(music)
Welcome to the Kill Count, where we tally up the victims in all our favorite horror movies.
I'm James A. Janisse and today we're looking at the seminal horror film Scream,
released in 1996 by Freddy Krueger creator Wes Craven,
who also directed the three Scream sequels before passing away in 2015.
It's hard to overstate the impact Scream had on the horror genre. It reignited slasher flicks,
spawning a whole host of late '90s imitators, and set the tone for the genre for the better part of a decade.
After Scream, horror would take on a certain feel - it'd be funny, hip, and most importantly, self-aware.
"What's your favorite scary movie?"
With that line and the countless references that follow, Scream told its audience that the characters they were
watching were just like them - they knew about Jason and Freddy and Chucky,
they knew the so-called rules of the genre.
Then Scream told them, that knowledge wouldn't save these characters - they were gonna die anyway.
And how many were gonna die? Let's find out and get to the kills.
(music)
(phone ringing)
The movie begins with a phone ringing, and when Casey Becker answers it, she's greeted with
the sexy voice of an inquisitive stranger.
"What number is this?" "What number are you trying to reach?"
"I don't know."
Thinking it's a wrong number, she hangs up only to have him call back, and this happens a few times
until they're chatting like old college buddies about their favorite scary movies.
Eventually, Casey gets creeped out and the stranger goes from sexy to scary.
"No, YOU listen, you little bitch! You hang up on me again, I'll gut you like a fish, understand?"
He tells her he's outside her house and has her boyfriend Steve tied up on the patio.
Then, since he wants Casey to kill it at bar horror trivia night, he starts drilling her on questions about the genre.
"Name the killer in Friday the 13th."
And since the Kill Count wasn't around to give Casey a proper education, she wrongly answers:
"Jason! Jason! Jason!"
And as punishment she turns the patio lights back on to see that Steve's been gutted,
his intestines dangling in the breeze as he dies.
I feel like people often forget about this kill, and it's a pretty solid one to start the movie with.
With a chair through the window and a flaming tray of popcorn, shit's totally hit the fan now, and after a
well-crafted cat and mouse sequence, Casey makes a run for safety when she sees her parents on their way home.
She doesn't quite make it, though, with Ghostface catching up to her
and stabbing her in the chest and choking her on the ground.
Casey still fights back, but, unable to call out to her parents for help,
Ghostface knocks her down and finishes the job. Her parents overhear her dying breaths on the phone
as Ghostface drags her away, and they ultimately find her body strung up on a tree,
her insides dangling down just like Steve's. Audiences were shocked that Drew Barrymore
was killed right off the bat, and that's just one part of what makes this
entire opening sequence an instant classic. Hard to beat this kind of kick-off.
Next we meet Sidney Prescott, who's into MS-DOS, and her super fucking oily boyfriend, Billy Loomis.
Seriously dude, wash that hair.
They're having some intimacy problems because Billy wants to get it in but Sidney isn't feeling it.
Probably has something to do with the fact that her mom, Maureen Prescott,
was raped and murdered one year before this.
So yeah, Billy, maybe some things are more important than getting a nut off.
Everything's crazy at school the next day, with local reporter Gale Weathers
reporting in her finest dirty highlighter colored dress.
Sid's best friend Tatum catches her up about the murders and Tatum's brother Deputy Dewey
helps interview Sidney in the principal's office. Principal Himbry's all like "AYYYY Let me touch your chin all weird"
but other than that the cops are sympathetic to Sidney since,
you know, that awful fuckin' thing that happened to her mom.
After school, Sid and her entourage hang out by the town's tribute to the Friends fountain.
In addition to Billy and Tatum, there's Tatum's boyfriend Stu, played by Matthew Lillard who gives it 110%,
and Randy Meeks, the geeky guy who's obsessed with horror movies.
They treat the murders with about as much respect as high schoolers treat most things.
"Did you really put her liver in the mailbox? 'Cause I heard that they found her liver in the mailbox."
"Liver alone!"
(laughs)
"Ow! Liver. Liver! Liv- it was a joke!"
