SCREAM (1996) BREAKDOWN! Details You NEVER Spotted!

Welcome back to New Rockstars. I'm Eric. Voss and this is a breakdown of Scream, the 1996 slasher classic that reinvented. everything we know about modern pop. horror with dozens of winks by director. Wes Craraven and impressive attention to. detail that often goes overlooked. And. this video is sponsored by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes. launching your website a breeze. This is. a movie I rewatch every October. And. it's the first horror film my parents. let me watch as a kid. Or at least the. first one I got away with watching when. my older sister rented it from. Blockbuster. Remember Blockbuster? That.

was also a thing from the '90s. But this. movie totally holds up as an impressive. who done it with a ton of interesting. clues to dissect. All of them pointing. to how exactly the two killers work. together. And since I really have Scream. to thank for becoming YouTube's Randy. Meeks, I'm going to break down every. clue and reference and detail that you. might have missed. Okay. The film opens. on a ringing landline, which yes, totally dates the film, but this. specific generation of phone is crucial. to this scene and to Scream's function. as a '90s film influenced by a. generation of 80s slasher movie pop.

culture. Cordless landline phones were. only started to become a household. staple in the '90s, and cellular phones. were a tech marble used only by serial. killers. Apparently, this opening scene. wouldn't work quite the same with a cell. phone or a smartphone, a challenge. Scream sequels have really had to. contend with. We meet Casey, played by. Drew Barrymore. Barry Moore was the. biggest name in the cast in 1996, but. this was all by design. They wanted us. to go into this movie thinking we'd be. following her. We see Casey popping. popcorn, the first of many references to. the John Carpenter classic, Halloween. Popcorn is the same snack Annie makes,

and it gives this opening sequence a. natural tension because that foil just. gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Really, anytime you watch Scream at an. outdoor movie screen, some douche is. inevitably going to yell, "But what. about the popcorn?" We see Casey has. rented two VHS tapes, Halloween and. Children of the Corn 2. So, like Jaime. Lee Curtis, the star of Halloween, Drew. Barrymore was born of Hollywood royalty, too. Drew Barrymore was a daughter of. several generations of actors, including. Lionol Barrymore, the villain from It's. a Wonderful Life, and Jaime Lee Curtis. was a daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet. Lee, who played a similar role in Alfred.

Hitchcock's Psycho that Drew Barrymore. does here. Drew Barrymore wears a. platinum blonde wig as an homage to. Hitchcock, as Hitchcock had a pinchant. for casting blondes as his murder. victims. Hitchcock was actually quoted. as saying, "Just think of the shock. value killing off your leading lady. halfway through." I mean, you are. intrigued, are you not? I don't have a. great Hitchcock. Sorry about that. Like. Janet Lee, Drew Barrymore was featured. prominently in the marketing and shocked. audiences with an earlier than expected. death that made us think anyone in this. movie could die. The Scream series would. go on to kill a variety of other big. stars in the early minutes of the films. Drew Barrymore accidentally called 911.

for real while filming the scene because. the propmaster forgot to unplug the. phone. The voice on the other end is. actually actor Roger Jackson, whose. other most famous villain role is as. Mojo Jojo and the Powerpuff Girls. I. would pay all the money in the world for. a re-edit of this movie where it's. Mojo's voice onto the main characters. over the phone. You hang up on me again, I'll cut you. like a fish. Hold on. There's someone on the other. line. Is it some kind of joke? But the ghost face killer we later learn. is actually Billy and Stu working. together, two people. So, it really. reframes what's actually happening in. this opening sequence. Stu is a more.

savage of the two killers and slashes. more recklessly. He's actually the one. who kills Steve, the guy in the. Letterman jacket. Whereas Billy likes to. play games and it's more likely him. speaking over the phone. He tends to. strangle and weaken his victims before. stabbing them more ceremonially. So, it's him over Casey later, but it's. probably Stu who strung up Casey over. the tree for reasons we'll get to later. Actually, this whole cold open is. inspired by two early slasher films when. a stranger calls and Black Christmas. Both of these include scenes where the. killer taunts their victims over the. phone. Black Christmas even has a. villain in it named Billy. All of these.

