Editorials
Special Feature: ‘Scream 4,’ Slicing Into New Rules & Conventions
In the decade-plus period of time that has passed since the release of Scream 3, there’s no doubt that the horror landscape has changed significantly. In the intervening years we’ve witnessed the rise of the torture porn craze, seen a resurgence in “found footage”/shaky-cam horror, and watched helplessly as a seemingly unyielding series of remakes cluttered up our local multiplexes.
Given all of these developments, the makers of Scream 4 (releasing April 15th!) have been handed a wealth of new rules and conventions to work with, and in the following feature B-D’s Chris Eggertsen takes a look at some of the most significant ones – along with examples of the films that utilized them – that may or may not make an appearance in the upcoming sequel.
See inside for the full list, and study it carefully. Remember, knowledge is power.
Amazingly, it’s been more than eleven years since Scream 3 was released (where does the time go??), meaning there’s over a decade’s worth of new horror material that has yet to be plumbed by the self-aware franchise, now being revived with Scream 4 (coming out on April 15th). So how have they updated the once-fresh series to make it feel relevant for today’s audiences? There’s no doubt that much has changed.
Since the turn of the millennium (remember Y2K?) we’ve seen the ascension of torture porn and J-Horror, been assaulted by an insane amount of mostly crappy remakes, seen a huge resurgence in the “found footage” sub-genre (remember The Blair Witch Project?), and witnessed the coining of the term “Web 2.0” (remember dial-up?). Hell, in the year 2000 only about half the citizens in this country even owned a cell phone! (remember antennas?)
Of course, as much as the world has changed since the bygone era of Jennifer Love Hewitt worship and shitty nu-metal bands, the basic Scream template remains the same: skewer the rules and conventions of the horror genre in a clever and entertaining way. What matters this time around is just how the creative minds behind the latest entry will incorporate the new horror rules and conventions that have cropped up over the last decade or so, not to mention which ones they decide to take on (hint: given what the Scream films are, we probably won’t be seeing any long-haired “Samara”-style wraiths making an appearance).
Now, in anticipation of the release of the hugely-anticipated slasher sequel (mark your calendars!), B-D reporter Chris Eggertsen takes a fun look at ten of the key clichés and conventions from the last decade in horror that may or may not be tackled in the upcoming third installment of the legendary slasher franchise. But study them carefully – for if your own life goes all Meta and you find yourself caught in the midst of an honest-to-god slasher-movie killing spree, paying close attention just might save your skin.
“The person holding the video camera is far more likely to survive up to at least the final reel.”
Movie Examples: The Last Exorcism; Cloverfield; REC/Quarantine; Diary of the Dead
This rule is predicated on basic narrative necessity more than anything; indeed, there wouldn’t be much of a movie if the person filming the bloodbath were to bite the dust in the first or second act. As such, it would probably behoove a potential horror movie victim to volunteer for camera duty.
“Those with a serious criminal or amoral past – and/or those who have engaged in severely self-destructive behavior – are far more likely to kick the bucket than those with a relatively clean slate.”
Movie Examples: Saw I-VII
This rule really only has a basis in the Saw movies, but when you consider that the “torture porn” franchise is the most profitable and influential of the last decade, its potential for influencing a budding psychopath is pretty great. And look, it ain’t the `80s anymore. Just smoking a doobie or engaging in a little coital fun isn’t enough to guarantee certain death in a 21st century horror film. As Jigsaw showed us in all seven installments of the uber-gory series, you’re especially likely to be targeted if you’ve either engaged in some particularly naughty past behavior – think fleeing the scene of a crime, engaging in predatory lending practices, or, you know, raping and killing people – or demonstrated a lack of appreciation for life by, say, abusing drugs or attempting suicide. So while it may not keep them from ultimately waking up strapped to some sort of bizarre medieval torture device, potential victims can at least better calculate their odds of survival by tallying up their past transgressions. Also, if you didn’t take time out to appreciate your crummy life before, you’d damn well better start now.
(SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD!) “The Final Girl isn’t necessarily the final girl.”
Movie Examples: Wolf Creek; High Tension; Death Proof; Cabin Fever; Friday the 13th (remake)
While in the past we could almost always rely on the old “Final Girl” trope – i.e. the kindest and most virginal young woman of the bunch being the most likely to survive – unfortunately for the mousier contingent among us that rule isn’t quite as relevant as it used to be. For as we’ve been shown in quite a few horror flicks over the last decade -remember poor “head on a stick” Liz in Wolf Creek? – the ultimate survival of the supposed Final Girl is no longer a given.
“The kills are more brutal, drawn-out and extreme.”
Movie Examples: Saw I-VII; Hostel I & II; any film that could be classified as “torture porn”
It’s sad to say, but simple stabbings are basically old hat at this point, and not even unconventional weaponry really makes the cut anymore – indeed, by the late `80s Jason had already sorta driven that whole “let’s see what kinda damage we can do with [insert name of unlikely weapon here]!” thing into the ground (not that we don’t welcome it, necessarily; it just isn’t novel anymore). No, in the 21st century the quick kill has been replaced in many instances by drawn-out scenes of excruciating torture, a la movies like Saw, Hostel, and the wave of increasingly-brutal “French extremity” films. Note to potential victims: if there’s absolutely no hope of escape and you suspect you may be next in line for a long and painful evening at the local torture chamber, you might wanna consider engaging in a little hari-kari action before the killer has a chance to drag you off.
“If a strangely charming individual with either a German or Eastern European accent: a) proposes drinks at his/her place; b) suggests a night of kinky sex (this particularly applies if you write for the internet and/or have a basic hygiene problem); c) offers you shelter from a rain, sleet, or snowstorm, or d) otherwise seems interested in spending a little alone time with you in a remote location, you’d do best to high-tail your ass in the other direction.”
