I am awful at picking favourites. In any category, I appreciate far too many things to be narrowed down into a single object of desire. But without a doubt, from the moment I first watched it as a child, Scream is my all time favourite film. And it doesn't even have any vampires in it. Don't talk to me about any of the sequels though, I pretend they do not exist. I have so may thoughts about Scream that I cannot even streamline them into a cohesive review, so instead here is a scene by scene analysis of things I find interesting :3

Home alone, Casey Becker receives a phone call from a stranger. She hangs up on him several times, assuming it’s a wrong number, before engaging in conversation. His voice is attractive, tone flirtatious, and it is easy to forget Roger L. Jackson also voices Mojo Jojo. They chat about horror movies, with Casey telling him she enjoyed the first Nightmare on Elm Street film, but the sequels sucked. Funny, considering director Wes Craven directed only the first in the installation. The stranger asks whether Casey has a boyfriend. Coyly, she lies in the negative, flirting back until he implies he can see her. She looks outside, but sees nobody. Unnerved, Casey hangs up. The stranger, or rather, Ghostface (Billy) calls back, tone no longer lighthearted.

“No, you listen you little bitch! You hang up on me again, I'll gut you like a fish! Understand?” he yells through the receiver, reminding me not insignificantly of Patrick Bateman, and evidencing for the first time his deeply misogynistic nature.

In fact, though Ghostface does kill men, his psychological torture is reserved for women, and his male kills are largely out of convenience.
Casey is understandably frightened by this, and threatens to call the police. Ghostface tells her they’ll never arrive in time, threatening her life and revealing that her boyfriend, Steven, is tied up on the patio. She looks outside again and sees Steve, who looks to his right and his left, hinting at there being two killers on either side of him. Ghostface (Billy) demands she answer questions about horror films to save his life. She answers the practice question correctly, but answers the real one wrong — stating Jason was the murderer in Friday the 13th instead of Mrs. Voorhees. From the onset of the film, Billy’s fixation on horror movie villains and their mothers is a constant theme. As punishment, Ghostface (Stu) kills Steve, gutting him so his entrails spew out of his body. He (Billy) then turns his attention back to Casey, asking him what door he is at. This, of course, is a cruel trick question, as one Ghostface waits at both doors. She refuses to answer, and in response, Ghostface breaks open the glass kitchen door by throwing a lawn chair at it. Casey escapes outside through the kitchen back-door, and sees her parents’ car coming up the driveway. Ghostface is right behind her, and we see clearly for the first time the now-iconic mask and black robes (originally white, but too similar to the KKK’s garb), but she manages to stun him by hitting him with her cordless and runs towards the car. He (Billy) catches her though, stabbing once before strangling her. Billy’s preferred MO is choking his female victims before killing them, in another reflection of his woman-hating nature. Casey’s parents return home, too far for her to catch their attention, though they later hear her wheezing final breaths through the still-connected receiver. Ghostface finishes her off, but not before she manages to unmask him, dying with a look of betrayed recognition on her face. On first thought, it’s a bit disappointing that this kill is by Billy and not Stu himself, which would have felt more impactful, but the implications of Billy killing both of Stu’s sexually promiscuous girlfriends is just as interesting. I don’t think Billy reciprocates Stu’s devotion, so likely isn’t acting out of jealousy, rather Stu is offering these women to him as a means of homoerotic bonding and proof of loyalty, as they penetrate her together with their phallic knives. Stu does get his turn too, however, desecrating Casey’s corpse by gutting her like Steve, before hanging her from a tree.. To her credit, Casey puts on a fair fight. All the female characters do, while the males are inert, despite being hunted far less relentlessly. Killing off the film’s biggest star within the first 12 minutes is certainly shocking, playing with audience expectations early on, and warning it is not a regular slasher, but it is certainly not new. This is exactly what Alfred Hitchcock does with Janet Leigh’s character in Psycho — a frequently referred to film in Scream.