movies though are ripping on the urban. legend, The Babysitter, and The Man. upstairs, which usually ends with the. famous stinger. The call is coming from. inside the house. Now, the call isn't. coming from inside the house here. technically, but you know, very near it. Casey and the killer move on to talking. about A Nightmare on Elm Street, and. Casey says, "The first one was, but with the rest. sucked.". Ah, yes. Wes Craraven, the director of. this movie, directed the first Freddy. movie, but none of the sequels except. West Craven's new nightmare in 1994. The. other movie he was directly involved. with was Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3, which he co-wrote. And it's worth. mentioning that part three totally kicks.

ass. Wes Craven went on to direct. Screams 2, three, and four. Apparently, he learned the lesson about turning your. franchise over to other directors. Then. we get to the big reveal. You never told me your name. Why do you want to know my name? Cuz I want to know who I'm looking at. What did you say? Ah, the dog barking in the distance. Perfectly timed because Casey now. suspects intruders are in the vicinity. and that's why the dog is barking. Suddenly, we all just become very, very. paranoid over how many windows and doors.

are in this house. Now, throughout the. sequence and throughout the whole film. really, Wes Craven uses these Dutch. angles and he keeps everything slightly. a skew combined with a wide angle. anamorphic lens which often squeezes and. warps the edges of the frame to kind of. create this funhouse effect which gives. us a sense that everything is off. balance. Like running from this killer. would be like running in a dream, just. difficult and sluggish and impossible. Before Casey learns that they've. captured Steve, actually, you can. briefly see his shadow silhouette. through the patio door glass in the shot. just to the left of her arm. And West. Craven sneaks in these little details.

It's all in plain sight just to give you. a sense of paranoia and dread as you're. watching it. Like, wait, did did I just. see something there? When Casey is asked. a trivia question about Halloween, you. can actually faintly hear John. Carpenters score for that movie mingling. in with the existing music. I can't. The killer asked Casey to name the. killer in the horror movie Friday the. 13th, and she incorrectly says Jason, when it's really Jason's mother, Mrs. Vorhees, who does all the killing in the. original film. Screenwriter Kevin. Williamson has said that he used this. question at bar trivia to win himself. free drinks. And anytime you see Kevin.

Williamson, buy him a drink because this. movie is perfectly structured from a. screenplay perspective. The killer asks, "What door am I at?". Now, while the question about Mrs. Vorhees wasn't really a trick question. because that is just the factual truth. of that movie. This actually is a trick. question because there are two killers. Both doors are currently covered. Now, according to Fangoria, the ghost face. mask was first developed for novelty. stores during the Halloween season. between 1991 and 1992 by Funworld. Its. design comes from Edward Monk's The. Scream and the film poster of Pink.

Floyd's The Wall. According to this. film's costume designer, it's meant to. look like someone screaming and crying. at the same time. But the man in the. Ghost Face mask in this close-up is. actually director Wes Craraven, who. apparently actually took a pretty hard. hit to the head with a cordless phone. while shooting. Craven will appear in. another iconic costume later in the. movie. But this shot of Ghostface. chasing Casey down is an homage to how. Leatherface chased his victims in the. original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Casey's muted cries for help are very. similar to those of Jimmy Lee Curtis's. screams in Halloween 2. Sometimes you're. so frightened that when you scream,

nothing comes out. Then this shot of. Casey being dragged along the ground is. an homage to a similar shot from. Dimension 13, the first movie directed. by Francis Ford Copala. It was produced. by exploitation master Roger Corman, whose filmography includes some of the. greatest movie titles of all time, including A Bucket of Blood and Slumber. Party Maser 2. Corman would actually get. a cameo as a movie executive in Scream. 3. Then the close-up of a hanged Casey's. face is similar to a shot in the movie. opening murder Dario Arento's Susperia. Casey's father tells her mother to drive. down to the Mckenzies, which is a nod to. a line from Halloween, where Jimmy Lee.

Curtis tells the kids to go down the. street to the Mackenzie. The Halloween. franchise repaid the favor in Halloween. H2O which includes the line drive down. to the Beckers. The Beckers being Casey. Becker's family in this movie. This. connection is extra strong because Kevin. Williamson was also involved in the. writing for Halloween H2O. He knew what. he was doing. Now, this movie draws a. ton of inspiration obviously from horror. movie history, but also from real life. Something that actually ties in with a. lot of those of us from the new Rockstar. staff. Williamson was actually inspired. by the real life story of the. Gainesville Ripper, a serial killer who. terrorized college students in 1990. That was in and around the campus of the.

