Anna Daniels
Meta-horror has become about as mainstream as regular horror these days, but that wasn’t the case when Wes Craven terrified audiences with Scream in 1996. Before The Cabin in the Woods or Detention surprised audiences with the idea that characters in a horror movie could’ve seen a horror movie, Scream showed that even making the “right” decision in a horror film wasn’t guaranteed to save your life.
The opening scene of Scream is a masterclass in subverting audience expectations. It starts with Casey (played by Drew Barrymore, by far the most well-known member of the cast at the time) answering progressively creepier questions from a mysterious caller over the phone. The caller, Ghostface, quizzes Casey on horror movies with her boyfriend’s life on the line if she gets a question wrong. When she inevitably does, Ghostface kills her boyfriend, and then, in a horrifying sequence immediately after, murders Casey herself.
Beyond the shock value of immediately killing off Barrymore, the scene is absolutely brilliant in how it slowly builds tension around whether Casey, clearly aware of the horror movie tropes, will be able to use that knowledge to survive. Her failure to do so only sets Scream apart as a slasher film unlike any that you’ve ever seen, showcasing a potential that the actual movie never quite matches up to. Scream isn’t a bad movie by any stretch, but it never reaches the high of that opening scene for the rest of its runtime.
Written by: Looper