The same night, Billy Loomis climbs through his girlfriend Sidney Prescott’s window in the style of Glen from Nightmare on Elm Street. Even on a first watch, this is incredibly suspicious. In fact, the film flaunts Billy's guilt at every opportunity, leading the audience to believe he must be a red herring. Sidney's father, Neil Prescott, hears her scream and tries to come into her room, but she blocks the entrance with her closet door, giving Billy time to hide. Sidney denies screaming and Neil informs her he is going away on a business trip, conveniently right before the anniversary of his wife’s murder and the Ghostface killing spree. In Scream, everyone is a suspect. Neil leaves, and Billy tells Sidney “I was at home watching television and uh The Exorcist was on, it got me thinking of you.” How romantic. In Abed Nadir-esque fashion, Billy complains about their almost NC-17 relationship transitioning into edited-for-TV tame. They make out a bit, but Sidney stops him when he gets too handsy. "See whay you do to me?" he says, though it's likely his excitement really stems from the murders he has just committed. Billy assures her, he’s not trying to pressure her about sex and respects her boundaries. A soft, tender cover of Don’t Fear the Reaper scores this scene, which is relevant because not only was it featured in Halloween, but for the pertinence of the lyrics themselves. “Don't fear the Reaper, baby I'm your man” Gus Black sings, in a non-diegetic confession. Indeed, the Ghostface costume (sold in-universe as Father Death) does resemble a Grim Reaper.

The next day, Sidney arrives at school, which is teeming with reporters, including Gale Weathers in her iconic lime green two-piece Versace suit. Her best friend, Tatum Riley, tells her about the murder of Steve and Casey, who as it turns out, sat next to Sidney in English class. Sidney is pulled out of class to be questioned by the police in Principal Himbry’s office, where he caresses Sidney’s face really uncomfortably. At lunch, Sidney hangs out with Billy, Tatum, Tatum’s boyfriend Stu and fifth wheel Randy, as the group discusses the murders. While all the potential killers, including Tatum, wear boots similar to Ghostface at some point in the film, here only Billy and Stu do. Additionally, only one of each’s leg is visible in the scene — Billy’s right and Stu’s left — hinting at the fact they are two halves of one whole costume wearing serial-killer. The boys discuss being asked if they enjoyed hunting because Steve and Casey were gutted. Tatum argues it’s sexist that girls weren’t asked because they could be the killer too. Of course, this sets her up as a suspect in a film we already know is about playing with traditional slasher tropes. “Casey and Steve were completely hollowed out, and the fact is it takes a man to do something like that,” argues Stu. He is prideful of his actions and sees such violence as an expression of masculinity, every bit as misogynistic as Billy. He then proceeds to gleefully describe the process of gutting someone. It is also revealed Casey dumped Stu for Steve. Stu is unhinged enough to be a prime suspect, yet the obviousness of it and the contrast between his manic way of speaking and Ghostface’s charming act over the phone is enough to make the audience dismiss him. Billy shuts him up feigning offence at his tactlessness, which in hindsight is obviously out of a valid concern Stu will give himself away.

“I didn’t kill anybody.” Stu says, unprompted.
“Nobody said you did.” Billy replies, giving him a pointed look.

Sidney returns home, and waits for Tatum to pick her up after practice, who she’s staying with since her father is away. She flicks through channels on TV, but they’re all related to the murders. The audience finds out through a report by Gale Weathers that Sidney’s mother was raped and murdered a year ago. Sidney falls asleep on the couch, and is awoken by the phone ringing. It’s just Tatum telling her practice ran late and she is en route. She gets another call, assuming it is Tatum again, but this time it’s Ghostface. He starts talking about scary movies, making Sidney believe it is Randy playing a prank on her until he makes a sadistic comment about her dead mother. She hangs up, upset, and bolts the front door shut. Unfortunately, this means she has locked Ghostface (Stu) inside with herself. He attacks her, but Sydney manages to get away. Of course, the locked door means she has to do what she criticised about horror movies only moments ago and “[runs] up the stairs when she should be running out the front door.” She hides in her bedroom, and the closet door from the previous night prevents Ghostface entering. She uses her computer to fax 911 right as Billy climbs through the window again. She embraces him for comfort, telling him the killer is in the house. A cell phone drops out of his pocket and Sidney bolts out of her room, to the front door. Billy is arrested, professing his innocence the entire time. At the station, Deputy Dewey, and Tatum’s brother, attempts to contact Sidney’s father, but he isn’t registered at the hotel he said he was staying at. Suspicious.

Sheriff Burke questions Billy, resulting in perhaps the funniest line when viewed in the 21st century: “What are you doing with a cellular telephone, son?”