University of Florida, where myself and. Brandon Barrick and Zach Huddleston all. met and actually did improv together on. an improv team. And we very much knew. the history of the Gainesville Ripper. Now, the original title for the movie. Scream was Scary Movie, which would. later be used for the parody series, but. the change was apparently made because. the producers were listening to the. Michael Jackson song Scream and just. kind of liked the title for a horror. movie. And we meet Sydney Prescott. She. locks her bedroom door by barricading it. with a closet door, which is a nice. little setup for how she locks out the. killer later. Billy Lumis climbs into. Sydney's window, similar to how Johnny. Depp's Glenn climbs into NY's window in.

A Nightmare on Elm Street. Billy Lumis. actually gets its name from two iconic. horror movies. Dr. Samuel Lumis in. Halloween. That's Michael Myers. psychiatrist. There's also Sam Lumis and. Hitchcock's Psycho, Marian Crane's. boyfriend. Billy tells Sydney, I was home watching television. The uh. the Exorcist was on. Got me thinking of. you. you know, all the good stuff was. cut out. Uh, this sets up his obsession with. violence and with scary movies. And the. fact that The Exorcist got him in the. mood, foreshadows, the character. definitely has a mental link between sex. and death. An acoustic cover of Don't.

Fear the Reaper by Gus Black can be. heard in the background. In addition to being a nice little bit. of foreshadowing as to who one of the. killers ends up being, don't fear the. Reaper, fear this guy. It's actually. another nod to Halloween. That movie. features the Blue Oyster cult version of. the song. [Music]. Interesting to note, the acoustic. version in Scream contains absolutely no. cowbell. Now, if you have an online. business, you're going to want to make. sure everything looks and works smoothly. before the holidays roll around, which. means right now is a great time to check.

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Community Center as most of this movie. was shot near and around Hilsburg, California. wine country where a lot of. homes really are spread out from each. other in the middle of nowhere. Originally, they were going to shoot the. high school at Santa Rosa High School, but the high school backed out of a. verbal agreement at the last minute, according to the movie's executive. producer, Maryanne Malana, which is why. the end credits include, quote, no. thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa City. School District governing board. And. even in this wide shot, immediately we. see Gail Weather's Courtney Cox standing. out with her neon green suit. This movie. actually uses a brighter shade of green.

as a way to highlight eccentric. characters who actually end up not being. the killers. Like with the case of Ry's. shoes. In the principal's office, we. meet principal Arthur Henry. His first. name Arthur being a reference to Arthur. Fonzerelli aka the FS from Happy Days. Get some great Happy Days shout outs. later. Now, the names behind Sheriff. Burke here are actually the names of art. department crew members on this movie. Like Art Williams was a carpenter. Kitty. Monte was a local lead person. Deborah. Echard was a set decorator. Richard. Lambert was a lead person. Josh Elliot. is an onset dresser. Michelle Pulk was a. set decorator. Charlene Bar was the art.

department production assistant. They. helped make all the blood and guts and. breakaway glass happen in this movie, which is why I listed all their names. because so much of what's great about. Scream is this crew. And the cop here is. actually played by Joseph Whip, who also. plays a cop in Nightmare on Elm Street. Craven has even said that the characters. could be one and the same, which would. suggest an insane shared universe. Actually, in a cut scene, Sydney types. her address as 34 Elm Street. There's. some really interesting foreshadowing. clues here in the scene by the fountain. Like Stu doesn't exactly hide anything. by explaining with creepy detail how to.

gut someone and how it would take a man. strength. All the characters are seated. in a way that their shoes are visible. Everyone wears lightly colored shoes. like Randy wears bright green ones, but. Stu and Billy both wear heavy black. boots. The shoes the killer wears. Stu. says, "I didn't kill anybody. Nobody said you. did.". Thanks, buddy. Yeah, this is a hint. between the killers that it wasn't Stu. who actually fatally stabbed Casey. It. was Billy. Stu was just the one who. strung her up. They wonder if the killer. could be a woman. Like in Basic. Instinct, that's a 1992 erotic thriller.

