Transcript

Randy (Scream)

That's why she always outsmarted the killer in the big chase scene at the end. Only virgins can do that. Don't you know the rules? What rules? You don't— Jesus Christ, you don't know the rules?

Stu (Scream)

Have an aneurysm, why don't you?

Randy (Scream)

There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie. For instance, number 1, you can never have sex. No, no, no! Big no-no! Big no-no!

Stu (Scream)

I'm a dead man. Sex equals death.

Randy (Scream)

Okay, number 2, you can never drink or do drugs. No, the sin factor. It's a sin. It's an extension of number 1. And number 3, never, ever, ever under any circumstances say, I'll be right back, because you won't be back.

Stu (Scream)

I'm getting another beer. You want one?

Randy (Scream)

Yeah, sure.

Stu (Scream)

I'll be right back.

Randy (Scream)

You see, you push the laws and you end up dead. Okay, I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife.

Scary Steve

It's 2 Dads 1 Movie Shocktoberfest, a celebration of the spookiest movies of the '80s and '90s. Now here are your hosts, Scary Steve Paulo and Nightmare Nic Briana.

Steve

Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve. And I'm Nic. And today we are wrapping up Shocktoberfest II. Electric Boogaloo with the 1996 Wes Craven meta slasher Scream. And this is one of my picks. I brought this one to the table and I'll be honest, like, this is one of my— one of the movies I point out to where I say like, oh, this is like maybe the best movie that is a kind of a parody or at least is poking fun at its genre while also being like a crazy good example of the genre. Yeah, yeah. Right. It can be kind of like, oh, we're going to be super like you know, referencing slasher movies and we're going to be very meta about the rules of a slasher movie or whatever. And then we're also going to make it like a fantastic fucking slasher movie. Yeah, for sure. For my part, I think I first saw this probably not until college and like I saw it like once and then kind of forgot about it. I can't remember if I saw it in college. I know about 10 years ago my wife was like, we were talking about it and Heather like suggested we watch it or that I watch it or something. I don't even remember exactly. It just was a thing that You know, she had actually liked, and I was like so much more into horror movies in general that I was like surprised that she liked it. So I like went back and watched it, and I realized like I don't know that I'd ever seen it all the way through. Like you know this kind of thing where it's like I remember seeing Scream 2 for some reason, and like owning the Scream 2 soundtrack. I feel like that was like a really dynamite. Like you know the '90s had so many great soundtracks, and I feel like Scream 2 was one of them.

Nic

What an efficient way to get your singles. Like rather than having to buy individual albums, get a soundtrack, get like four bangers.

Steve

Plus I think like there was a Dave Matthews Band song that wasn't on one of their albums. Oh very good. That was that was my jam back in the late '90s. So, um, what about you, Nic? What's your history with Scream?

Nic

So I think that I saw this, uh, when it came out in the theater. Yeah. Um, but then not since then.

Steve

Okay.

Nic

Because when I was rewatching this, I was like, there's certain beats and certain things that I remembered from it, right? Right. And I remembered, you know, a couple of the characters and the actors that were in it. But yeah, I didn't know. And I had this period in my life where I wasn't really into horror for like a long stretch. Honestly, I've gotten way more into it since we've started doing the podcast. Like when we did Shocktoberfest last year and got to get exposed to The Thing and watch the first Nightmare on Elm Street again and stuff. And like, I'm much more into this kind of movie now. So this is a great time for me to rewatch Scream. But yeah, I just remember this was like a big-ass deal when we were young, and then it spawned so many Scream sequels. And then in addition to that spawned Scary Movie. Right. Which spawned all these sequels. And my wife and I actually did watch Scary Movie 2 the other night. It's fine. Did that hold up? I don't know as much as those hold up, right?

Steve

Right, right, right. I feel like if it's not Mel Brooks or like the ZAZ guys' parodies, I know the Wayans had some good ones, but the parodies a lot of times kind of fall flat when you're 10, 15, 20 years removed from what they're referencing. You know, it can be a little rough for.

Nic

Sure. And the Scary Movie and those like Epic Movie and Disaster Movie and the things, those make like 15% of a funny movie and then a bunch of garbage. So if you like that 15%, it's definitely for you.

Steve

I remember watching Not Another Teen Movie. I don't know if you've ever— and, and I loved all the movies that it was parodying. Uh, and when they referred to the, the lunchroom at the high school as the Anthony Michael Dining Hall, I felt like that joke— I— the movie's good from that. Like, anything the movie does that's bad is made up for by Anthony Michael Dining Hall, which is like the best pun I've ever heard in my life.

