Nit-Picking: Scream

*SPOILERS*

I love movies, but what I love more is nit-picking them. I don’t care if it’s the best movie in the world I will still nit-pick it. It’s just something I enjoy doing.

So, I’ve decided to share my nit-picks with you and the movie I chose to nit-pick first is one of my favorite horror movies – Scream.

Let’s get right into it. The first scene I’m going to cover is the opening scene with Drew Barrymore’s character, Casey.

The scene has a few things I’m going to pick at.

First, why in the hell wouldn’t Casey call the police after the third phone call from the killer? Instead she engages him in conversation about scary movies, yeah because that’s normal. Let’s talk to a complete stranger, who has a creepy voice about horror movies. Why isn’t she seeing any red flags here?

Casey continues to talk to the killer, not knowing it is the killer, and he then says “I want to know who I’m looking at”, she immediately tries to bust him on it and he quickly covers it up. We then hear a dog barking outside. She gets freaked out and then hangs up the phone on the killer. Yet, does she call the police now? NO!

The phone continues to ring and the killer goes from being calm to hostile. Casey now becomes frightened and tells the killer she is two seconds away from calling the police. Um, why didn’t you call the police already? Why are you two seconds away? Why aren’t you on the phone with the police right now?

The killer doesn’t seem fazed by her threat in calling the police, because he explains that they’ll never make it because they’re out in the middle of nowhere. Well that’s great; you know they would have made it if you called them sooner, like when the creepy voice called you for a third time. Yeah if you called then and said I’m being harassed instead of talking to him about horror movies there might have been a chance for you.

Getting further into the scene, the killer tells Casey that she can save her life and her boyfriends if she answers his questions, questions that turn out to be horror movie trivia.

This part is always fun to pick at; Casey is able to get her first question right, correctly answering “Name the killer in Halloween?” The killer then asks for the killer in Friday the 13^th. Without thinking she jumps to her answer saying Jason, which is wrong. Even though she claims to have seen the movie 20 times; either Casey is a complete idiot or she never seen the original Friday the 13^th.

Now, let’s analyze this question. We all know that the killer in Friday the 13^th is Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother. The killer goes onto say that Jason doesn’t show up until the sequel, which is very wrong. Yes, Jason doesn’t start killing until Friday the 13^th part II, but he shows up at the very end of Friday the 13^th, he jumps out of the lake. So, the killer would be wrong too. If Casey knew that she might have been able to beat the killer at his own game. I mean the killer doesn’t even use Pamela’s full name, he just calls her Mrs. Voorhees. Does the killer know Mrs. Voorhees full name? These are the questions I’d be asking the killer.

The killer then asks what door is he at and the chase begins.

In my Scream 4 review I discussed the Ghostface mask. I said “First, why in the hell are people still running away from Ghostface? Haven’t people learned that the Ghostface mask has limited visibility? Come on I know everyone has tried one on by now, they’re all over Halloween stores in October. I’m surprised Ghostface isn’t running into more walls. Just find somewhere to hide and stop screaming.”

That is what people need to do in these movies. But they don’t.

Casey is able to get out of her house and instead of running like hell; she finds it more enticing to look in the windows. This makes the killer spot her. What she should have done is run and hide in what looks like a cornfield right next to her house. Why wouldn’t she do that? Hide in the corn until the killer becomes frustrated and looses interest.

The scene comes to an end and Casey dies, because she did nothing right.

The next scene introduces Sidney and Billy. Billy sneaks into Sidney’s room through a window, nothing much in that scene.

Then we make it to Woodsboro High School and we see Gale Weathers, with a name like that why isn’t she a meteorologist? That’s not the thing that strikes me with Gale though; the thing that strikes me is her bright green or yellow outfit. Who in the hell told her that looks good? Why would someone wear that?

Moving on, we see Sidney get interviewed by the police and the principle (aka Fonzie) who touches her face in a creepy way and we’re introduced to all the main characters. We have Stu, Randy, Tatum, Sidney and Billy. All right lets move onto the killer’s next appearance.

