My Obsession With Scream: Crossed Wires and Skeet Ulrich

By Jamie Broadnax (@JamieBroadnax)

I had an obsession with the 1996 sleeper hit Scream.  I remember when the movie trailer first aired on television; I saw Drew Barrymore wearing a white sweater and a tacky blonde wig that looked like it was purchased from a local five and dime store.  I was actually intrigued to see Barrymore in a horror film and I wanted to see what this movie was all about.

However, I never actually watched saw Scream in the theater.

I decided to do something a little different.  Rather than go to the movie theater to see Scream, I decided to make my own film.  At the time, I was attending vocational school and I took a TV Production course.  I worked diligently to convince my teacher to make a short film and have the class work as my cast and crew.  He was impressed by my ingenuity and my willingness to take what he taught me and apply it to an actual film production of my own.  My film was called Crossed Wires.  In hindsight, I would classify it more or less as a parody of Scream and it was certainly the Scary Movie of its time without the off-color humor.  I planned to purchase the same exact mask as Ghostface in the original film, but during that year Scream was so popular that every Halloween costume shop in my neighborhood was sold out. I finally found some hole in the wall costume store that had an orange colored ghostface mask and it was the last one in stock. 

With a reluctant sigh I decided to get the cheap orange mask because it was either wait several weeks for an impending order and miss the opportunity to film this movie with financial backing from my TV production class or film this movie using an orange knock-off and get the ball rolling on getting this film made.  I chose the latter.

It was an amazing opportunity to cast my classmates as well as have them work as crew to get my film made.  It was cheesy, campy, funny, and God-awful terrible but we all loved it.  Perhaps if one day I can figure out how to transfer a VHS format into a YouTube clip on the web, I’ll show upload it for all of cyberspace to see.

My Scream fandom however doesn’t end there.

I kinda had a thing for Skeet Ulrich.  Well it was actually more than a thing per se, it was a pretty hardcore obsession. I knew nothing of Skeet Ulrich prior to Scream’s cinematic release.  The only thing I did know was that he was dead-ringer for Johnny Depp.  Some would argue a low-rent version of Johnny.  Whether he’s considered “low or high rent,” any remote similarity to Depp equals being hot in my book.  I read this People magazine article a few months after Scream was released and my Crossed Wires short was completed.  At this time, the movie was in preparation for new release on video.  Luckily, I was an employee at a video store and had the fortunate luck to receive screeners (new releases before they hit the shelves).  I received an advance copy of Scream and immediately watched it.

I fell in love.

First of all, let’s talk about the scene where Billy Loomis sneaks into Sidney Prescott’s bedroom and starts dry humping her on the bed.  Totally sexy! The look on his face when Sidney flashes him as he climbs out of her bedroom window was everything to me.  However, my favorite scene, which I have rewound it so many times that I can recite every line, is when…

Oh. Wait a second.  I guess now is the time to inform you that the following information contains spoilers, so if you have never seen the film Scream I suggest you stop reading now.

*Ahem*

So as I stated, my favorite scene, which I have rewound it so many times I can recite every line, is when Billy and Stu confront Sidney and Billy confesses to her why he killed her mother.  Check out this clip below. Classic horror movie sexiness!

Yes I was crushing hard on a serial killer, but c’mon who didn’t think Billy Loomis was sexy?  Shortly after I watched Scream, I perused through my video store and looked for every single title starring Skeet Ulrich.  I watched atrociously terrible films like Touch and films like Last Dance where he’s in the film for like five seconds.

Yeah, like I said I was kinda obsessed.

Scream is arguably one of the greatest horror-not-so-horror films ever made.

About the Author

Jamie Broadnax is the writer and creator of the niche blogsite for nerdy women of color called Black Girl Nerds. She currently creates content along with a team of contributors about a myriad of topics that speaks to the geek community. Jamie also is the VP of Digital for the SheThrives Network. She has written content for Madame Noire and AfroPunk. You can follow her on Twitter (@jamiebroadnax)