starring Sharon Stone where her. character kills victims with an ice. pick. Stone actually gets a total of. three shoutouts in this movie. And it. kind of feels like the movie's picking. on her quite a bit, but actually her. first major film role was back in West. Craven's Deadly Blessing, which is an. absolutely insane 1981 thriller about a. community of murderous Amish people. While the villain of Scream does not. turn out to be a woman in this movie, there will be female ghost faces later. on in the series. Sydney cautiously. checks her mailbox, still a little. nervous after Randy in the previous. scene said, "Did you really put her liver in the. mailbox? Cuz I heard that they found her.

liver in the mailbox next to her spleen. in her pancreas.". Ry's voice work being on her mind is why. she assumes it's Randy calling when the. killer calls. Are you alone in the house? This line's a reference to the 1978 made. for TV movie, Are You in the House. Alone? about a teenager who's terrorized. with threatening phone calls. Sydney. actually repeats this line in the final. act of the film when she turns the. tables on Billy and Stew. Are you alone in the house? While it's Billy on the phone, it's Steu. who savagely tries to kill Sydney in the. house. It's fun to just imagine Matthew. Lillard goofily taking all these hits.

Actually, listen closely as he chases. her up the stairs. Easy. It's easy. Another clue that this is Stew as he. will say the same exact thing to Tatum. by the lockers the next day. Easy. Now, Sydney actually uses a deaf typer. program to dial 911, which is a TTY. service that Sydney must have looked up. as a way to message people. She's pretty. clever. Now, the shot of Billy's face. here is a big, "Wow, this guy has got to. be the killer kind of framing.". According to Kevin Williamson, the idea. here for me is that I point the finger. at him so blatantly that the audience.

immediately knows, "No, he's not the. killer." Tatum arrives driving an old. red VW Beetle, which is a reference to. Stephen King's The Shining. Stephen. King's The Shining, not Stanley. Kubrick's The Shining. Because Jack. Torrren drove a red beetle in the novel. Kubri referenced it in the film. adaptation where a crushed red beetle. was involved in a snowy accident with a. semi-truck. People think that this might. have been shot at Stephen King by. Stanley Kubri since King wrote a first. drafted screenplay and Kubri essentially. rejected it because he thought it was. too literal of an adaptation of the. novel. Both Stephen King's book The. Shining and Stanley Kubrick's film The. Shining, both amazing works of horror.

fiction, but just very different things. Now, the costume packaging of the. Ghostface costume is actually labeled. Father Death. Craven said that this was. an intentional misdirection to make the. audience think the killer was Sid's. father. But Williamson never knew this. or meant that to be the meaning in the. screenplay. So Sydney sucks Gail. Weathers in the jaw and she saves the. night with Tatum who has on her wall a. photo of Grant Goodie. This is from the. 80s sitcom is Enough. An extended. version of the grocery store scene would. have actually included Tatum telling. Sydney that he was her sexual awakening. And when she was having sex with Stu, she thinks of this actor. Actually, speaking of Stu, it's obviously Stu is.

the killer who calls Sydney while. Billy's in jail, which is why he's less. gameplay and just more direct. An innocent guy doesn't stand a chance. with you. Now, it could be argued that Billy and. Stu intentionally got Billy caught so. that they could exonerate him with Stu's. call and the clear cell record and makes. Sid even more paranoid for accusing the. wrong man for her mother's murder. Lee. Shriber appears as Cotton Weary, the man. Billy and Stu framed for Sydney's. mother's murder. Cotton actually returns. in the sequel and in the opening. sequence of Scream 3. Another reporter. gets in Sid's face. How does it feel to be almost brutally.

butchered? This is a cameo by horror legend Linda. Blair from The Exorcist. Her crucifix. earrings suggested that she's still. looking to repel demons. Blair actually. worked with Wes Craven in the made for. TV movie Stranger in her house. The. novel that movie is based on features. the scene where a pet dog is killed. Craven actually changed to a horse for. his movie because he knew Linda Blair. loved horses and it would get a better. performance out of her. He actually. ended up doing something similar for. Scream, where he had dog lover Drew. Barrymore recall an upsetting dog-based. news story when she needed to cry on. command. At the locker, Stu checks out. his reflection in Tatum's mirror, trying.

