Most horror movies don’t impress much but there are a few that have broken the mold over the years. Scream, directed by Wes Craven, was a huge hit when it came out in 1996 becoming the highest grossing slasher film up to that point. What was impressive about the movie was its satirical approach to slasher movies in general.
Scream is also based on a real slasher.
Danny Rolling was known as The Gainesville Ripper who terrorized college students in Florida in the 1990s, creating a horror for alums. Danny was abused as a child for the simplest mistakes and told he was not wanted making his childhood another true horror story.
In a few short days, the Gainesville ripper murdered five students. During that time, campuses were a bit terrified, to say the least. No one went to class for seven days. He confessed to eight killings, three committed in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. In 2006, by lethal injection, he was executed for his crimes.
Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson happened to watch the news of the Gainesville Ripper. The story caught his interest and ideas began to form. I read somewhere after watching the broadcast he noticed there were open windows in his house which was of concern as anyone could just crawl through. After closing them, he sat down and started working on the script.
Williamson was a horror fan and in Scream, you can see the knocking of tropes found in the likes of Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and others. And I think that is what makes the film great for me. It takes those clichés and makes fun of them.
As true horror events can be the bases of horror movies, so can horror movies be the bases for horrific events.
In Belgium, Thierry Jaradin put on his Ghostface costume and stabbed a young girl multiple times. There were no incidents of violence in his past and when he confessed to the murder he stated he was motivated by the movie and premeditated the whole ordeal.
In Idaho, two teenagers cut the power to where one of their female friends was house sitting. They snuck in and stabbed her 30 times. One said, “We’re gonna go down in history. We’re gonna be just like Scream except real life terms.” Their terms are life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder and 30 years to life for the conspiracy charge.
I can’t comprehend what others think sometimes, but I wish when these ideas form they should write them down into a movie instead of acting them out.
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