How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror…
The only true critic that matters is time. While Scream was a smash success upon release, it seemed unlikely to spawn six sequels (and counting) and be recognised as possibly the most influential horror film of the modern era. Horror was in the doldrums when the film was released in 1996, with slasher films particularly out of vogue. Scream changed all that, and in the last decade or so, Scream and its sequels are finally being recognised for being the game-changing phenomenon that horror fans have always known they were…
Ashley Cullins is an entertainment journalist and horror film enthusiast. Her new book, Your Favourite Scary Movie (subtitled: ‘How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror’), is a blow-by-blow account of the first six Scream films and a look forward to the latest sequel (due to drop later this year), Scream 7. Cullins follows the blueprint laid out by other franchise retrospectives, such as Never Sleep Again and Crystal Lake Memories, by running through the franchise in chronological order, offering both insights from the author and contributions from many of the people involved in the making of the films. It goes without saying that casual fans need not apply, but anyone who grew up obsessed with Matthew Lillard’s performance as Stu Macher will find much to enjoy.
While many of the stories relayed here are available elsewhere, they have never been collected in such a concise and compelling way, and the audiobook, read by Roger Jackson (the voice of Ghostface), is particularly captivating. With Scream 7 very much on the horizon as I write this, now is surely the perfect time to dive into Cullins’ extensive history of a much beloved franchise.