Dewey has tracked down the mask but it proves not very useful as it is a commonly sold Halloween costume. It is licensed under the name “Father Death”, perhaps suggesting the killer could be Sidney’s actual father, who is nowhere to be found. Sidney leaves the station with Dewey and Tatum from the back to avoid reporters. Gale Weathers foresees this and ambushes Sidney. Sidney punches Gale in the face, and Tatum later echoes all our reactions: “‘I'll send you a copy.’ BAM! Bitch went down. ‘I'll send you a copy.’ BAM! Syd! Superbitch!”

Ghostface calls Sidney at Tatum’s house, exonerating Billy, and promising he will be back for her soon.

Dewey drops Tatum and Sidney to school, where Sidney is immediately hounded by a reporter. She sees Gale’s van also parked up further ahead and goes to talk to her. Gale believes Sidney misidentified Cotton Weary as Maureen Prescott’s killer, and the actual killer is linked to the current murders. Sidney hangs out by the lockers with Stu and Tatum before class, with Stu and wonders how Billy is holding up. Stu is checking his reflection in a mirror, focusing on the areas Sidney hit him last night. A kid dressed like Ghostface runs through the halls, and Sidney rushes off in frustration, bumping into Billy. He maintains his innocence again, and wonders when Sidney will get over her mother’s death, comparing it to his own mother leaving him. He got over it so she should too, Billy so understandingly says. Which is hilarious because this rat looking homo repressed momma's boy very much did not get over it. It’s interesting though, because he’s not trying to hurt Sidney in this scene, he’s just incredibly narcissistic and it bleeds into his perfect-boy facade. Obviously, Sidney doesn’t take that well.

In Principal Himbry’s office, he berates the two fake Ghostfaces. This is another nod to there being two killers, compounded by the fact that one of them is dressed identically to Billy in an earlier scene, with the blue flannel. The other prankster is quite tall and so is Stu, but that’s slightly less convincing as evidence. Sidney tries to compose herself in the bathroom, and hears a cheerleader gossiping about her. Turns out, Sidney’s mother had a reputation for sexual promiscuity, even before the murder. The girls leave, and another kid dressed as Ghostface jumps out at Sidney from one of the stalls. Based on the fact he doesn’t have a knife, nor seems particularly motivated to actually hurt her, it’s most likely another prankster. All this hysteria results in the school being closed, and a curfew being imposed on the city. Stu invites Sidney and Tatum to a party to celebrate.

The school is empty except for Principal Himbry and the janitor, played by Wes Craven and looking suspiciously like Freddy Krueger (his name is even Fred!). Himbry tries on one of the prankster’s masks making you wonder for a second if he’s actually the culprit (he certainly hates children enough to be), until he is killed by the actual Ghostface (Billy). Unlike his female kills, Billy doesn’t play with, taunt, or choke Himbry. He is not interested in powerplay or his fear, and kills him only to serve the plan. Thus, even his stabbing of Himbry is quick and perfunctory.

Stu visits Randy at the video store to invite him to his party. Stu genuinely seems to like Randy, they feel like actual friends just like Sidney and Tatum. Now that they’re not around the girls, Randy is comfortable enough to voice his own misogyny. He objectifies Sidney throughout, and hypothesises that Sidney is a target for Billy because she wouldn’t sleep with him, but also constantly maintains that rule # 1 of surviving a horror movie is not to have sex. For a woman, there is no winning – sexuality, whether too much or too little, is ample justification to be viciously murdered. After all, as Randy says, “there's always some stupid, bullshit reason to kill your girlfriend.” His movie-freaked mind does come in handy, as he correctly predicts Billy is the killer and Sidney’s father is a red herring. He even calls Stu Billy’s “little lapdog”, foreshadowing his role as an accomplice. Of course, it being spelled out like this makes the audience immediately dismiss this theory, and the film subverts this many times before finally playing it straight.