Sidney goes home and takes a little couch nap until she's awoken by a phone call with our sexy voiced stranger.
"Scary night, isn't it? With the murders and all it's like, right out of a horror movie or something."
Then the movie just fuckin' goes for it and has him attack her in her own home.
He almost gets her, too, but she fights back because as we'll find out throughout the series,
Sidney Prescott don't take no shit.
She does run up the stairs, however, despite having just given a long-winded
criticism of that trope in horror movies.
"What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who's
always running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door. It's insulting."
See how self aware this movie is? Metaaa!
She locks him out of her room and hits up 911 on her computer which I guarantee not a single damn person
did in 1996, before Ghostface suddenly disappears. He does that a lot.
Billy shows up at her window with some excellent suspicious timing and then drops a cell phone.
Since this was before we ever had a term like "smart phone addiction"
Sidney is frightened and confused by Billy's technology and he gets arrested under suspicion of being a witch.
I mean murder.
Gale Weathers shows up a bit too late for any action and we find out she is not a very nice lady.
"I know that you're about 50 pounds overweight, but when I say hurry, please interpret that AS
MOVE YOUR FAT, TUB OF LARD ASS NOW!!"
The sheriff interrogates Billy and his werewolf-lookin' dad and the whole thing becomes a media circus
causing a confrontation between Gale and Sidney,
during which Sid brings up the book Gale's been writing about her mom's murder.
"I'll send you a copy."
Sidney goes home with Tatum for safety but gets another call from Ghostface,
leading her to conclude that Billy is in fact an innocent sweet little boy.
The next day Sid and Tatum go to school with Tatum wearing an outfit that just, like, is that allowed in a high school?
Sid talks to Gale again, this time without punching her in the face, and in a series of uncomfortably close shots
Gale tells Sidney that Cotton Weary, the guy currently in jail for Maureen Prescott's murder, is an innocent man.
Sid's left uncertain, but Gale vows to exonerate Cotton.
"If I'm right about this, I could save a man's life."
Maybe Gale isn't so bad after all.
"Do you know what that could do for my book sales?"
Never mind.
Sid has a pretty rough go of it at school, with people running through the halls wearing Ghostface costumes,
Billy telling her to just get over her mom's death,
"It's been a year!"
some bitchy cheerleader talking shit about her in the bathroom,
and then finally getting attacked by Ghostface again because this movie never lets Sidney be safe for even a minute.
Which I actually really appreciate.
Principal Himbry doesn't take too kindly to all these shenanigans so he takes the pranksters from earlier
and is all like "AYYYY you're expelled!"
He plays around with the Ghostface mask and accidentally yells at the janitor
who's a way too-on-the-nose reference.
"Not you, Fred."
And then Ghostface shows up and stabs him a bunch of times in the gut.
Henry Winkler does his best "AYYY I'm dying!" face and Ghostface finishes the job in the reflection of his eye.
As a kid it was pretty traumatizing seeing the Fonz get killed like that,
but as an adult it’s kinda funny watching Barry Zuckerkorn play dead. He's very good.
With school out and a curfew in effect, Stu plans to have a party because the best thing to do
with a serial killer in town is to get a bunch of high schoolers drunk.
He chats with Randy at the video store, telling him that he suspects Sidney's dad is behind all the kills,
while Randy freaks out about how the killer could be anyone.
"EVERYBODY'S A SUSPECT!"
Okay dude, not so loud, alright?
Randy's money is on Billy, though, who pops up and grabs him by the shirt. He and Stu get all up in Randy's grill
touchin' his face and bein' weird and acting exactly like you'd expect a serial killer to act.
Night comes and everyone heads to Stu's party at his giant fuckin' farm mansion.
It's so bumpin' that even Gale and Dewey are there, makin' eyes at each other so effectively
that Courtney Cox and David Arquette ended up married in real life after meeting on this film.
In movie, it turns out she's using him, though, to get inside the party and plant a camera in the living room.
