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Carmelo Musacchia

Dr. Tabitha Clark

ENGW1111

November 9, 2022

Do You Like Scary Movies?

In a time of genre uncertainty, the phrase, “Do you like scary movies?” became

recognized across the country. The Scream franchise was able to revamp slasher horror films

while repeating their plots. With credit to award winning director, Wes Craven. Craven is a

horror film fanatic, directing many movies in the genre with notable names like; A Nightmare on

Elm Street (Flemming). Craven was nominated for a Saturn Award for his record-breaking film,

Scream (1996), and won an MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Movie (“Scream”). The Scream

franchise contains five films, the first being released in 1996, the most recent in 2022, with

another one releasing in 2023 (“Scream”). Each film starts with a gory murder of at least two

people (preferably teenage women) and end with a final battle between Sidney and the ghost-

face killer (Harvey). Sidney Prescott played by Neve Campbell is the face of the Scream

franchise and launched her career because of it. Campbell won seven awards from the franchise,

including a Saturn Award for best actress (“Scream”). Co-staring in the Scream franchise is Gale

Weathers played by Courteney Cox. Cox is a worldwide name being nominated for 39 awards

(“Scream”). She is notoriously known for her starring role in arguably the country’s most

successful sitcom, Friends. Other notable names in the franchise are, Drew Barrymore, Emma

Roberts, David Arquette, Liev Schreiber, Jada Pinkett Smith, Kristen Bell, Laurie Metcalf,

Shenae Grimes-Beech, Anna Paquin, and Anthony Anderson (“Scream”). Scream (1996) had a

worldwide gross of $173,046,640, which held the record for any slasher film until Halloween in
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2018 (“Scream”). However, not every scream movie poised this success. Scream 4 (2011) was

by far the franchises least successful film. Scream 4 had a worldwide gross of $95,989,590,

which is 43 million less than their second lowest grossing film (“Scream”). The first three

Screams acted like a trilogy, while Scream 4 seemed like a completely different franchise. In

addition to far more gory stab scenes and a lot of new cast members, Scream 4 (2011) took a

different approach to technology and gender than the rest of the franchise, especially Scream

(1996).

Within the first fifteen seconds of watching Scream (1996), one will notice Barrymore’s

bright blonde hair, dark red lipstick, and bright blue eyes (Craven). The director wanted to make

Barrymore fit the “dumb blonde” stereotype. Barrymore kept receiving calls from an unknown

caller with a dominant male voice, who kept making threats. But Barrymore continued to answer

the phone, cluelessly, and was only alarmed until threats of her being watched were made.

Barrymore tried to stand up to the killer by yelling, “Listen, asshole!” but was shortly interrupted

by the killer aggressively yelling, “No, you listen you little bitch! You hang up on me one more

time and I’ll gut you like a fish, understand!” (Craven). As they continued to exchang dialog,

Barrymore brought up her boyfriend and stated, “He’s big, and he plays football, and he’ll kick

the sh*t out of you!” (Craven). The director wanted to make Barrymore not only seem dumb, but

also helpless. Her continuing to entertain the unknown caller shows a lack of awareness to her

surroundings.

Later in the film, the friend group is gathered at Stew’s house for a party. Stew asked his

girlfriend Tatum to get him a beer from the garage. Tatum does not hesitate to do so. Tatum is

pictured in a tight green shirt, and a vibrantly colored skirt. She has bright blonde hair, and an

outgoing lipstick choice. Tatum has an interaction in the garage with the killer but assumed it
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was a joke. Tatum spoke to the killer in a sexual begging tone and stated, “Oh you want to play

psycho killer? Can I be the helpless victim? No please don’t kill me Mr. Ghostface, I want to be

in the sequel.” The tone of her voice was sexual as if she was “acting” for her boyfriend. Tatum

is standing on the lower side of the staircase, while the killer stands on top. History depicts the

high ground as the stronger position. Tatum looks about half the height of the killer, and

extremely thinner. The camera angles point back and forth between their faces. The angles show

Tatum looking directly up to the killer, and the killer looks straight down at Tatum. Once again,

the girl is subject to the male. Although it is not known the killer is male, the pitch-black uniform

the killer wears, screams masculinity.

Craven took a different approach to gender roles in Scream 4 (2011). Aside from having

a dominant women cast, men are portrayed with a lesser role, and are depicted weakly. While

Sidney and her sister’s family are introduced in the film, there are no males considered. Sidney

and her sister do not have sons or husbands. The only new significant male characters introduced

are Jill’s ex-boyfriend who does not receive much screen time, and two nerdy film geeks who are

not perceived as “masculine.” Jill Roberts played by Emma Roberts takes the main role in

women empowerment. In the final act Jill stated, “You think you had a sh*tty boyfriend Sidney?

Here’s one that f**ks you, dumps you, and doesn’t even make you famous.” (Craven). Emma

laughs and kicks Trevor as she says this. In this scene Trevor is showed on the ground with duct

tape around his mouth, hands, and feet, as he squirms to break free. While Emma is depicted

standing above him, the camera angles show her looking down on him as he begs for mercy.

Emma is shown wearing a plaid, button down collared shirt; a casual outfit that does not attract

much attention. In this scene Emma has all the power. She is depicted as the alpha, and her

cocky attitude shows no signs of weakness. As she claims she was treated poorly by her
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boyfriend this was her revenge, reversing the roles for the worst. The constant angle of her

standing over him shows his weakness, as well as their facial expressions. Emma is vicious and

laughs at Trevor while he pleads for her to spare him. Her outfit draws no attention to herself and

her body parts like the outfit Tatum was wearing in her death scene of Scream (1996). In

Emma’s scene she takes the role of the masculinity that consisted in Scream (1996).

