The joy of being a collector...

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

...is when you procrastinate sooooo long about buying a certain series of horror-satires on DVD, due to the fact that there's no decent versions of the films available globally, that by the time you get around to thinking about them...they're on Blu-ray!

Scream Trilogy announced for Blu-ray!*

I know I'm probably in the minority for liking these films these days (such is the fashionable thing to bash films that resurrected a whole genre), but I liked the first two and never ever got around to the third. :p

Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that they're All Region...

*source: DVD Active

[Ian Miller Flattery and foreplay Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Miller]

(such is the fashionable thing to bash films that resurrected a whole genre)

You mean ironic, "hip", and self-serving deconstructions from writers and directors with no affection for what they're satirizing? That's one genre that could have stayed gone!

Of course, I saw all three theatrically, but that's beside the point!

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

Well...I liked the two out of three I saw and am happy to see them coming to Blu-ray. ;)

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I really dug the first one and am not ashamed to admit it. I don't know if I ever saw 2 or 3. If I did they obviously didn't make much of an impression on me.

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

I thought the first one had merit, but not enough to want to see more of the same in 2 and 3. And if the films resurrected a whole genre which one was it? Shitty new horror movies and remakes out the ass that rarely produce anything worth paying attention to?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

There was a huge wave of teen-centric slashers that followed in Scream's wake, so yeah, it did resurrect the genre - even if most of what was resurrected wasn't so hot (though I think the Final Destination films are fun).

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

The first one was decent, outside of Lilliard and the horror film knowitall who annoys the piss out of me. The second one had the guy from Sliders in it, no? I think that i saw the third one but it was horrifically bad.

I still watch the first one if it comes on TV.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I think a lot of the hatred for Screams comes from what it inspired and all the lousy cash-in's and knock offs that followed it. If you take those out of the equation (which can be tough as there were so many of them) it's a pretty clever and suspenseful picture, I think.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

The first SCREAM film was just okay in my book, but what got me at the time was the reverence for it's "meta" aspects - a slasher film where the characters are aware of that genre's cliches, allowing the filmmakers to bend the standard rules for those types of movie. So many reviewers praised Williamson and Craven for messing with these genre tropes, and yes it was arguably the first time it had been done with slasher films specifically, but we'd seen this in other subgenres already - werewolves in AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON; vampires in FRIGHT NIGHT and THE LOST BOYS; zombies in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. Really, I don't think SCREAM is any better than those previous films, and as far as resurrecting the slasher film, the 9th FRIDAY THE 13th film had come out only 3 years prior to SCREAM, the 6th HALLOWEEN movie only 1 year, and Craven's last entry in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series 2 years previous. It can be said that it rebooted the subgenre, perhaps, but it's sequels and imitators never did much to twist those old cliches into something fresh and ultimately led to the string of remakes of the "classic" slashers.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Some good points and you're right in claiming it rebooted it rather than resurrected it. Slashers never really went away and probably never will as they're cheap to make and have a fairly loyal built in audience. Studios know this and will exploit it as long as they can. But did Williamson and Craven really get praised more than Landis and the rest? I don't know that they did. It just so happened that there was a lull in between when those guys were doing the self referrential thing and when Wes and comapny did it.

I haven't seen it in a few years and am actually rather keen on checking it out again when the Blu-ray streets. I don't know if I need all three but I'd gladly buy the first one as I never bothered getting it on DVD.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

But did Williamson and Craven really get praised more than Landis and the rest? I don't know that they did. It just so happened that there was a lull in between when those guys were doing the self referrential thing and when Wes and comapny did it.

I don't think that they were given any more or less praise, but I do recall at the time not seeing reviews for SCREAM that mentioned the films I called out. The general reaction was "Isn't this unique and clever what these guys did here with these horror movie cliches." without referring to the fact that they were following a trail laid out in the previous decade by those other filmmakers, and many reviews neglected to make the distinction between horror films in general and the slasher subgenre specifically. I was sort of obsessed, as I tend to get about trivial stuff like this, and read as many reviews as I could find at the time in the hopes of seeing someone point out the fact that what SCREAM did really wasn't anything new, but they all kind of said the same thing, from what I remember.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

Here's Roger Ebert's review of SCREAM - you can take what he says here and apply it to AWIL, FRIGHT NIGHT, LOST BOYS, ROTLD, and yet those films don't come up. Instead this review implies that SCREAM was the first film to do what it did - "True, they went to the movies in ``The Last Picture Show,'' and the heroes of ``Clerks'' worked in a video store. Even Bonnie and Clyde went to the movies. But those movies were about the *act* of going to the movies. ``Scream'' is about *knowledge* of the movies: The characters in ``Scream'' are in a horror film, and because they've seen so many horror films, they know what to do, and what not to do."

Again, the characters in the films I listed all knew, or thought they knew what to do in their situation based on what they'd seen in movies. They each have moments in which characters more or less say "This is how you deal with werewolves/vampires/zombies, and I know this 'cuz I saw it on the late show.". SCREAM indulges in this a bit more than those other films, but not by much.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

So your issue isn't so much with the movie but then how it was received by critics for being unique when it really wasn't, at least in regards to it's self referrential traits?

A lot of people thought part of what made Shaun of the Dead great was that it sort of did the same thing, the guys had seen zombie movies and what not and thought they knew what to do and the film was praised for this as well and I don't know that when it was that much credit was given to ROTLD for doing something similiar years earlier.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

Yes. Again, the movie in and of itself worked for me - I certainly didn't hate it - but over the years I have allowed it's rep to taint my view of it. You know me - I get goofy about that stuff.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

We all get goofy about things now and then. So did you have the same reaction to Hot Fuzz as well?

And where does that leave flat our parodies like the Scary Movie series in the ToyBoy lexicon of good and bad? Or did you know what those because they mostly suck?

I guess it's a fine line between being 'meta' (I hate that term) or self referrential and being a parody. Obviously the Scary Movie series takes it to a whole different and more ridiculous level but the humor in Scream is one of the film's strong points and what makes it fun in my opinion.