Cinema and Psychos
The Quote
“Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative,” said the notorious Billy Loomis as he stabbed his partner-in-crime Stu Macher relentlessly.
It’s an iconic quote, one screenwriter Kevin Williamson couldn’t get out of his mind when he was creating Scream‘s storyline. As soon as the quote popped into his head, he wrote it on a notecard and taped it to his wall for motivation during his writing process.
The Inspiration
Williamson was inspired by public discourse at the time. There was a changing of the guard in the 1990s. Media shifted from the sanitized content that dominated the 1980s towards edgier content. It was the era of grunge rock, gangsta rap, erotic thrillers, hyperviolent movies, foul-mouthed cartoons like South Park, and the antihero. Politicians like Bob Dole and other public figures started voicing their concerns about the effect of such content on society.
Violence in cinema was among the biggest topics. Conservatives like Dole went after the 1994 crime film Natural Born Killers. It’s a bloody, politically incorrect affair. The plot revolves around Mickey and Mallory Knox, a couple of mass murderers on the run from law enforcement. It’s a satirical look at America’s obsession with violence and the role the media plays in turning criminals into celebrities.
Academics and journalists voiced their concerns too. “Articles were being written on violence in cinema and at the time there were no studies that really leaned into his theory,” Williamson said. “So, I wanted to answer that in my own little way.”
Billy’s quote makes it clear where Williamson stands on this topic. But if you examine the Scream franchise beneath the surface, you’ll see Williamson and other screenwriters threw in more than two lines. They lace illustrations that back up his viewpoint throughout the original trilogy.
Scream Trilogy
The First Two Films
The first film establishes from the onset that Ghostface is a horror movie fanatic. He calls Casey Becker and quizzes her on her horror movie knowledge. It doesn’t take long for him to turn innocent questions into a deadly game. As soon as she answers a question wrong, Ghostface kills her boyfriend, Steve.
Taunting victims through phone calls and referencing horror movies becomes the killer’s trademark. During the climax, Billy quotes Norman Bates, the antagonist in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, when he shoots Randy Meeks. Moments later, Stu tells Sidney that Billy and he watched a few movies and took notes when planning their murder spree. He also confesses that they are planning to create a sequel to their crimes.
Scream 2 continues the trends set in the first film. Another killer is on the loose, targeting Sidney and her new group of friends at Windsor College. This time, one of Sidney’s friends, Mickey Altieri, reveals himself to be underneath the Ghostface mask. Mickey is a film nerd. He’s quirky and obviously slightly unhinged from the moment the audience meets him. Unlike his predecessors, he wants to get caught. He hopes to become a media sensation and the focus of a major trial. He wants to blame movies for inspiring his crimes.
Scream 3
Ehren Kruger wrote Scream 3 rather than Kevin Williamson, but rather than abandon William’s themes, he expanded upon them. In this film, Ghostface targets a group of actors on the set of Stab 3, the third installment in the fictionalized slasher series based on the Ghostface murders. The actors attached to the project begin dying in the same order they die in the script. This strikes fear in the heart of movie producers and executives. Fearing a public backlash and negative media attention centered on the the effect of movie violence, they suspend production.
At the end of the film, Roman Bridger reveals himself to be the killer. Roman is a film director and Sidney’s half brother. Maureen Prescott rejected him after he attempted to reconnect with her, so he filmed her private affairs, and showed the footage to Billy. Then he capitalized on Billy’s anger at his father’s infidelity and provided him with the blueprint to commit the Woodsboro murders.
He finishes off his monologue with a very self-reflexive quote.
“I’m a director, Sid,” he says. “I direct. I had no idea they were going to make a film of their own. And what a film it turned out to be. Introducing Sidney the victim, Sidney the survivor, Sidney star.”
Quentin Tarantino’s Scream
Not too long ago, I came across an article featuring an interview by Quentin Tarantino. The interviewer asked him if there were any franchises he could see himself directing. He admitted to imagining himself bringing the first Scream movie to life.
“I actually didn’t care for Wes Craven’s direction of it,” he said. “I thought he was the iron chain attached to its ankle that kept it earthbound and stopped it from going to the moon.”
Tarantino’s take on Scream would be insane. Hardcore violence and bloodshed are among his hallmarks, so I’m sure he would’ve taken the film to an entirely different level. He once admitted he’s stayed away from serial killer movies because he thinks planet earth wouldn’t be able to handle it.
How Would It Have Turned Out?
Perhaps, the most interesting thing about a hypothetical Tarantino version is his approach to the theme. Tarantino is a self-admitted film geek. He’s been obsessed with films ever since his childhood. In his version of the script, Billy and Stu probably would’ve displayed some of Tarantino’s own movie geek traits. They probably wouldn’t have a clear motive. I could see them being two teenagers who simply want to experience the same thrills as Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers. Or maybe they both would’ve been like Mickey, two teenagers who want to get caught and transformed into celebrities by the media.
I wonder which direction Tarantino would’ve leaned in regards to whether movies create psychopathic behavior or simply makes psychopaths more creative. From what I gather about Quentin, he has a preference for the morally gray. The 1970s are his favorite decade of cinema, an era renowned for its downbeat endings, antihero protagonists, and rejection of Hollywood simplicity. In his film, the unholy duo behind the Ghostface mask might have landed somewhere in the middle: being individuals that possessed deviant minds and unchanneled rage long before they picked up the knife and individuals who became crazier after watching horror films.
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