The original “Scream” movie is a classic, but how does it hold up today? We’ll be looking mostly at costume design.
Neve Campbell plays The main character, Sidney Prescott. Sidney’s boyfriend, Billy Loomis, is played by Skeet Ulrich. Sidney’s best friend, Tatum Riley, is played by Rose McGowan. Tatum’s boyfriend is played by Matthew Lillard. Courteney Cox plays the snoopy reporter, Gale weathers. The movie takes place in the made up small American town of Woodsboro. The “Scream” movie, and the entire series, are horror movies.
This story begins with two parents coming home late from a dinner date, only when they park the car and get into their house, they find that their daughter is nowhere to be found. And the house is flipped upside down, windows smashed and pillows and lamps thrown about, the father deals with the Jiffy Pop that was left on the stovetop while the mother walks outside and lets out a bloodcurdling scream. When the father runs out of the house, there, dismembered and hanging from a tree, is their daughter. This opening scene is powerful, showing what lengths the killer will go to in order to kill their victims, and scare the rest of the town.
Then we meet our protagonist, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). Her and her friends are back at school, only this time there’s police and reporters. When she meets up with her best friend, Tatum (Rose McGowan), she asks. “What’s going on?” “Haven’t you heard? Casey Becker was murdered last night.” But that couldn’t be true, Sidney had sent the murderer of her mom to jail, this couldn’t be his doing, but who else could it be? This scene is important as it not only introduces the main character and her best friend, but it also gives the viewer some insight about Sidney’s tragic past.
Later that night, Sidney gets a phone call. From her boyfriend, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), he wants to come over because she’s home alone, and with the recent murder he’s worried about her. She declines saying that she’ll be fine, after saying goodnight to one another Sidney goes back to watching her movie. Then, the phone rings again. “I told you I’m fine Billy.” only when the voice on the other end responds, it’s not Billy’s voice. “Who is this?” “Why don’t you come find out.” She turns off the TV, and walks to her front door, looking out the window. “I’m on your front porch.” “Yeah? Well I call your bluff.” She unlocks the door and walks outside, only to be greeted by nothing. “Can you see me now?” she taunts. She hangs up the phone, and walks back inside the house. She shuts the door and locks it, only for a masked person in a black Halloween costume to throw open the side closet door, she screams and runs upstairs. She throws down a side table to try and slow the attacker down, she makes it to her bedroom and slams the door shut, moving a dresser in front of it to stop the attacker from getting in. She dials 911 and then there’s a knock at her window, she lets out a scream but it’s just her boyfriend, Billy. She lets him in and asks what he’s doing here, he says that he was just worried about her and after realizing the door was locked, he climbed up to her window like he does when her dads home. She realizes that he must have been the attacker, there’s no way he could’ve gotten to her house this fast. This scene is important because it shows us that Sidney isn’t afraid of our killer, walking outside of her house to see if there really is anyone there. It also shows us that she’s smart and quick on her feet, quickly running up to her bedroom and blocking off the door, and smart enough to realize that her boyfriend may be the one that actually attacked her.
After reaching the police station, they take Billy into custody and let Sidney go home with her friend Tatum and Tatum’s mom. But they can’t leave through the front door because of all the reporters and journalists, so they go through the backdoor, only to be greeted by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and a few other news reporters. She asks Sidney what happened tonight and when Tatum tells her to leave her alone, she doesn’t take no for an answer. “Well no offense but this could prove that your friend here wrongfully sent an innocent man to prison.” That’s when Sidney snaps and punches Gale square in the face. “Leave us alone.” This scene is important because it not only shows that Sidney has a breaking point and will act aggressively, it also starts a joke that lasts through the entire scream series, which is Gale getting punched in the face.
The costume design in this movie is amazing, from the outfits of the teenagers, to Gale’s reporter outfit. Not to mention the mask and costume of Ghost face. You may wonder how they were able to find the classic “Ghost face” mask, I mean it wasn’t a classic before the movie was released. In a IGN featurette which celebrates the film’s 25th anniversary, screenwriter Kevin Williamson actually revealed the origin of the mask. As it turns out they had originally found the mask in a box in the garage, noticing how similar it was to “The Scream ” painting by Edvard Munch, They then took that mask to production and asked for a mask that was similar to the mask from the garage. However the studio kept rejecting the various designs similar to the mask found in the garage. Finally they realized that they could just get the rights to the mask, and because it was already an established mask, it adds a bit of real world horror to the movie because it’s something a teenager could easily get their hands on.
Overall, the movie “Scream” definitely holds up today. It might not be some of the supernatural horrors that have been popular more recently, but it’s a slasher that will have you on the edge of your seat, and wondering “Could anyone at my school do this?” If you enjoy this movie, check out “Halloween” or “Happy Death Day To You”.
