I saw a tweet about Scream’s opening scene.

I’m reminded of how David Mamet talks about how the unconscious unknowingly informs a screenwriter’s and director’s instincts.

Well, Scream 2’s opening is not only traumatic but intensely symbolic.

Phil takes his scared girlfriend, Maureen, to see a horror movie based on Scream.

The Scream series calls attention to its genre self-awareness and, by doing so, Scream 2 gestures that it’s quite real.

Maureen clocks the film’s absurdity.

Importantly, Phil is oblivious.

I said this before. But, I really don’t think black characters are killed first solely because they’re trivial.

If a killer is able to kill a black person (a person who frightens white imagination) then the killer is even more fearsome.

So, Phil says the four words.

Phil goes to the bathroom and is about to take a piss.

Read that as: he’s about to call our attention to his phallus.

As our mind is called to that, he strangely hears someone talking in the stall next to him and tries to listen.

He’s then stabbed in the *brain*.

A masked man with Phil’s jacket then returns to Maureen.

As she goes to hold on to him...

Pause.

Read this as me screaming this slowly.

The person who Maureen thinks is her protector returns in a mask.

She clocks again that something is wrong.

This man then quickly and violently begins stabbing Maureen.

She tries to get away.

This black woman tries to communicate that she’s in actual pain.

She even stands in front of everyone and cries for help.

The audience then cheers wildly, assuming it’s their entertainment.

As mentioned, the entire franchise parodies the horror genre so it’s hard to tell when Wes Craven is operating outside of that parody.

But, it suffices to say that there’s a reason we’re introduced to Maureen like this.

Wes is priming his white male audience.

One thing I really took away from Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste is that “racism” often doesn’t work to describe what’s actually happening.

But, there’s a reason that it made sense to Wes for Maureen to have a a particularly long death, in a genre where women have long, sadistic ones.

Maureen was right about everything, no one believed her, she asked for help, and everyone ignored her.

I mean.

I simply don’t know how that isn’t a microcosm of everything that is currently happening in America.

Maureen was also an original hot girl.

May god bless Maureen Evans.

You want to know the weirdest fucking shit that I’ve never known when to raise.

This book I read said that the film *was* called Scary Movie throughout all of filming.

But, Harvey fucking Weinstein didn’t like the name and decided on a new one after he heard this 1995 song. https://twitter.com/chefkay__/status/1316393713455702017

Black people don’t “influence” American culture.

Black culture is American culture.

I don’t know how much clearer this can get.

A motherfucker who will be buried underneath the jail.

But, also a great book for anyone trying to learn how the indie film world was transformed.

Red cog on the right.

This thread is officially too long.

But, the chapter on Scream is really great and contextualizes how everyone freaked out when Scream

“earned more than any horror film had in more than 15 years”

and set off a frenzy to find more films like it.

Another film did that too.

annnnd I’m done. But, someone said Scary Movie ruined Scream 2’s opening.

I big disagree and think Keenen, Shawn, Marlon Wayans and Regina Hall brilliantly called out what was lurking in Scream 2.

white audiences wanting to see the death of a black woman they’re annoyed with.

Wes uses Ghostface behind Maureen to figuratively show “the killer is behind you”.

Yes.

But, he cuts back to the audience and shows them masked as well.

It’s a brilliant visual idea that the audience is also responsible for her murder.

Lot of symbolism happening here.