Movie Examples: Hostel I & II, The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
While the majority of `70s and `80s slasher and splatter flicks that inspired the first few Scream movies featured distinctly American-grown killers, with the introduction of the first Hostel movie we were introduced to the concept of creepy foreign people. See, not only are German and Eastern European accents scary, but the region is also apparently home to some truly perverted weirdos. In other words, don’t trust any dude with a name like Wolfgang or Dragos – it’s a recipe for certain death. Oh, and that hot chick Tatyana from the Czech Republic? Chances are she’s aiming to sell your ass to some fucked-up underground torture society in Belarus. Remember, the happy fun-time days of Shannon Elizabeth in American Pie are long over.
“Tortured back stories and vaguely sympathetic character motivations are so last century.”
Movie Examples: Hostel I & II; The Strangers; Wolf Creek; Them; Orphan; The Human Centipede (First Sequence); House of 1,000 Corpses; The Devil’s Rejects; Funny Games (remake); The Collector
Sure, the slasher revolution started with Michael Myers in Halloween – a man of “pure evil” who had “the blackest eyes” (according to Sir Donald Pleasance) – but most of the copycats that followed usually featured killers with at least some apparent reason for picking up that machete and hacking up a bunch of horny co-eds. Even the first three Scream films – despite Randy’s contention that in “the millennium, motives are incidental” – tied at least one of their killers’ motivations to some traumatic past event. Not so anymore, as over the last few years the pendulum seems to be swinging back in the “crazy-for-crazy’s-sake” Bates/Myers direction, holding true to Stu’s observation in the first Scream that “it’s a lot scarier when there’s no motive”. Need I bring up Rob Zombie’s lackluster “nurture over nature”-heavy Halloween reboot as evidence? Ah well, too late.
(SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD!) “It’s never safe to bet on `happy’ endings anymore.”
Movie Examples: Saw I-VII; Wolf Creek; The Grudge; The Ring; The Last Exorcism; Pulse; Final Destination I-IV; Paranormal Activity; The Strangers; Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning; House of 1,000 Corpses; The Skeleton Key; Them, The Collector; Funny Games (remake)
It’s no surprise that in our increasingly cynical age, the bad guy in horror films has racked up a more impressive win/loss ratio than perhaps at any other time in the history of the genre. Just look at some of the most popular and influential movies from the last decade: J-horror fare like The Grudge, The Ring and Pulse are good examples of this rule, not to mention virtually every found footage/camcorder flick ever (Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism being two that immediately spring to mind). Hell, just look at the final outcome of the entire Saw series – it doesn’t get much grimmer than that. In short, betting against the killer(s) isn’t near as fail-safe a wager as it used to be.
“Social subtext is big again – the key to unlocking the nature or identity of the killer(s) could lie in the ills of society itself.”
Movie Examples: Saw I-VII; Hostel I & II; Land/Diary/Survival of the Dead; Cabin Fever; Shaun of the Dead; The Hills Have Eyes (remake)
While the `80s spate of mostly mindless slasher films provided the majority of self-reflexive ammunition for the first three Scream entries, the “aughts” returned to the subtext-laden thematics of horror flicks from the late ’60s and early `70s. As such, it might give potential victims a good amount of insight (and perhaps even increase their chances of survival) if they go into “ivory tower mode” by searching out possible explanations for the mayhem in the context of society’s larger problems. Perhaps this time around Ghostface is some crazed, geriatric Tea Party adherent, aiming to cut down on the number of young Obama supporters prior to the 2012 elections? I wouldn’t necessarily rule it out.
“To increase your chances of survival, take some time to study the remakes.”
Movie Examples: Halloween; Friday the 13th; A Nightmare on Elm Street; Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Prom Night; When a Stranger Calls; My Bloody Valentine 3D; The Hitcher; The Amityville Horror; The Hills Have Eyes; Dawn of the Dead; House of Wax; I Spit on Your Grave; The Omen; Last House on the Left; The Fog; The Crazies; The Stepfather; Black Christmas; Sorority Row; probably more I’m not thinking of
The most ubiquitous horror trend over the last decade is undoubtedly the remake phenomenon, meaning potential victims can’t merely look to the originals any longer to uncover the keys to their survival. While certainly a few of the films are forehead-slappingly derivative of their original source material, others have changed the conventions up a bit and, painful as it may be, it would behoove those who find themselves in the midst of a bloody killing spree to add a shitload of these bad boys to the top of their Netflix queue. Just pray you can get through them all before the killer catches you passed out from boredom on the living room couch.
“When in doubt, do the opposite of everything you learned in the first three Scream movies.”
Movie Examples: Scream I-III
As one character in the Scream 4 trailer smartly points out, “the unexpected is the new cliché”. In other words, potential victims will significantly increase their chances of survival if they do the opposite of whatever rules of slasher-dom they were urged to follow in the first three entries. Feeling a little horny? Go have sex with someone, quickly! Acting the part of the shameless, dirty slut just might save your neck. “Magical cigarette” being passed around at the party after prom? If you value your life, you’d do well to take a puff. Also, work the phrase “I’ll be right back” into every conversation you can, even when it isn’t 100% warranted. It may end up annoying the shit out of your friends and loved ones, but if you enjoy breathing you’d do best to ignore their bitching. Also, dudes – get off your sorry asses and try out for the football team. And while you’re at it, start acting on all those buried Alpha male instincts of yours and push a science geek or two up against a locker (further “survival points” will be awarded for wedgies and toilet dunking). As for all the ladies out there – for the love of god, get a freakin’ boob job and join the cheerleading squad. In this day and age, those puritanical attitudes you’ve been harboring could equal death.
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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