Yeah Gale, maybe it's not the best idea
to be in possession of hidden camera footage at a drunken high school party.
Stu, who's wearing this pimp lookin' party-hostin' robe, tells Tatum to go get him a beer.
On her way back inside the door is locked, and when she goes to use the garage door, Ghostface shows up.
She treats his presence pretty casually until he slices her arm with his knife.
Then we get to see Ghostface do his hilarious pratfalls - first when she hits him
with the fridge door and then while she's throwing beer bottles at him.
I suspect that this alone inspired Scary Movie.
Look at that robe waving frantically around and tell me that's not hilarious.
With the door blocked, Tatum tries to escape through the doggy flap in the garage door,
but Ghostface starts up the surprisingly powerful garage door motor.
Tatum, who's apparently stuck in the door because of boobs,
is lifted all the way up to the ceiling and crushed to death.
This may be the single most memorable kill from this movie, and it's certainly the most creative one, unlikely
as it may be. Ghostface caps off the scene with a subtle moment of humor as he sneaks back into the party.
As the party dies down and a bunch of people leave,
Billy shows up much to the dismay of Randy who's crushing hard on Sidney.
"There goes my chance with Sid."
"As if. That's all I'm sayin'. As if."
They talk about their feelings and other boring bullshit before Sidney decides that she's ready to have sex.
Meanwhile Randy, Stu, and a bunch of no-names watch Halloween on VHS,
and Randy explains the rules of staying alive in a horror movie.
"Number 1: You can never have sex."
"Number 2: You can never drink or do drugs."
"Number 3: NEVER under any cicumstances say, 'I'll be right back.'"
They're interrupted by the news that Principal Himbry is dead, so everybody except Randy runs off,
almost hitting Gale and Dewey in the process, who jump into a ditch and use the opportunity
to finally just make out already, geez. They also find Sidney's dad's car, and since
he's kind of been a suspect this whole time, they hold hands and run back to Stu's house.
Sidney and Billy are cleaning themselves off after sex when Ghostface shows up
and stabs Billy in the chest a bunch of times.
Sid escapes through the upper story window where Ghostface knocks her down onto a boat in the driveway.
She finds Tatum's body stuck in the garage and runs off to find help.
Meanwhile, Randy's still veggin' on the couch watchin' Halloween.
Ghostface comes up behind him, giving Jamie Kennedy the opportunity to be super EXTRA meta.
"Jamie, look behind you. Behind you, Jamie. Jamie, turn around."
Before Ghostface kills Randy he gets distracted by Sidney screaming for help.
The only person around is Kenny, Gale's cameraman, but before he can be of any use, Ghostface slits his throat.
Sorry Kenny, you didn't deserve the abuse you got from Gale,
and you never lived long enough to do that sweet Silent Bob cosplay you were always talking about.
Sidney escapes Ghostface through this fun-looking van tunnel and now everyone's just scattered to the wind.
Sid's running around, Dewey's back at the house, and Gale finds Kenny's blood on her van.
When she goes to call for help she gets surprised by Randy who she beats down with the phone.
Then she tries to drive off but she gets distracted by Kenny's blood on the windshield
and his body on the roof of the van, as well as Sidney running out in the middle of the street,
which causes Gale to veer off and crash into a ditch. No Dewey to make out with this time, Gale.
Sidney comes back to the house to find Dewey stumble out the front door with a knife in his back. Sucks, Dewster!
Ghostface follows and attacks her , trapping her in a police car where she tries to call for help.
When Ghostface attacks Sidney again, she fights back, escapes, and he disappears,
which is a sentence I've said like 5 times already this Kill Count.
Sidney grabs Dewey's gun and isn't sure who to trust - Randy or Stu - before making an equal opportunity decision.
"Fuck you both!"
She locks them both out of the house and then she sees that Billy is still alive.
Cool, just don't injure yourself any further Billy- Uh. Oh. Okay. Yeah, just-. Allright. You good?
Billy lets Randy in the house and then HERE COMES THE TWIST HE SHOOTS HIM! Bam, Jamie Kennedy down!