Dewey drives around the girls to get snacks for the party before curfew. At the supermarket, Sidney opens up to Tatum about her intimacy issues (“How many guys would put up with a girlfriend who is sexually anorexic?”), oblivious to the fact Ghostface (Billy) is spying on them. The Sheriff's department finds Ghostface’s calls were made from Neil Prescott’s phone, who is still nowhere to be found. He is now the prime suspect, which is highly uncomfortable considering the flirtatious conversations with high-school girls including Sidney herself. Sheriff Burke tells Dewey to keep an eye on her. Youth of America plays as he drops the girls off, which is an incredible song, and it seems as though every parent in Woodsboro is absent or neglectful, because Stu’s house is filled. There is a singular East Asian guy in the background of WASP kids, which amuses me to no end. Gale also arrives, using her acquaintance with Dewey to slip into the party and plant a camera into the living room. Stu, dressed like Hugh Heffner and in an approximation of toxic male patriarchal power tells Tatum to get him a beer from the garage. Even when he is not being violent towards women, he is sure to demean and objectify them in subtle ways. Later, he will repeatedly call Sidney “baby” when she suspects him of being the killer. Tatum obliges, and the camera focuses on her breasts as she descends the dark stairs. In horror movie terms, her death warrant is signed. It doesn’t help that she’s blonde, like Casey. The door closes from behind her, and Ghostface appears. For the second time, he is mistaken for Randy, “No, please don't kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel.” Tatum says, batting her lashes and Christening the killer for the first time. It’s not Randy though, and a fight ensues, with Tatum managing a couple of great hits and almost escaping, before Ghostface crushes her head in the garage door.

Billy arrives at the party, giving Stu another pointed look implying business has been handled, and leads Sidney to Stu’s parents’ room to talk. Randy sees this, and despite fully believing Billy is a killer, is more concerned by the fact that his chance with Sidney is gone. Upstairs, Sidney opens up to Billy about her anxieties about turning out just like her mother, and Billy is as emotionally intelligent as ever, comparing her trauma to Silence of the Lambs. In the living room, everyone is watching Halloween, which Randy pauses to explain the horror movie rules: 1. Never have sex 2. Never drink or do drugs 3. Never say “I’ll be right back.” Randy is standing in front of the television with Michael Myers’ knife pointed at his back, foreshadowing Ghostface’s knife hanging over him, but ultimately allowing him to survive. Stu breaks the third rule immediately, telling the group he’s going to get some more beer. Gale and Kenny are watching this transpire from their van through the planted hidden camera, incredibly bored. Gale is saved from the tedium by Dewey inviting her to check out a tip about an abandoned car. More guests leave the party, and when one asks where Tatum went, Stu feigns ignorance claiming she probably just got mad at him and bailed. Another red flag: surely he would have noticed her corpse in the garage when getting more drinks. Meanwhile, Billy and Sidney finally have sex, intercut with scenes of the group downstairs watching Halloween.

“Here comes the obligatory tit shot!” Randy exclaims, and it cuts to Sidney taking her top off. Billy steps in front of the camera, his back obscuring Sidney’s bare chest as they fall onto the bed. It’s a purposeful teasing of the viewers, with constant references to sexually explicit scenes within the genre suggesting the film will follow suit, but instead it cuts to the aftermath of the sex scene rather than exploiting it for fan service. Having witnessed how dehumanisingly female characters and their actresses, especially in horror, are treated by male fans, this is a welcome subversion of common tropes.

