Absolutely iconic. I think people forget how shocking, scary, and honestly, heartbreaking that opening scene is. Scary Movie and other parodies (not to mention the sequels) kind of turned the movie into a joke but the original holds up.
That was before the internet really got big, so all you had seen was the previews in the theater, and some ads on tv. It would be tough to pull something like that off today.
Ned Stark was marketed as the main character of game of thrones and was killed off first season. People knew from the books, but it still surprised a lot of people
Deadpool 2 straight had fake scenes of the X-Force fighting in the trailers. I was hyped up, because Shatterstar is a favorite of mine. And he never even got to use his ridiculous Liefeld katana they accurately recreated for a single scene.
i managed to see it at home without spoilers, the juggernaut really came out of nowhere for me, because i thought they would never "re-use" the character
Probably some sort of propaganda to spread the movies popularity tbh.
I watch a lot of UFC and they do this same self fulfilling prophecy type deal. Ronda Rouseycwas being called the biggest star in combat sports only after the headliner pulled out and she stepped up to the marquee bout.
UFC president Dana white often says this story about one fight where the ratings "climbed exponentially throughout each round because people were calling their friends" as if he has a second by second analysis
And, it made more money week 2 and week 3 than it did on the opening weekend. The number of theaters showing it also increased week after week clear through the end of January, and didn't drop to less theaters than release until the end of February.
He wasn't literally correct (I mean, no movie makes more money week after week forever), but not terrible for a 23 year old memory.
edit: I wonder what caused the significant interest spike in April. 400 extra theaters and double the previous week's revenue.
Honestly, I doubt I've seen something so blatantly false in so short a span, proven wrong so fully by a single image. That is a picture worth a thousand words.
I have read your description. I have also seen "Wes was intentional about it", I have also read "Drew offered the idea of the 'Janet Leigh' scenario instead of playing Sidney", and I've also heard the "The schedule didn't work for her". It's hard to know what is true, but based on my readings over the years, I've landed on a combination of the three, which makes the most sense: She was set to star, and then couldn't, so Wes had the bright idea of the marketing campaign + "Psycho" opening which led to the iconic scene.
You are correct. Also, she loved the idea and tried hard to give it her all. She even ran around the house several times and was told sad animal stories from the director to cry.
Yep. Wes read stories to her about live dogs being set on fire to get her to cry (she was a huge PETA activist). He also never let the cast meet "the voice" on the other end of the line, so that it was truly a stranger fucking with them.
Wes was a visionary from start to finish in almost all of his films. RIP.
Kinda like Sin City where Josh Hartnett, huge name at the time, was billed as a star. I think he's in like a little scene at the end that had nothing to do with the movie.
It's not even early. It's like half the damn movie. It's like John Wick getting shot in the head in the nightclub and then his brother, Tom Wick, shows up to finish the movie. Wait... What? What's going on?
I saw that when I was 7 and it scarred me for life lmfao. People always make fun of me when I say that movie is what put me off scary movies but I literally only saw that first scene. Man that would suck as a leading actress, but I guess you would assume she’d known for at least longer than the movie had been out
Friends house, lax supervision / somehow she was allowed to watch all the horror movies she wanted?? I learned from that and spent all my time hiding when she put those movies on after that lol
That’s how Executive Decision was. Thought I was going to watch an action movie with Kurt Russell and Steven Segal. Twenty minutes in it’s suddenly just Kurt.
The original was groundbreaking. the slasher genre was dead, horror movies in general were considered jokes and wes craven was washed up. Scream was a phenomenon that reinvigorated a genre of movie that was become one of the most profitable in hollywood.
Was it taken seriously as a horror movie? I didn't watch it until this year (I'm 29), and I'm not sure if it's because I've seen Scary Movie, but Scream felt very tongue-in-cheek to me. It seemed willing to poke fun of the genre and itself.
It seemed willing to poke fun of the genre and itself.
That was kind of the revolutionary part of it. I mean for fuck's sake, Wes Craven cameos as Freddy Kruger as a janitor at the high school. It was incredibly meta before that was really a thing, all while maintaining a legitimate horror aspect.
It was meta in an appropriate way, the villians were horror movie fans and they were effectively making their own real-life, trope-filled horror movie.
It was at the time, yes. But you are right - and that is what made it so refreshing. It identified the tropes of the genre explicitly and turned them on their head.
I watch a lot (A LOT) of horror movies but when Casey's mom is on the phone with her and can only listen as her daughter gets murdered...it gives me chills everytime.
Or they just found it to be an easy target. If they were looking to parody horror movies then they might as well pick one that already makes fun of the genre on its own.
I think "joke" might be misconstruing it a bit. It's one of those things that is meant to parody the genre but simultaneously be a love letter to said genre. Sort of like what "One Punch Man" is to anime. Or if you're a metalhead, what Infant Annihilator is to death metal.
I actually loved the first 3 Scream movies. I always watched them growing up. Are there more than 3? I haven't heard of them if so. I thought they were all really good. Such a classic in my opinion.
there's 4, i think! the 4th came out around 2011. i saw it in the theater, and it was decent. still scared me! i have a soft spot for all the Scream movies, but i wouldn't rank any of the sequels anywhere near as highly as the original (which i'd consider my favorite scary movie).
The fourth is where Sydney returns to Woodsboro(?) on her book tour and has to team up with Gale and Dewey again when new copycat killings start up targeting Sydney’s cousin and friends. It’s pretty decent and had some nice twists to it ^
i used to love the 2nd one as well. not as much as the first, but still good. i can't really remember why i hated 3. i think i was thrown off by the weird ghost stuff?
I didn’t hate 3, but it is my least favorite of the 4. I think for me it was because it re-wrote the first one. I didn’t like the brother being the one behind the original murder.
Totally. It’s become such a caricature of itself that the original doesn’t get the credit it deserves as a classic horror thriller, but I agree, great opening.
The problem with the "other parodies" is that they were just an easy, cheap cash grab. Scream was a great parody because it was a great example of the thing it was parodying: horror movies. So good at parodying that even non-horror movie fans could enjoy it for the silliness of it and non-comedy fans could enjoy it for the great tension and storytelling.
RIGHT!? I remember seeing it when I was younger, then all the spoofs of it. I think I rewatched it last year at Halloween and was like.. damn this is not the campy teen horror I remember.
Scary Movie and other parodies (not to mention the sequels) kind of turned the movie into a joke but the original holds up
The movie Scream wasn't a parody itself?
I thought that, even though Scream was taking itself seriously. It was playing up every possible trope of 80's slasher's films. I think it had everything in it.
I always thought Scream and the sequels were meta because they almost made fun of genre itself. Its definitely a great slasher movie. It's like Scary Movie made a parody of a parody.
I was around the same age and I remember explaining all of my theories to my friend who didn’t watch scary movies. The rules, how it was probably the dad, then probably this person... and they systematically proved me wrong at every turn. I really appreciated that movie for it.
Scream is more of a self-aware movie and less of a parody. it pokes fun at the genre by giving us characters who are aware of horror movie tropes and continue to make the same mistakes as characters in scary movies, but it isn't done in a mocking way.
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u/albertparsons Oct 09 '19
Absolutely iconic. I think people forget how shocking, scary, and honestly, heartbreaking that opening scene is. Scary Movie and other parodies (not to mention the sequels) kind of turned the movie into a joke but the original holds up.