What's up with that Billy?!
"We all go a little mad sometimes."
Was that a reference?
"Anthony Perkins, Psycho."
Okay, we understand you guys know horror movies, you're being a little extra.
Billy reveals his blood is corn syrup and Stu shows up and shows off the voice changer they've been using
to make their voices all sexy and then they spend a good long time mentally torturing Sidney in the kitchen
as they reveal everything, starting with the fact that they were the ones who killed Maureen Prescott.
"That woman was a slutbag whore who flashed her shit all over town like she was Sharon Stone or somethin'."
"Yeah, we put her out of her misery, 'cause let's face it Sidney, your mother was no Sharon Stone."
Billy explains that Sid's mom was sleeping with his dad, which caused HIS mom to leave his family.
They framed Cotton Weary for Maureen's murder, just like they plan on framing Sidney's Dad for all these murders.
To seal the deal on their alibi, they agree to have a little fun time stab around, although Billy takes it a little too far.
Now, this scene is when Matthew Lillard throttles his performance into the red zone. Sometimes it works,
"I FEEL A LIL WOOZY HERE!"
and sometimes it doesn't.
"'Cause let's face it baby, these days, ya gotta have a sequel!"
But I think it works more often than not so, thank you Mr. Lillard, for whatever that is that you're doing.
They get interrupted by Gale Weathers who now has Dewey's gun,
but when she forgets to take the safety off, Billy kicks her out onto the porch.
He doesn't kill her right there, though, 'cause he's a huge fan of Friends
and just needs to see if she'll end up with Chandler in the next season.
Sidney takes the opportunity to get away, teasing the killers with a phone call that really pisses off Billy.
"Ah, you fucking hit me with A PHONE, DICK!"
See? That time it worked! One more, one more!
(crying) "My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me."
Yeah!
She pops out of the closet and beats Billy down with an umbrella before Stu charges at her
and they have a little rasslin' match.
She eventually subdues him with a vase to the head, then kills him by dropping a TV on his face.
It's funny how this kill wouldn't really work nowadays, with all our light-ass LED TVs.
See? Technology makes us safer!
Randy comes to just in time to get punched in the face by Billy, who tackles Sidney and raises his knife
to stab her before getting shot by Gale, who, really Billy, you probably should've killed out there on the porch.
Randy tells them about the classic horror ending trope
"Careful. This is the moment when the supposedly-dead killer comes back to life for one last scare."
and Billy's finally killed with a gun shot to the head by Sidney, giving us our 7th and final kill of the movie.
You'd think there would've been more but most of the time, Ghostface was just attacking Sidney and letting her get away.
Also all the fake-out deaths don't help the body count, such as Dewey,
who's revealed to be still alive and on a stretcher at the end of the movie,
which closes with a report from Gale Weathers and a crane shot of that awesome house.
And just like that, the horror genre changed forever. Let's do the numbers.
Seven people died in Scream, kinda low for a slasher, but this was more about the who-dun-it anyway.
Of the victims, 5 were guys and only 2 were girls, a more than 2-to-1 gender imbalance.
With a runtime of 111 minutes, we only had a kill, on average, every 15.8 minutes,
but at least you got to hear a bunch of horror references during all that down time.
The Golden Chainsaw for coolest kill goes to Casey.
I really like Tatum and Stu's deaths, but Casey's sent me running from the TV when I was 7
and it's still one of the best starts to a horror movie ever.
The Dull Machete for lamest kill will have to go to Principal Himbry.
A couple of gut wounds and an offscreen finish just don't compare to the other kills here.
And that's it! Released in 1996, Scream is probably one of the most important horror movies ever made,
and that's a fact whether you love it or hate it.
Make sure you subscribe if you liked this video and I'll see you next week for Scream 2.
Until then, I'm James A. Janisse, this has been the Kill Count.
Hey guys, thanks a lot for watching the Kill Count episode for Scream.
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Hope you guys didn't get too much whiplash moving from Friday the 13th to Scream.
See you guys next week!