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.
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)