Ranking the "Scream" franchise

Hey guys what’s up! My name’s Jared and welcome to Slash It. What follows is my ranking of all four currently released “Scream” films. I’m so psyched for the next film so I wanted an excuse to talk about this franchise. These are some of my favorite horror movies; “Scream” was the first slasher or real horror movie I remember seeing (“Jaws” was either the first or the second I don’t remember). Please remember there will be spoilers for every film in the “scream” franchise that is currently out. To understand the importance of “Scream” you have to understand, we mark horror movies as “pre-Scream” and “post-Scream”. “Scream” was one of the most influential horror movies of all time. It’s incredibly self-referential and makes fun of the horror genre as a whole. The way they make their jokes and dialogue is immensely full of wit and care. “Scream” was directed by Wes Craven who is potentially most famous for directing the original “Nightmare on Elm Street.” I’ll get into the more specifics of the film at its spot in this list but for now I’ll let you know my least favorite “Scream” film.

NUMBER FOUR.

If you have seen any of the “Scream” movies before this pick won’t be a surprise to you. My least favorite “Scream” movie is “Scream 3”. There are too many problems with this movie for me to fully address what I dislike about this movie. One issue is that the script was rewritten often while they were filming. The actors were many times given a new script the day they were supposed to shoot the scenes included in the rewrite. There’s a line of dialogue that (I may be mistaken) was actually improvised by the actor where the actress in the movie starts getting mad about the rewrites. This was a huge issue for me, as well as how bad the cheesiness of this movie is. This film is even more meta than any of the other films before it. Here, you are on the movie set for the in-universe movie of “Stab” which is based on the events of “Scream” and “Scream 2”. Sidney Prescott is being chased by Ghost Face, on the set of a movie based on her being attacked by Ghostface. That on top of all of the crappy characters, crappy dialogue, and crappy scenes, made “Scream 3” the worst of all of the “Scream” films.

NUMBER THREE.

This is the portion of this post where I start to have a hard time deciding what my favorite film is because I really enjoy all of them. For the sake of this post, I’m going to put “Scream 4” here. I think this film is quite enjoyable; there isn’t anything wrong with it that knocks it down incredibly far. While the live-streaming aspect of this film is a little outdated, the rest doesn't feel out of place to this day. The only thing I can truly knock this film for is that the main plot doesn’t revolve around Sydney Prescott. This wouldn’t be a terrible thing if they took the time to fully explore the characters that it does focus on. Instead, we get a rushed character. She’s not really all the bad but still not as great as it could have potentially been. If my memory is correct, the bad guy is trying to kill Sidney Prescott so they could become incredibly famous the way Sidney did. This was actually a very important point to make about the way today’s society works especially with all the terrible tragedies that have happened where infamy really is the core problem with them. While I don’t think this movie is the best out of all of the scream movies, the point they were trying to make with this film still holds true.

NUMBER TWO.

The number and the movie match. My second favorite “Scream” movie is “Scream 2”. I really love this movie, but not for the reason I love all the others. This movie is good in some parts but atrocious in others. The film tries to make some of the characters at Sidney's college believable but instead, they just come off as incredibly corny and cheesy. There is one of the worst scenes in any of the “Scream” films in this movie. Cutting out a lot of the plot, there is an entire song every one of the main characters, except Sid, sings in the school cafeteria. A full-on musical scene in the middle of this slasher film completely out of nowhere. The first time I watched this movie I managed to sit throughout it. Every subsequent viewing, however, I skip it to spare myself the time I waste watching this insane scene. The one thing that bothers me otherwise is how in one scene Sid has the complete opportunity to kill Ghostface yet doesn’t. Otherwise, the characters in this movie have great chemistry and are likable. One of my favorite parts of this movie is the Ghostface reveal. While I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, it’s revealed to us differently than the film before it and the films after it. This movie has one of the best openers of any “Scream” film. A couple goes to see the new “Stab” movie (the in-movie version of the original movie’s plot). The boyfriend goes to buy popcorn at the concession stand. On the way, he stops at the restroom and while he is in there he is stabbed through the bathroom stall and left to die. This entire scene is cut between images of the crowd going wild at the movie. Ghostface comes back into the theatre and sits next to the girlfriend. He stabs her and she stumbles around screaming and manages to make her way in front of the screen. She gets to the top and she screams, then we cut to the title card. There is something so special about that introduction that I’ve never forgotten.

NUMBER ONE.

Well, this might not surprise anyone but my favorite “Scream” film is the original. There are few movies I’d say caught lightning in a bottle but “Scream” is one of them. The characters in the original “Scream” are funny, smart, witty and overall incredibly enjoyable to watch. You have Randy as the forever meta character who really defined “Scream” as a whole. Then you have the amazing Sidney Prescott who would go on and play a role in every “Scream” thereafter. This movie sets itself apart by being the first to set the horror genre as one of being self-referential and full of jokes. “Scream” is the movie that completely changed horror movies forever after. It defined an entire wave of slasher films that followed it. This movie has one of the best reveals of any “Whodunnit” movie I’ve ever watched. Spoiler alert but at the end of the movie it’s revealed that Sidneys’ boyfriend and his friend were actually behind the mask. The entire time you’re thinking it’s only one person because that’s all you can assume. The story on why they are trying to kill Sidney is that her mom was sleeping with Sidney's boyfriend's dad. This caused the boyfriend’s mom to leave her dad, which ripped their family apart. The way this movie presents itself is why it is still one of the classics and truly stands the test of time. If this at all seemed boring to you, I left out a lot of the story and amazing things so I don’t spoil them for you.

Well, that’s it thank you for reading. If you’ve seen all the “Scream movies”, what does your ranking look like compared to mine? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, remember, treat every day like it’s Halloween.