Scream

Woodsboro, a small town in the American province. A teenage girl, Casey Becker in her parent’s absence gets a call. The stranger says that he is watching a lonely house and he forces the girl to take part in a quiz, which rests on knowledge about popular horrors. When Casey identifies mistakenly the murderer from “Friday 13th”, the man kills Casey’s boyfriend, Steve and still invisible leaves his body on the terrace. Casey tries to run away, but the killer who has on black a cape and death mask kills her too.

Sidney Prescott gets the next call from the mysterious murderer. She isn’t in plenty herself after brutal murder on her mother, which was committed last year. Gale Weathers, a reporter from local TV station who looks for sensations, prepares a book devoted to that crime. Sidney is still her object of interests. Gale proves in it, that Sidney was wrong showing Cotton Weary as her mother’s killer. In her opinion, a boy was only the girl’s mother’s lover. Sidney can’t reconcile to that. So the real murderer is still at liberty...

Sidney escapes from a fight with the murderer. One moment later she sees her boyfriend’s, Billy Loomis’ mobile phone. Completely appalled, she shows him to the Police as a mysterious aggressor. She protects herself at her friend’s, Tatum Riley’s (local sheriff’s deputy’s sister) house. The same night she gets the second call from the killer...

Billy is set free from the prison when it comes out that murderer was calling from Sidney’s father, Neil Prescott’s mobile phone. Neil has been on a business trip for a few days... The headmaster, Himbry, becomes the murderer’s next victim. Students get to know about a crime while they’re on Randy’s (fanatical admirer of horror films) party. The last act of drama happens during that party...

“Scream”, produced by Wes Craven, one of the most prized contemporary horror makers, is an intelligent quiz with horror films conventions. “Scream”, led on Christmas time - when romantic comedies and family films prevail – has broken the watching record. It kept steady in movies for six months and made more than one hundred million dollars profit. It became the most watched films in Miramax history, near “Pulp fiction”. Miramax produced the second and the third part of “Scream”.

I watched these two parts, I mean “Scream” and “Scream Again”, and something made me really amazed. I still can’t imagine how the director keeps his spectators in tension all the time. We inquire who is the murderer at the end. I think nobody suspects the real killers before. It bears witness – he’s good indeed in his job. He probably had a call and he became director of horrors.

I wasn’t scared. Horror films don’t make me scared. When I was watching it I of course shouted: “Oh, my Gosh!”, “No! Don’t do it!” The most brutal murder was when the killer put up garage door while his victim was trying to run away through the cat’s exit. She was crushed and it was awful, especially sounds. But I wasn’t afraid of the killer. My mum says that I’m a calm person. It’s just that I was surprised at the end of “Scream” and at the end of “Scream Again”. In my opinion, someone who isn’t tough can expect some fearful moments. My mum only wants to know how cruel people could be. Maybe in our town there are some abnormal people who can kill a few victims (completely innocent) in one night and don’t feel guilty.

There are some more things, which I felt watching these thrillers. Wes Craven shows real life there. Even in Poland there are serial murderers. They kill just because. Sometimes they blame TV or games for their actions. Sometimes they only want to revenge, because someone has stolen money or has beaten their friend. In other times they want to show how “cool” they are. They think that they will impress someone. Maybe some people admire killers for their courage. But if Police catch them, they’ll spend the rest of their life in prison. And I’m still wondering: what for? Why do they take from innocent people their own life? Just for fun? Well, that isn’t a moral activity.

I have watched another similar film lately, “Hope’s Price”. The woman was sentenced to death – penalty. A few years ago she committed a brutal murder. She killed her two enemies. She didn’t like them and they didn’t like her. But when she took some drugs she decided to rob their house. She found them in bed together and dealt some blows to them. Some murderous blows. Her brother saw it and he called the Police. After many actions she was sentenced to death – penalty. She was in death – cell about 15 years waiting for this sentence. There were some problems with it at the end. But there was another reason why I wrote about it. She was sentenced to death – penalty because she committed brutal murders. I agree, but she even didn’t know how it had happened. Drugs influenced her mind. She felt like someone had hypnotised her. What about these serial or brutal murderers who kill and stay in prison and after for example 10 years they are free? And the worst: when they kill again? This woman has changed. When she killed she was only 16. Maybe in prison she realised something? That film showed our justice and maybe everyone who doesn’t know his opinion about death – penalty should watch it. Something was cruel too. In one moment they stopped killing her because there was a repeal. She spent a night in a cell and they came back in the morning to kill her. I think they did such a stupid thing. She broke down because she was nearly dead and now she had to experience it once again.

But I should write about “Scream”... So, I like good films. I have got some favourite films, but there aren’t many horrors there. I prefer thrillers. But “Scream” is special. I feel something inside when I watch those films. I think I wrote most of my reflections. Of course there are some which couldn’t be written. Some directors make films and when people watch them they just watch. The good director makes films, which force deeper reflections on people. And “Scream” is one of them.