Nic

So I saw that movie well before I saw a lot of those. And now, like, since I have a teenage daughter, my wife wants to show her these things. So she's watching 10 Things I Hate About You, and I'm like, oh, he's doing the Jamie's Got a Gun thing from, uh, Not Another.

Steve

See, I was way into She's All That and not all those movies.

Nic

I missed all that stuff. I never— yeah, so, uh, it's good to get reintroduced. But anyway, Scream, this.

Steve

Is like— this is Shocktoberfest.

Nic

Classic, influential, and, uh, yeah, I'm great— very psyched that we're talking about this today.

Steve

Very cool. All right, let's jump into the facts on the movie Scream. Uh, Scream was released on December 20th, 1996 with an R rating, and apparently Craven had to cut a lot from the first scene and the climax in order to get that R. The MPAA kept coming back with NC-17 ratings on the this movie. It has a running time of 112 minutes, was directed by the late, the great Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars, I mean, it stars almost everybody that you saw on either like a Teen Beat or like Maxim magazine. It feels like at this era. Right. But Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, and Courteney Cox kind of take the lead-ish parts of a very ensemble film.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Scores, we got a 78% from Rotten Tomatoes, very respectable. A 7.5 from IMDb, very respectable. And then from the homie Siskel and Ebert, of course, This is like, I could have guessed this just without, before even looking it up. But Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs up. Gene Siskel gave it a thumbs down. Why are we surprised? We're not surprised. Siskel's a putz. On the awards tip, you know, this was not like an Oscar winner. This was not like a BAFTA darling. Didn't make any of the festival circuits. Right. But it had its celebrants and its plaudits. And so at the 1997 Saturn Awards, one of our favorites here on the show. Oh yeah. It won for best horror film. Neve Campbell won for best actress. Kevin Williamson won for best writer. It was also nominated Let's see, Skeet Ulrich for Best Supporting Actor, Drew Barrymore for Best Supporting Actress, and Wes Craven for Best Director, all nominated, did not win. It also was a winner at the MTV Movie Awards in 1997, Movie of the Year, Best Movie.

Nic

Oh, right up the alley of the MTV Movie Awards. Absolutely right.

Steve

And then nominated but not winning that year was Best Female Performance, Neve Campbell for that. And then at the Fangoria Chainsaw Award, it won 4 out of 5 of its nominations. Skeet Ulrich, again nominated for Best Supporting Actor, did not win, poor guy. But then at the Chainsaw Awards, it won Best Wide Release Film, Best Actress for Neve Campbell, Best Supporting Actress for Drew Barrymore, and Best Screenplay for Kevin Williamson. So lots of activity in the whole horror, fantasy, sci-fi era, you know, sort of of the awards shows. Uh, let's see, budget. So this is where Wes Craven comes in, right? I mean, this guy just does a ridiculous amount with very little. On a $14 million budget, which like the amount of fake blood in the climax alone like had to cost— like that's, if you know, that just had to cost a ton of money.

Nic

Corn syrup. Yeah.

Steve

Oh my God. Uh, on a $14 million budget, it pulled in $173 million in the box office. Jeez. 12.3 times what it cost. Uh, and again, for a very hard R that had to be cut down from NC-17. But, you know, and, and apparently a Christmas release. Like, this wasn't like a Halloween, you know, type release or whatever. It also wasn't like a Feb— I could see this being a February thing too. I feel like horror movies do well around Valentine's Day. Yeah, they're often good date movies. But no, like, Christmas is kind of a funky place for this one to show up.

Nic

And this was a word-of-mouth movie for sure. Like, this was probably not a huge opening weekend kind of thing because, like, as much as these actors are all known to us now, right? At the time it wasn't like, oh shit, the new Lillard joint's about to drop. Like, people weren't all excited. So this is like Wes Craven creating something, Kevin Williamson, that people loved over time and like grew and grew as it was in the theater. So fucking awesome to see that, man. What a— I need him to do some investing for me.

Steve

Yeah, for sure. Uh, all right, let's jump into Scream. So we start with not technically a cold open because we do get the title card right away, but it's this like opening sequence that's like— that acts very much like a teaser or a cold open kind of thing. We have Drew Barrymore playing a character named Casey. She's at home. First thing I always love about watching movies like this is you go, oh, look at all these landlines. Everybody's got a house phone and like whatever, which is not the thing. And she's doing the Jiffy Pop, the old stovetop.

Nic

So cinema-friendly. Jiffy Pop is just unbelievable. It's like putting a timer in the bottom of the screen. It's amazing.