to see if his scuffle with Sid at her. house left any bruises on his head. Stu. also mentions Candyman, a reference to. the 1992 horror film, another great. classic. Principal Henry gets extra. vicious with the two pranksters. And the. idea that there's two of them definitely. sets us up to consider the possibility. that it might be two killers working in. tandem. The kids walk home from school. looks very much like the Pasadena. sidewalks that served as Hadenfield in. Halloween. But perhaps the most. hilariously obvious reference in this. movie is this janitor named Fred dressed. as the OG Freddy Krueger costume. And. yes, it's a cameo by Wes Craraven. Not.

only referencing A Nightmare on Elm. Street, but the work of Hitchcock as. well, because Hitchcock always had fun. cameos in his own movies. We get a few. more Happy Days Fawns references. The. Fons's black leather jacket from Happy. Days hangs in Himry's closet. He's also. seen checking out his hair in the. mirror, a patented FS move. Now, Principal Henry is only killed here by. Ghostface because producer Bob Weinstein. felt the film had gone on too long. I. guess roughly 30 pages without a death, and somebody's got to die. The close-up. on Principal Himry's eye during his. death is an homage to the zoom out on. Marian Crane's eye as she stabbed to.

death in the bathroom by Norman Bates. and Psycho. Now, Tatum says that she. can't help but believe the rumors about. Sid's mom sleeping around. I mean, you can only hear that Richard. Gear derbal story so many times before. you have to start believing it. So, this. is a nod to the debunked rumor that. Richard Gear checked into a hospital to. have a gerbal removed from his rectum. It's one of the craziest Hollywood myths. that I, as a kid, after watching this. movie believed. Really, the story came. from a prankster who, after Pretty Woman. came out, flooded fax machines in. Hollywood with a phony press release. from the Association for Prevention of. Cruelty to Animals with this bogus.

claim. And in retrospect, it's just an. interesting line from Rose McGawan, light of this film's executive producer, Harvey Weinstein, whose Hollywood rumors. about him end up being 100% true. Unfortunately, also he's totally the. kind of guy who would put out. misinformation by flooding Hollywood fax. machines to discredit people. Tatum. says, "You're starting to sound like. some West Carpenter flick or something.". Yes, she's deliberately mixing up the. names of West Craven and Halloween. director John Carpenter. And while she's. saying that she's wearing a number 10. crop jersey, similar to the one Johnny. Depp wears in Elm Street during his.

death scene. Fact that she's wearing. this could be foreshadowing her own. eventual grizzly death, the grizzliest. and craziest of this movie. James Whales. Frankenstein plays on the TV in the. video store. This was released in 1931. It's the oldest movie to get a direct. reference in Scream. A teen asks Randy. at the video store what that movie with. the werewolf and ET's mom is. Drew. Barrymore was an ET and Randy answers. the Howling, which starred D. Wallace. And Wallace was in a bunch of horror. movies like West Cravens, The Hills Have. Eyes, Kujo, and others. And I just love. that she calls D. Wallace ET's mom. Randy says the whole thing is Prom Night.

Revisited, a nod to the 1980 horror. movie Prom Night, which starred Jam Lee. Curtis. Prom Night, another movie that. featured the threatening phone call. trope. You can also see a poster for the. Jaime Lee Curtis movie Mother's Boys in. the video store. But knowing Billy and. Stu are the killers makes their ging up. on Randy pretty scary as he rightfully. sees through Stu trying to pin it on. Sid's dad and thinks it's Billy who says. that Randy is an equally possible. suspect, which Randy acknowledges, even. though he has no motive. It's the millennium. Motives are incidental. Now, it's an odd.

line for anyone born late enough to not. remember 9/11, but for '90s kids, society was freaked the out about Y2K. And Randy attributing random psychopathy. does actually apply to the co-iller. behind him because Billy has motive for. his killings, but Stu just really just. does it for the fun. Or as he says. later, peer pressure. I'm far too sensitive. So, as the town of Woodsboro prepares. for curfew, the song Red Rat Hand by. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds plays, the. song actually comes back in many Scream. movies except 2011 Scream 4. It's. fitting that the name of Nick Cave's. band is The Bad Seeds because a movie.

with the title The Bad Seeds will be. popping up later. Sydney says that the. deserted streets in Westboro remind her. of the town that dreaded sundown. That. was a 1976 movie that is also inspired. by real life events. The texts are kind. of moonlight murders. Now, it's easy to. forget how silly this movie gets by. making you think everyone could be a. suspect. Like when the sheriff tells. Dwey that they trace the calls to Sid's. father, Neil, and he looks real jumpy. and starts smoking again. And then Wes. Craven cuts to an ominous close-up of. his dark boots. So Randy has a hall of videos from the. video store. We got Hellraiser, The Evil.

