door. She tries to squeeze her way through but gets stuck. Ghost Face sees this and decides to open the garage door, effectively killing Tatum.
People start to leave the party when Billy shows up out of nowhere wanting to talk to Sid. The two head upstairs to talk and then we see Gale and her camera guy back in their news van watching the party go on. Sid and Billy are talking about what’s going on in her head and whatnot before they wind up having sex. Meanwhile, downstairs, the kids that are still at the party are gathered around the TV watching what appears to be Halloween. This is when Randy goes on his rant about the rules on how to survive a horror movie, all of which are being broken by literally everyone at that party but it’s fine I guess.
Dewey knocks on the door of Gale’s van and asks if she wants to take a walk up the street to check out an abandoned car that was reported. The kids at the party get a call letting them know that the principal has been killed and so they all leave the party except for Randy, and of course Billy and Sid, who are both still upstairs doing the deed. We cut to Gale and Dewey walking along the road before the crazy teens from the party speed by, forcing the pair to dive off the road. The two share a kiss and find the abandoned car, which happens to belong to Sidney’s father. Dewey and Gale rush back to the house where Sid and Billy have finished up their act. Sidney asks Billy who he called while he was locked up and the two proceed to argue about how Sid still thinks he’s the killer before the real killer enters the room behind Billy and stabs him to death. Sid tries to escape but Ghost Face is one persistent SOB and chased her through the house, cornering her in the attic. Sid makes a desperate move and climbs out onto the roof before being grabbed by Ghost Face, struggling to get free and then falling off and landing onto Stu’s boat. She gets up and looks up to see Tatum’s body and the fact that Ghost Face is no longer in the window.
The killer winds up downstairs and he’s about to kill the completely oblivious Randy before hearing Sid screaming outside. Sid hides in the news van with the camera man when the camera guy gets out of the truck only to have his throat slit by the murderer. Sidney takes off again and then we cut back to Dewey and Gale arriving at the house. Dewey heads inside to clear the house and make sure the killer’s not inside while Gale runs to the van to call the police, discovering blood all over her van and on the ground beside it. Randy scares Gale and she takes off, revealing that her camera man’s body was on the roof of the van. As she’s driving off, Sidney rushes out onto the road calling for help and Gale swerves off the road, barely missing Sid and crashing into a tree. Sidney runs back to the house and sees Dewey come out the front door, Sid starts to run to him but Dewey falls over, revealing he’s been stabbed in the back.
Sidney locks herself in Dewey’s police truck when the killer reveals to her that he has the keys. He starts to unlock the doors to toy with Sidney before sneaking in through the trunk and attempting to choke her. Sid gets away, yet again, and runs back into the house when Stu and Randy show up, both trying to convince Sidney that the other (Stu and Randy) is the killer. Sid locks them both outside, I should also point out that she has a gun at this point. Sid sees Billy try to crawl down the stairs, she helps him up and the two head for the front door. Billy tells Sid to give him the gun, which she does, for some god forsaken reason. That’s when Billy opens the door and Randy rushes in saying that Stu’s gone mad. This prompts Billy to turn and say “We all go a little mad sometimes” pointing the gun at Randy and shooting him in the shoulder. Billy reveals that he never got stabbed at all, the “blood” on him was just corn syrup. This is when Stu walks in and uses his voice changer to say “surprise Sidney,” revealing that there are TWO Ghost Face killers.
Stu and Billy play mind games with Sidney, telling her that they framed Cotton Weary for the murder of her mother. They tell her they were the ones that killed her mother, and it was all because Sid’s mom slept with Billy’s dad which made Billy’s mom leave.The two then pull Sidney’s father out of a closet, announcing their plan to frame Mr. Prescott for all the murders. They stab each other to make it look like they were also attacked and Billy tells Stu to get the gun. Stu goes to grab the gun only to see it’s gone, taken by Gale. She stands and tries to shoot Billy but the damn safety was on so Billy just grabbed the gun and kicked her to the ground. He’s about to shoot her when they see that both Sidney and her father are gone. Sidney took the voice changer and calls Billy, turning the tables and telling him the police are on the way. It’s made pretty clear through all this that Billy is the psychopathic mastermind here cause Stu asks Sidney if she really called the police, she says yes to which he replies “my mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me” while crying. Like what the fuck lmao. Billy is looking through the house for Sidney when she busts out of a closet and stabs him with an umbrella. Stu then makes a dash at Sidney, who winds up dropping a television on his head. Guess what though, Billy’s still alive. He winds up overpowering Sid and just as he’s about to stab her, Gale shoots him. It looks like he’s dead but, of course, he’s not and he makes a move to get up just before Sidney puts a bullet between his eyes. The film ends with the victims being taken away in ambulances and Gale reporting on the end of the killings.
One thing I love about this movie is that the killer isn’t some superhuman force to be reckoned with. It’s just two high school kids in costumes and that’s pretty clear as they’re so easily fought off throughout the movie. I’d say the one thing I learned from this movie is, if you get a wave of relentless, weird ass phone calls, call the police.
Next movie: Scream 2
Gabriella Dragone 