Halloween is around the corner, and this year I took it upon myself to catch up on some scary movies I missed out on watching. I love a good psychological thriller, a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat right along with the characters. The thing I love most about psychological thrillers as a genre is that for the entire 90-something minutes, my brain is engaged, desperately trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
The Scream movies were good at doing exactly that. The original Scream movie, directed by Wes Craven, was an absolute masterpiece. Going from a classic 90s slasher-thriller to a 2020s Gen Z blockbuster, the movies became a franchise that everyone would enjoy for generations to come. After Scream 4, the franchise was passed onto Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, who directed Scream (2022).
The movies followed similar patterns as the original, opening with a scary phone call from a stranger on the other end with an ominous voice. The person who picks up the phone is at the mercy of Ghostface. The first act closes out and we are shown news spreading about the ‘famous killer Ghostface’ returning. Suddenly everyone is a suspect, which is one of the main rules in the movies. All acts follow a similar pattern: someone is snatched from the public eye, perhaps at a party, or in a dark corner, and then everything culminates in the near killing of a legendary character. And who ends up being the killer? A relative, close friend, or significant other, each with a motive to reclaim something. And then, the moment we've all waited for: we make it to the final act and Ghostface is revealed.
It certainly is fascinating they’ve kept us interested for so long. If you are someone who loves the Scream franchise, you have most likely been motivated to keep up. And for newcomers like me, I was hooked and watched all movies in under a week. How does it all stay so interesting?
A good psychological thriller knows how to manipulate you; that's where the intrigue lives. Not necessarily because we are being manipulated, but because we get attached to the characters and are eager to see everything unfold in the end. The Scream movies use elements like human connection as the foundation of their stories. I can think of specific moments in each movie where we are tricked into believing one thing, convinced otherwise, and then sent right back to square one. All of these moments are deeply connected to the characters.
The question I kept asking myself while watching these movies—and any horror movie really—was what is the motive? The Scream movies had a sort of realistic element to them, small town and infamous killer on the loose. This followed a real-life pattern—the ’80s and ’90s were an infamous time for serial killers such as the Night Stalker, John Wayne Gacy (the famous killer clown), The Gainesville Ripper, and more. The Gainesville Ripper was the serial killer who actually inspired the original Scream (1996) movie. So, what's the motive?
When I watched the first Scream movie, I had a hunch about who it was, but I really didn’t want that to be the fact. Then, to find out who the killer was working with, that hurt even more. Was there ever really true love between the high schoolers in this friend group, or are some people just born psychotic?
These movies introduce us to these fun, interesting and lovable characters, and then the killer ends up having been right in front of your face the entire time. Another interesting commonality among the Ghostface killers is that they seem to be one person in the beginning, but we eventually find out they are multiple people working together.
What made me go from one movie to the next was knowing that the story wasn’t over. The stories of each film's characters made me feel connect to the next movie. Then the one after that, and so on. Then, in 2022, when we were introduced to a whole new generation of characters, Tara (Jenna Ortega) and Sam (Melissa Barrera), completely new people, yet we were still connected. We still had reason to return, just like Ghostface does every single time.
Scream was good at making the villain a ‘lovable’ character. Ghostface became such an iconic symbol in the movies and beyond. I don't think there's another horror movie killer that parallels just how recognizable Ghostface has become. For many generations now, the iconic reveal has remained impactful. Granted, some were better than others. That didn't stop me from tuning in to see who Ghostface was time after time.
