The World Needs Ghostface Right Now

“Hello, Sydney!” If you grew up in the 90s at some point you probably heard those words on the other side of a screen — hopefully not on the other end of a telephone line. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the first Scream movie, which was originally released in 1996.

My love for scary movies ebbs and flows, typically depending on my mood and the level of specific content. Scream, however, has always been a favorite movie series; imagine my excitement to hear of a new addition to the family! Couple that with the re-release of the original in “a theater near you”, and you can honestly say it kind of made my year.

Okay, okay… so with 2021 being the year it’s been, maybe it’s not that difficult to make someone’s year. But, at the same time, doesn’t the world really kinda need Ghostface right now? Let me be clear, the world DOES NOT need an actual Ghostface serial killer. the CHARACTER on a SCREEN, though, the world needs that Ghostface.

The world needs nostalgia and something we can all come together on. From where I’m sitting you get both of those things with the common movie enemy Ghostface. Yeah sure there are other nostalgic things out there and “common enemies”, but none of those things do what Ghostface can do… No, I’m not talking about all the murdery things… well maybe a little. But what I mean is Ghostface brings NEXT-LEVEL nostalgia.

Scream brings out the jokes about scary movies. For instance, there are horror movie survivor rules, and we should all know these rules by now. If you don’t I’ll help you out (and possibly save your life)
1. No drinking or drug use
2. No sex
3. Finally never, under any circumstances, exit a room/scene/walk away while saying “I’ll be right back.”
Scream addresses the predictability, running from the killer up the stairs instead of out the door. In fact, since Scream even the world of marketing has made commercials joking “why don’t we take the running car to leave, instead of hiding in a barn full of murder weapons?”

The scary movie culture that Scream has created brings in that layer of nostalgia like none other. And while this gives us a huge dose of 90s nostalgia we can’t help but see all of the 80s horror movie references littered throughout the story! In the first scene alone Wes Craven’s Elm Street is mentioned. The male lead played by Skeet Ulrich resembles Johnny Depp, the male lead in A Nightmare on Elm Street. And thanks to Courtney Cox & Neve Campbell you get leading ladies that even pull in nostalgia for the early 00s from their TV series Party of Five and Friends. With one nostalgic reference after the other, Scream has a unique ability to span multiple generations. All those generations are now living through “unprecedented times” — really hate those words — and we need to check out for a couple of hours against a common enemy, Ghostface. Who are they? Is it a relative of Billy this time? What grudge is driving them to go after this specific group of people? Why now? Can’t they just leave Syd alone this time?

• Co-written with Alicia Diemer