Scream: Legacy

Directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, when Scream made it's debut in 1996 it not only revived the slasher sub-genre of horror, but also set the stage for the new generation of teen films that grew at the end of the 90's and the early 2000's.

Growing up I came from a family of movie lovers. My grandparents in California kept hundreds of movies in their home, both VHS and DVD at the time, and they would often send me, my mom, and my sisters movies to enjoy as gifts. On one of the movies they sent us in late 2000, there was a promotional trailer in the previews for a collection of movies called "Cool Movies On DVD". The list of movies in this collection consisted of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Wild Things (1998), Urban Legend (1998), Jawbreaker (1999), Cruel Intentions (1999), and Go (1999). When I first saw this preview I immediately noticed two things: one, my uncle who shared a place with my dad at the time owned almost all of these movies and he tried to get me to watch them often. The second thing I noticed is all the actors and actresses who were the stars of the movies in this collection had previously starred in the Scream films. The connection between the stars of these movies and the Scream films might come off as irrelevant or just a chance coincidence to most people, given the small world of Hollywood's working environment, but I noticed a particular trend of influence with these actors and films.

The first two Scream films and the spirit of charisma that the stars of the films brought to the big screen not only created the first two entries in the series, but also helped to shape many other films that came out at the time. When Scream first premiered in December of 1996 it not only took the slasher genre out of a current state of mediocrity, but also launched the genre into a new level of mainstream Hollywood appeal. Horror films and in particular, slashers, were always appealing in their own independent right, but prior to Scream they were never staples on the more A-list mainstream landscape. Scream was comprised of a savvy tone and clever sense of storytelling that was led by a very likeable, ingenue cast of performers including David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Drew Barrymore, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich, who all made the film into a hot ticket on a mainstream A-list level. Most of these performers were growing in star power prior to Scream due to movies and tv shows like The Craft and Party of Five starring Neve Campbell and Friends starring Courtney Cox. With Scream these actors were launched to a bigger platform of stardom that demanded more of their charming personalities that won over critics and audiences alike in Scream.

Immediately following the success of Scream in 1996, Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson was given the green light to write the screenplay for the 1997 Columbia Pictures slasher film, I Know What You Did Last Summer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddy Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillippe. Much like it's whodunnit-style predecessor, I Know What You Did Last Summer carried the same spirit of savvy storytelling with a hip young cast at it's lead. With the success of both films and their coming sequels, there was a new definition of what it meant to be the Hollywood it-girl and it-guy with stars like Neve Campbell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Freddy Prinze Jr. These stars embodied the late 90s profile of what it meant be the strong willed, yet easy going girl-next-door with characters like Sidney Prescott from Scream and Julie James from I Know What You Did Last Summer and they also embodied what it meant to be the all-American leading male heart-throb with characters like Billy Loomis portrayed by Skeet Ulrich and Ray Bronson portrayed by Freddy Prinze Jr. in both films, respectively.

After the debut of these new character types starting with the slasher revival led Scream, this display of charismatic talent continued when many of the stars of the first two Scream films played in the slashers that followed up the new revival including; I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), and Urban Legend (1998). Though this trend started with the new wave of slasher, it later became clear to Hollywood studio heads that the charisma of these actors was also needed in the broader picture of teen films beyond just horror.

As the 90s were coming to a close we started to see the stars of both the Scream films and I Know What You Did Last Summer appearing in young adult dramatic thrillers like Wild Things (1998), Jawbreaker (1999), Cruel Intentions (1999) and Go (1999), with each film seemingly focusing less on a horror-thriller aspect and more on a witty wise cracking sense of dialogue between characters, as well as a meta-style of self aware storytelling, all of which was first introduced in Kevin Williamson's earliest written work. These films would even divert from just being R-rated graphic stories to more fun-loving PG-13 teen dramadies like Can't Hardly Wait (1998), She's All That (1999), and Bring It On (2000) as well.

When examined close enough one could also argue that Scream opened the door for films like the Fast and the Furious series to be started in the beginning of the 2000's, considering that all the films in the Fast series were produced by Neal H. Moritz who found early success producing I Know What You Did Last Summer and most of the other films previously mentioned in the "Cool Movies On DVD" list that followed the success of Scream. All in all, the Scream series didn't just revive the slasher genre, it also set the tone and identity for what the ideal teen film should look like at the end of the 90's and the early 2000's, a legacy of identity that still lives larger than ever with the newly released Scream (2022).