The killer comes around again at Sidney’s house and she falls in the same traps as Casey. First of all when the killer first calls Sidney she assumes that it’s her friend, Randy, who happens to be a horror movie fanatic. She doesn’t call the police she just continues talking to killer not even seeing the threat here. Let’s review what has just happened in this town, two people were just violently murdered! Come on Sidney just call the police, even if it turns out to be your friend, just call them to be safe. That would be the logical thing to do, but this is a horror movie.

Sidney continues to talk to the killer, challenges him and then gets chased around by him. And after all that Billy shows up in her window and drops a cell phone. Do we really need anymore clues that he’s the killer?

Billy is then arrested and interrogated by the police. The police ask him about the cell phone, obliviously, and he responds that everyone has them. Um, this movie was released in 1996. I was in school and no one had a cell phone, people didn’t really start having cell phones to school until after 2000. It could have been different in other places, but that’s what it was like where I grew up.

After all this Billy is cleared and Sidney runs into him at school, a scene that makes Billy very inconsiderate.

Billy’s whole goal in this movie is to get Sidney to sleep with him. Sidney won’t sleep with him, because her mother was brutally murder only a year ago. Billy finds this frustrating and when they run into each other at school, after the arrest thing, Billy tells Sidney that it’s time she gets over it. Really? I mean come on man, her mother was murdered. He then goes onto compare her situation with his, yes Billy’s mother is gone too but she not dead she just left him and his father. SO, really these two situations aren’t the same and Billy doesn’t see that. He does eventually apologies but the damage is done buddy.

After that the killer is still at large and so the police set a curfew on the town, to keep everyone safe. Yet, Stu is having a party and invites everyone and everyone shows up. Again, really? Do any of their parents know that a psychotic killer is at large? Did all these kids sneak out? What is wrong with the people in this town?

The final scene of the movie goes on for 40 minutes and to Sidney’s defense she really puts up a great fight, better then the one before and a lot better than Casey’s.

Now after the killer chases her around we final get to the confrontation between Sidney and the two killers Stu and Billy. This scene I love to nit-pick the most.

OK, so in this scene Billy and Stu explain that all the killings really stemmed from Billy’s mother leaving him and he blamed Sidney’s mother, that’s why he killed her and wants to kill Sidney. They then explain how they kidnapped Sidney’s father, cloned his cell phone so they can make calls and are eventually going to pin all the murders on him. It sounds like a solid plan but they forgot one thing, they aren’t wearing gloves. They are touching the knife, the cell phone, Sidney’s father and Sidney leaving their finger prints behind. So, it doesn’t matter if Sidney won or not these two idiots would have gone down anyway after the police dusted for prints.

Then another thing that always bothered me was why they chose to purposely stab themselves, to make it look like they were attacked, before they killed Sidney and her father. Don’t get me wrong I’m glad Sidney and her father live, but these two killers seemed to have a plan but in reality these two guys really have a problem with executing that plan logically. Stabbing yourself is only giving Sidney and her father an upper hand, only shooting yourself in the foot some more.

The last thing that bothered me in this scene was when Billy and Stu explain how they formed their plan, by watching horror movies. OK, but you can’t say Pamela Voorhees first name in the opening scene? And why are they asking their victims the simplest horror movie questions? Why can’t they ask harder questions? I mean if you studied horror movies for a long time then you should form questions that are complex. If I was in Scream I would survive, because not only can I answer their simple questions I would avoid the following: going to a party when a killer is running around, making noise when hiding from the killer (remember the killer is as blind as you in the dark and the mask makes it harder for them to see, so find a hiding place and shut the hell up), never assuming that the creepy voice is one of your friends and realize in a situation like this that everyone is a suspect!

With all nit-picking aside, Scream is a very good movie. It’s well written, directed and acted. It’s one of the better slasher movies and should be seen by anyone, not only horror fans.

Follow this link http://jamesentertainmentedge.blogspot.com/2008/10/31-days-of-horror-scream.html to find out more of my thoughts on the Scream.