Another scene in Scream 4 (2011) that depicts women empowerment is a scene involved

with Gale Weathers, played by Courteney Cox. Cox is shown walking in the police department

office, directly to the back of the office to find her husband who is in a meeting. But as Cox

walks down the office, licking her fingers, multiple male officers get out of their seats to greet

her with smirks on their faces. Cox does not even turn her head to acknowledge them but decided

to just say their names. Cox walks down the hallway with swagger as if she is important. She

wears a bright purple dress that points all eyes to her in a boss like way. Dewey is in a meeting,

but she tries to barge past an officer outside the door, stopping her from entering. Dewey ends

his meeting for Gale as Gale states, “Dewey, would you explain to Betty Crocker that I have

every right to be here?” (Craven). Gale then slams the door shut on the officer. Gale says this

with emphasis behind it, and Dewey’s body language suggests he is flustered to even see Gale.

Craven once again makes the female the alpha in this scene giving Gale the power over Dewey.

Scream 4 (2011) gives females a much more enticing role. They have no fear of standing up to

the men and overpowering them. They conduct these actions with attitude and confidence. But

Craven did not make this too difficult due to the cast he included in Scream 4 (2011).

Gender is not the only theme between these two films. Although there are certain

technological staples in the Scream franchise, Craven allowed technology to evolve in his films.

The sound of a cell phone ringing became iconic in the franchise. Most films start with a cell
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phone ringing. Throughout every Scream film, the ghost face killer always uses a device to mask

their voice. The tone of this device is a well-known factor in the franchise. It is one of the

technological similarities between Scream (1996) and Scream 4 (2011). But there are also many

differences. Around the time Scream’s (1996) release, many people around the world had home

phones with cords attached to them. But with the way Craven directs, he knew this would be an

issue. When the ghost face killer calls one of their victims, ghost face wants the victim to be on

their toes, scanning every inch of their house, locking their doors, etc. With a cord attached to the

phone, this would be impossible. For example, when Sidney was pictured on the phone with the

killer, the killer told her, he was on the porch. Sidney called his bluff and ran to the porch to let

him know she wasn’t scared (Craven).

Craven wanted to incorporate technology throughout the whole franchise, and in Scream

(1996), there is a little sneak peak of the use of technology in Scream 4 (2011). In the final act of

Scream (1996), Gale put a camera in the living room of Stew’s house to catch the killer. But yet

again, technology was not as advanced as the time of the release. Gale’s camera man stated, “I

got a delay, what did it take you to walk from the house, thirty seconds?” (Craven). This delay

eventually led to the death of her camera man. Craven knew technology was not as advanced and

did not try to change that with this touch. Craven wanted to take advantage of technological

difficulties during this time period to add to his plot.

But in Scream 4 (2011), technology was a center piece. First off, the film had a very dark,

and gloomy filter that is not involved in any of the other films. This filter exaggerated dark

hallways, and made the daytime seem depressing. In addition, the stab scenes in this film are

way gorier than the ones in Scream (1996). For example, in Olivia’s kill scene, there are some

very disturbing images. Olivia is stabbed an overwhelming number of times as blood sprays all
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over her room. The camera angle is pointed directly on her wounds as she is stabbed. When

Sidney later entered the room, the viewer easily notices every inch of the walls and ceiling

covered in blood. Olivia’s dead body was centered in the camera with her intestines hanging out

of her stomach (Craven). The gory stab scenes in Scream (1996) were what made the franchise,

but this took it to a whole new level.

But in regard to the killers, they revolved around technology. The killers decided to use

social media to live stream all their kills for the whole world to see. They tied this into social

media as well. One of the film geeks stated, “The killer should be filming his murders…for

innovation.” (Craven). Which the killer did. For example, during a class period every student’s

cell phone rang at the same time, in which they were all sent a video of their peer getting killed.

The killers also used technology to lure victims in. They can text the victim a location on behalf

of someone else and have them meet them there. Between the gory stab scenes, the loud cell

phones ringing, and the videos of deaths, Craven used gen z to his advantage, making Scream 4

(2011) relatable to many.

Scream (1996) and Scream 4 (2011) do not share the same plot that the first three

Scream’s did. The first three screams acted as a trilogy, while the fourth went on with its own

story. These two films still shared significant characters, but the themes differed. Craven

depicted Scream (1996) with dominating male roles, leaving women subject to men. While

Scream 4 (2011) was centered around women, using certain techniques to give women more

empowerment and a bigger role. Scream (1996) also consisted of a lack of technology, which

favored the killer. But Scream 4 (2011) was centered around technology as Craven tried to

emphasize more than just the physical image.

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Works Cited

Craven, Wes, director. Scream. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, 1996. 

Craven, Wes, director. Scream 4. Dimension Films, 2011. 

“Scream.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 20 Dec. 1996, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117571/. 

“Scream 4.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 15 Apr. 2011, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1262416/?

ref_=fn_al_tt_1. 

Michael Flemming. “The Buzz.” Variety Magazine. June 15, 1997.

Harvey, Dennis. “Scream 4.” Variety, Variety, 13 Apr. 2011,

https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/scream-4-1117945018/. 

Maslin, Janet. “Scream.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1997,

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/scream.html.