Dead, The Fog, Terror Train, Prom Night, and of course, Halloween, which we see. the party watching later. There's a VHS. copy of 1994's Clerks on top of the VCR. next to where Gail Weathers places a. camcorder to spy on the teens. Jay and. Silent Bob later have a quick cameo in. Scream 3, where they ask Gail if she's. Connie Chung. So Stu sends Tatum into. the garage for more beer. And this. proves that he later knows that she was. in there. And later when he goes for a. beer, this is before he jokes, "I'll be. right back." He would have had to go to. the garage for one. And we never see him. coming back freaking out over Tatum's.

corpse, proving that it must have been. him who killed her. Tatum says, "I spit on your garage.". A reference to the exploitation classic, "I spit on your grave." Now, in this. scene, this is apparently the only time. in the whole movie that anyone refers to. the killer as Ghost Face because Tatum. playfully calls him Mr. Ghost Face. because she thinks it's Randy in costume. just messing around. So, Tatum's death. in the garage door is just bonkers. Craraven and Williamson said that their. original plan was for Tatum to get. crushed under the door, but when they. saw the door had a pet door, they. decided to rework it. And to keep Rose. McGawan in place, they nailed her top to.

the garage door. This this actress. had to endure. Randy calls Billy. Leatherface, a reference to the villain. in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which. also had a real life inspiration from. the Ed Gene murders. Sydney worries that. she's a bad seed, and The Bad Seed is a. 1956 movie about a murderous child who. kills with her tap shoes. Craven has. actually called The Bad Seed one of his. favorite horror movies of all time. Billy also name drops The Silence of the. Lambs, a movie which we'll learn later. was an inspiration for his killing. spree. Actually, the poster for The. Silence of the Lambs and the poster for. Screen share many visual similarities.

So, Randy shares with the audience the. rules to survive a horror movie. Number. one, you can never have sex. Number two, you can never drink or do drugs. And. number three, never say, "I'll be right. back." The rules are really just like my. favorite thing about the Scream movie. franchise, and new ones actually get. added for every sequel. But in this. movie, the point of the rules is to show. how they are subverted. The three. survivors of this movie all break the. rules of the movie. Sydney has sex. Randy gets drunk. And Gail totally says. at one point, "I'll be right back.". Actually, in Friday the 13th, part two, Jenny and Paul have sex. Lorie Strode. drinks and smokes pot. But the.

characters in Scream are really the. first ones who are self-aware of their. own genre, which both creatively. inspires the killers of these movies. while also giving the victims a playbook. to try to survive. Similarly, while most. zombie stories take place in worlds that. have never had zombie movies to learn. from, 2009 Zombie Land is influenced by. in universe zombie fiction and is also a. movie governed by rules. So, after doing. the deed, Sydney asks Billy who he. called for his one phone call and he. says his dad. Now, Sydney's not wrong to. suspect him, but it was actually Stu who. called her while Billy was in prison.

So, Stu fake stabs Billy. And initially, there is no blood on the knife, but that. might just be a production thing because. after cutting to Sydney and back to him. for the wipe, there is some fake blood. on it. Now, Sydney locks the door to get. away from the killer, but then the ghost. face killer appears around the other. corner. Another Stew clue, because only. someone who lived in his house would. know so quickly how to take all these. shortcuts. While Sydney is running. through Stu's attic, we see these creepy. dolls strung up like Casey was in the. cold open. This not only shows us that. Stu has been practicing his murder. techniques, but it's a reference to the. Dario Argential classic, Deep Red, that.

features a killer who is obsessed with. dolls and toys. In one scene, a doll. hangs from a noose, not unlike the ones. we see in this room. Before he's. attacked, Randy says, "Look behind you, Jamie." referencing Jaime Lee Curtis in. the movie, but he's played by actor. Jaimeie Kennedy, so he may as well be. talking to himself. Jaime Kennedy is. literally reflected in the glass of the. TV screen right over Jaime Lee Curtis in. that shot. It creates this great. multi-layered metag gag in which Sid and. the cameraman Kenny scream at the TV. Behind you, Kenny. And when we watch this, we realize we're. doing the same thing. Look behind you, Jamie. Kenny remembers the 30-cond delay.

