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what's your favorite scary movie?

Scream is a slasher franchise that includes six films and a TV series. For those unaware, "slasher" refers to a genre of horror in which a group of people are murdered, usually with a weapon that "slashes." Famous slashers include Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and Halloween. Those three films were released in what's commonly thought of as the "Golden Age" of slashers, generally 1970s-1980s. The first Scream film was released in 1996, and is thought to have revived the slasher genre.

Scream brought the slasher genre into its "post-modern" age, where films became self-referential--that is, the characters became aware of the genre's "rules" (don't do drugs, don't have sex, etc). This era also includes more "whodunnit" type stories than the classical era.

In general, the Scream film franchise follows a girl named Sidney Prescott as she is targeted by a series of killers who adopt the identity of "Ghostface." That's the guy in the black robes with the white (screaming) mask. The TV series has an entirely different storyline and cast of characters, with really the only connection between the two being the Ghostface costume.

scream (1996)

Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Kevin Williamson
Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy
Plot synopsis: High school student Sidney Prescott and her (fictional) town of Woodsboro, California are tormented by a killer who comes to be known as Ghostface, coinciding with the anniversary of Sidney's mother's death.

This movie was inspired by the real-life case of the Gainesville Ripper, in which Daniel Rolling killed eight people in Florida and Louisiana between 1989 and 1990. He was apprehended in September 1990 and executed via lethal injection in Florida State Prison in October 2006.

Drew Barrymore is strongly associated with this film, which I find really funny. Spoiler alert, her character dies in the opening scene, and is really never relevant outside of being Ghostface's first victim. To this day, when I tell people Scream is my favorite movie, I still get the reply: "Oh, the one with Drew Barrymore?" Good for her, I guess.
The actual reason is that Drew Barrymore was originally cast to play Sidney Prescott, and the film drummed up a lot of hyped around that. Last minute complications meant she could no longer do that, but she didn't want to abandon the project entirely.

scream 2 (1997)

Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Kevin Williamson
Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Jamie Kennedy
Plot synopsis: Takes place two years after the events of the first film. Follows Sidney Prescott and other survivors of the Woodsboro massacre at a college in Ohio, where they're targeted by a copycat Ghostface killer.

A couple of thoughts. #1: Danny Elfman worked on the soundtrack for this movie. Love you boo. #2: who the hell goes from California to OHIO. For COLLEGE. Hello???? That's the most unrealistic thing about all of this.

In actuality, the original 1996 "Scary Movie" script set Woodsboro (then Bayboro) in North Carolina, not California, which makes more sense. Not a lot of sense, but more sense. (read: who in their right mind would willingly spend time and money going to OHIO?!?1/1?!?!1?!?/???1!?)

Spoiler stuff inside

I think having Billy's mom be the killer is so stupid. Like, you're gonna try to kill Sidney so you can get revenge for your son being dead? Girlie, he wouldn't have started killing people in the first place if you hadn't left. Like, his sole motivation for killing Sidney's mom was because she slept with his dad which then caused his mom to leave. You chose to leave. That's on you, girl. Look inward.

scream 3 (2000)

Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Ehren Kruger
Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Patrick Dempsey, Parker Posey, Emily Mortimer
Plot synopsis: The gang finds themselves in Hollywood, on the set of the movie based off of the Woodsboro killings.

I just had a whole ass midlife crisis reading the Wikipedia page. Courteney Cox and David Arquette got married???? Hello????????

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scream 4 (2011)

Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Kevin Williamson
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Marley Shelton
Plot synopsis: What if Ghostface was a vlogger

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scream (2022)

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Written by: James Vanderbilt & Guy Busick
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Marley Shelton, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding
Plot synopsis: This is when we start introducing the new generation.

ngl when I saw "for Wes" when the credits rolled I teared up a bit.

scream 6 (2023)

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Written by: James Vanderbilt & Guy Busick
Starring: Courteney Cox, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding
Plot synopsis: Sidney's been booted out the door, and now we're in New York.

Neve Campbell didn't come back for this one bc of payment disputes. Also, guess who saw this one in theaters? It was me. Three cheers.

the title is stylized "scream VI" but if I do VI in the heading font it's ugly as hell, so we will refrain from doing that.

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