Scream Fanatic

Let me paint a picture for you. So it’s 1997 and me and my big sister Rudy are hanging out over my dad’s house for the weekend. My pops shares a place with his best friend who is like my uncle and whenever we come over he lets us borrow his copy of the movie Scream to watch. This movie had just come out at the end of 96’ and was literally one of the biggest movies in the world at the time. It also had a sequel that was on the way at the end of 97’ and would level the playing field of horror and slasher at the time. The foundation of what would be my top favorite movie series ever was being laid.

It was during the weekend of my 7th birthday that the highly anticipated Scream 3 was released and later that same year that I went to California for the first time to attend my family reunion. While staying at my grandparents house they let me and my older sister take home a movie because they had like a million of em’. The movie we took home was Scream 2, which was funny considering that the first movie that was playing on tv in what used to be my mother’s bedroom was Scream 3. After taking Scream 2 home and revisiting it I was genuinely traumatized by what I saw.

The first kill of the movie is Phil Stevens, portrayed by Omar Epps, who is one of my favorite actors was truly uneasy. I mean he got stabbed in the ear for being nosy. I always thought the idea of being stabbed in the ear would be the worst and Scream 2 certainly reinforced that. It also didn’t help seeing Casey Cooper, portrayed by Buffy the Vampire slayer actress Sarah Michelle Gellar getting stabbed in the back and tossed off a balcony didn’t help. Now these weren’t the most graphic death scenes, but they were very realistic and afterwards I was stuck with the ruminating idea of how that could really happen to me.

By Christmas time of that year my dad finally bought me Scream 3 and I finally had the golden trilogy rounded out. It was in these years that I had a lot of fun taking my Scream movies over to my friends and cousin’s houses where we would bingewatch them and I’d tell everybody every detail of the movies and the actors playing in them like a big nerd, but I had no shame in my geek game. During Halloween Ghostface was my main go-to for who I wanted to dress up as and Scream is also the movie that made me study the art of filmmaking at a young age. It was because of Scream that I started paying close attention to the cast and crew of every film I watched. I knew somehow some way I was gonna take part in the world of filmmaking and it is my fandom of the Scream series that led me to that path.

I’m such a fanatic for Scream that when Scream 4 came out in 2011 I actually had my grandma come pick me up early from school that Friday afternoon so I could go to the DMV to get an ID made so I could watch Scream 4 in theaters that night just in case I got carded that opening night. Needless to say to that was one of the most fun, yet stressful nights I ever went to the movies.

Scream is also the main reason why filmmakers Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven are some of my favorite storytellers of film. They’ve both inspired my style of storytelling as a writer and of course the actors in the films are all some of my favorite actors. I’ve even had the pleasure of meeting two of them: Skeet Ulrich who plays Billy Loomis and David Arquette who plays Dewey Riley.

Ghost face is my top favorite horror icon, so the fact that I got to meet the original Ghostface is amazing. He was the nicest and coolest person you could’ve met and he gave me some words to write by on my journey as an author. When I met David Arquette I wasn’t ashamed to admit I almost fainted. This is my number one favorite actor and he too was the nicest and most interactive guy you could’ve met.

Fast forward to the present day and I am still everything Scream. Of course I love all the modern day tv shows and movies about Scream. Documentaries and analysis videos on YouTube are a must and I stay geared up in Scream apparel all the time. Shirts, hoodies, beanies, even Halloween lights. You name it and my friends and family members make sure I have everything Ghostface. Scream is also the biggest inspiration behind my first fictional novella that I’m currently working on. With Scream 7 coming out tomorrow and how obviously excited I am for it. I think there’s nothing left that needs to be said about me being a Scream fanatic.