and gets killed. Now, Kenny is played by. W. Earl Brown, who would go on to appear. in Deadwood, the Mandalorian, and played. Bill in the Last of Us game. Sydney's. blood drenched hitchhiking is a. reference to Carrie. Might also remind. viewers of Sally's escape from the Texas. Chainsaw Massacre. But Carrie gets name. dropped a few minutes later when Billy. says that he used corn syrup for his. fake blood like they did for Pig's blood. and Carrie. So Dewey gets stabbed and. Sydney hides inside her car and gets. away, grabs Dewy's gun, and then Randy. and Stu show up at the same time. I found Tat. She's dead. I think St. Now remember, Tatum is Steu's.

girlfriend. He should be more concerned. with where she is or whether she's okay. The fact that only Randy cares about. Tatum should tell Sid that Stu is a. killer. But they're both frantically. yelling, so she can't trust either of. them. Billy reveals himself as Randy. really set him up perfectly to quote. Psycho here. He's gone mad. We all go a little mad sometimes. Now, it's interesting that he attributes. the quote to Anthony Perkins from. Psycho, not Norman Bates, the actor, not. the character. Just another sign that. Billy really has trouble distinguishing.

movies from reality. Meanwhile, Matthew. Lillard, I gotta say, just such a. goofball. When he trades Billy the knife. for the gun, like Mal, he's barely even. in the frame here, but every move this. actor makes is unhinged. Like earlier. when school lets out, you could see him. in the background leaping into frame, cutting people off, and then pulling up. a flower from the garden. Now, the pose. that the two killers make here is kind. of a two-headed beast, an homage to the. thing with two heads. And when pressed. for a motive, Billy says that it's. scarier when the villain doesn't have a. motive. mentions Hannibal Lectar and.

Norman Bates. But the Bates parallel. here doesn't really fit the theory. because both Bates and Billy are dealing. with issues around their mothers and. their sexuality. So there is kind of a. motive there. But by saying that it's. scary when they don't have a motive, I. think Billy is on to something. Viewers. might be reminded of the motive like. killers from the modern slasher classic. The Strangers. And when asked why they. were doing this, one simply replies, "Because you were home." But as Stu and. Billy explain their plan to blame it all. on Sid's father, Sid says, "You've seen one too many movies.". No, Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos. Movies make. psychos more creative.

Again, we see the flaw in Billy's. thinking. By copying what he sees in. movies, Billy isn't being creative. He's. being, by definition, derivative. One. controversial take is that the real life. murderers these movies were based on. were the true creatives. But even then, I don't think we should call those. people creative because by destroying. lives, you're not creating anything. Gail's return gives Sid an opening to. hide and turn the tables on the boys. Sid pops out of the closet to surprise. the killer just like Jaime Lee Curtis. does in Halloween. in that scene plays. on the TV in the next room. She used the. green umbrella, the hero color,

contrasting the red blood. Sydney tells. Stu, "In your drinks,". and then crushes/zaps him with the TV. Killers obsessed with horror movies. literally get killed with one. Nightmare. on Elm Street 3 also features Death by. Television. Gail finally learns to take. the safety off and shoots Billy, even. though Randy warns that there's always. one final scare. And the jump scare. works. Not in my movie. Like Ripley at the end. of Alien, Sydney signals that she's. aware that she's part of a Hollywood. story and ends it on her own terms. Gail. reports from the crime scene, bringing to an end the harrowing mystery. of the mass killings that has terrified.

this peaceful community like the plot of. some scary movie. Yes, a little nod to scary movie, Kevin. Williamson's original title for this. film. And then as the film fades to. black. Yes, West Craven proves Randy. right with one final scare just a few. frames from our very first close-up of. Ghost Face in the opening sequence when. it was West Craven himself under the. mask. What is your favorite moment from. West Craven Scream? We loved revisiting. this classic in our favorite time of. year and hopefully we pointed out. something new. New Rockstars loves to. break down the details you miss in. everything you love. And please check.

out our ranking of jump scares and non-h. horror films. Huge thanks to Jordan. Morris and Ericu for helping write this. analysis. Please subscribe to the New. Rockstars Network and you can follow me. on all socials at EA Voss. Thanks for. watching. Bye. [Music].