The phone rings, and Randy picks it up to discover Principal Himbry’s fate. The remaining guys leave, wanting to see his corpse, leaving Randy alone. Gale and Dewey find Neil Prescott’s car, and rush back towards the house. Sidney and Billy are getting dressed, when she asks him who he called when he was arrested. She’s still suspicious, clever girl. She almost pieces it together, but everything falls apart when Ghostface “kills” Billy. It’s so painfully obviously staged the second (or in my case, 1000th) time round: Billy turns towards Ghostface so you don’t actually see him getting stabbed, like some extra said a while ago “the blood's not the right color. [...] It's too red”, Billy’s shirt has no stab holes, the acting during his “death” is awful compared to Skeet Ulrich’s performance throughout, and of course you can actually see Ghostface wiping fake blood onto the blade. This all sets up Neil Prescott as the most likely killer. Sidney escapes out of the attic window and sees Tatum’s body. Randy is incredibly drunk, breaking one of his own rules, and watching Halloween, oblivious to the fact Ghostface is sneaking up behind him. Randy is played by Jamie Kennedy, and Laurie is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, so his calls of "Look behind you, Jamie!" are wonderfully meta. Ghostface (Stu) holds his knife above Randy for quite some time, but doesn't stab him, probably because he sort of likes him. Incidentally, this is also the only scene in which one of the boys’ actors is actually in costume, though it’s Skeet Ulrich and not Matthew Lillard despite this Ghostface being Stu. Sidney reaches Gale’s van, where Kenny lets her in and they watch the video feed together. Kenny forgets about the 30 second delay on the feed, because he rushes to help Randy, only for Ghostface to be right outside and slit his throat. He tries to attack Sidney again inside the van, but she escapes. Gale returns to the van, finds Kenny dead and attempts to drive to safety. Sidney tries to flag Gale down, causing her to swerve and hit a tree. Sidney returns to the house, hoping to find Dewey, and find him she does — with a knife in his back. Ghostface (Billy) pulls the knife out and makes for Sidney, who locks herself in Dewey’s car. Unfortunately, Ghostface has the keys. Even so, Sidney manages to escape and returns to the house, taking Dewey’s gun. Both Randy and Stu reappear, accusing the other of being the killer. Interestingly, Randy is the only one who suggests they need to leave the house, while Stu just wants the gun.

Sidney shuts the door on them both, which would give Stu plenty of time to kill Randy because he still has a knife, but he doesn’t. Because, I posit, he is vaguely fond of him. Not that he’d let Randy live if he got in the way of the plan, but he doesn’t seem to go out of his way to kill him. Surprise! Billy’s not dead. He stumbles down the stairs, and coaxes Sidney into giving him the gun. He opens the door, letting Randy in before the pindrop moment where Billy quotes Anthony Perkins in Psycho, saying “we all go a little mad sometimes.” (mommy issues, again) and shoots Randy. He reveals himself in his own psychopathic glory, and that the attack was faked. Stu walks in at that very moment, and Sidney collapses into him, momentarily thinking he can protect her. That is, until he reveals himself to be the other Ghostface. Two killers? Unheard of! They both corner Sidney into the kitchen and torment her, while Stu homoerotically nuzzles Billy. Billy claims its scarier when killers don’t have motives, citing Norman Bates as an example. Norman Bates very famously did have a motive though — mommy issues — and Billy immediately reveals his own similarly themed call to mass-murder. He sees Sidney as a stand-in for her mother, who had an affair with Billy’s father and in turn resulted in his family being broken apart. Billy doesn’t consider it might be his father’s fault for engaging in the affair, he places blame solely on women. Maureen, Sidney, even his own mother for “abandoning” him. “That motive enough for ya?” he asks, touching his blade to his lips in a frame as equally beloved by Tumblr gifsets by 14 year old girls as the corn syrup scene. This shocks even Stu, who looks surprised and a little hurt Billy didn’t share this information with him. Billy gestures to Stu (so much of their dynamic is Stu following Billy’s orders to please him), and the latter returns with former prime suspect Neil Prescott. Stu and Billy plan to frame Neil for the Ghostface murders, and the murder of his own daughter.

Instead of killing her on the spot like common sense dictates, they do the horror movie villain thing of leaving their victims unsupervised while they stab each other homoerotically. Remember the phallic knives? Stu yells at Billy to “get it up” and do it, which he obliges with the creepiest smile in the entire film. Billy keeps stabbing Stu, a lot more than is really necessary, and neither realises how debilitating their injuries are because they’ve only seen them in movies. The gun disappears just as they’re about to enact their grand finale, and Gale appears, aiming it right at Billy. Unfortunately, the safety is on, so Billy easily knocks her out. In the distraction, Neil and Sidney escape, and Billy’s true colours show under pressure. He can’t string together a single sentence without calling her a bitch. Donning the Ghostface costume, Sidney incapacitates Billy and kills Stu by dropping a TV on his head after he tries to attack her. Billy comes to and pounces on Sidney, strangling her. She sticks her finger in his fresh wound, fingering, for the third time, the wrong guy. Or, the right one, I guess. Gale shoots him and he dies pathetically. As per horror movie rules, Billy comes back to life right as Randy warns that’s what happens, but Sidney doesn’t give him a chance before shooting him between the eyes. The film ends with the revelation that Dewey is still alive, and Gale reporting live from the scene.

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