Scream

More about the book

Wes Craven's "Scream" (1996) emerged at the point where the early eighties American slasher cycle had effectively morphed into the post-"Fatal Attraction" (1987) trend for Hollywood thrillers constructed around slasher movie tropes. It was a spiritual successor to Craven's unpopular but critically praised Wes Craven's "New Nightmare" (1994), a revisionist sequel reviving his most lucrative creation in a postmodern story about the filmmaker's own loss of creative control over the "Elm Street" franchise. "Scream" appropriates the multiple layers and extensive genre referencing of "New Nightmare," albeit in a much more commercial form carefully crafted to avoid alienating teen audiences who were not around for the original slasher cycle. its deconstruction of a seemingly moribund sub-genre was hailed as original, despite echoing the approaches of several fin-de-siècle eighties horror films. This book offers a detailed exploration of the "Scream" phenomenon, including its position in Craven's filmography, the script's prominent use of earlier genre films (particularly "Halloween" [1978]), the studio marketing campaign and the film's place in late twentieth-century horror cinema.