Steve

And it starts, you know, eventually it's gonna smoke and burn, right? It wouldn't do that in the microwave. But real quick, I just wanna say like, as we get started here and Casey's gonna get a phone call in a moment, I wanna point out something that I read, which is that Barrymore was originally attached in this to play Sidney, to play the Neve Campbell character. And apparently it was her idea. I'm not 100% sure about this. I couldn't like verify this, but it sounded like it was her idea that she play Casey instead. Because she said, if the most recognizable face in the cast dies in the first 5 or 10 minutes or whatever, the audience is not gonna know what to think, who to trust. Yeah. Like what could happen. It's a very like, you know, precursor. I feel like George R.R. Martin and Game of Thrones, whatever, like, you know, they took the cue here where it's like, you know, let there be somebody you think is like, The guy who's gonna be around a while. Oh no, cut his head off. You know, it's like kind of thing. And so that apparently was Barrymore's idea, and and I think it works great because she really is by far the most famous person in movies at this time.

Nic

One hundred percent.

Steve

Courtney Cox obviously had the Friends thing going on and everything, but like she was not known for movies at this time.

Nic

And Barrymore's face, like the trailer for this, it's like it starts with her. She's like the thing that's presenting the phone and everything.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So I love that. I wonder if that trickled down, that advice trickled down to Steven Seagal with executive decision. He was like, "Yeah, if the biggest star in the motherfucking movie gets killed." First five minutes.

Steve

I mean, why do I think I just I just maybe maybe I'll give it to him. Maybe Steven Seagal was that.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Altruistic.

Nic

I think sure yeah no he seems like notoriously generous guy that everyone loves to work with.

Steve

I think so. I think so.

Nic

Okay, so how does this this scene start off here?

Steve

Right, so Casey gets a phone call and it's this kind of funny sounding voice. You know, it's like I you know you can kind of tell listening back to it's like what it does sound sort of like a voice modulation of some kind like hey how's it going? You like scary movies? You know. This stuff. And she's just kind of playing along at first. Yeah. Um, but then the, the, the caller, you know, they're talking about your favorite scary movie. She says, well, my favorite scary movie is Halloween. Uh, you know, the guy with the mask, whatever. And then he says, have you seen Nightmare on Elm Street? And she's like, yeah, the first one was scary, but the rest of them sucked. Which is a great little line because Wes Craven only did the first one.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Uh, and then he says something about being able to see her. I want to know, what's your name? I want to know who I'm looking at. And she's like, you mean talking to? And he's like, no. And he calls her Blondie. And that's kind of what sets her off realizing Right, because she's in this whole thing. So all this movie was filmed up in like Sonoma and Marin County. Yeah, like like Santa Rosa kind of area.

Nic

Definitely looks that way.

Steve

Yeah, and so it's like a lot of really remote homes, you know, really nice, but they're kind of like out in the middle of nowhere. And so she's you know, and and of course it's this gorgeous big house. So like the entire ground floor feels like it's windows. It's a huge patio door and like big front windows, all this stuff. So now she's worried somebody's actually looking into her house and looking for. And, uh, and yeah, then, and then she—.

Nic

So he says, uh, tell me your name. That's right. I want to know who I'm looking at. Yeah. And that kind of freaks her out. And, you know, there's a couple times where she'll say like, forget this, like, I'm hanging up, or you're silly. And then, you know, gets the callback and it gets like more and more intense. And they do such a great job of like building that.

Steve

Yeah. Uh, another interesting thing, I can't remember the name of the actor, but the actor who does the voice on the phone is, is never either of the people that ended up— okay, right, at the end it's a different actor who was never seen on set. So, and when Craven did these phone calls, the phone calls were done live. So the actors responding to the phone calls from, quote, the killer do not know what the person looks like who's on the phone. They have not heard, they have not read the lines or heard the, like, it's all new in the moment.

Nic

Oh, interesting.

Steve

So they're reacting a little more naturally to like this thing. And it was something about Wes Craven was like, I didn't want them to get to know that actor and get to know him as himself. I just wanted them to understand that his voice meant danger, you know, whatever. This is a very cool little thing.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

But basically she starts saying the line, my wife's favorite line in this thing, which is, I have a boyfriend, he's big, he plays football, and he's gonna fuck you up or kick your ass, whatever she says, something like that. And, and he's like, oh really? Like, you know, you should turn on the patio light. And sure enough, there's this, you know, classic high school jock. He's got the letterman jacket on, whatever, but he's duct taped his mouth. He's already bleeding and he's already been— looks like he's been roughed up and he's like strapped to a chair. In her back— you know, in her backyard. There's a moment here where he gets attacked, right? She turns— she's told to turn the light back off, right? And he pleads with her not to, kind of through the gag or through the thing. And then we don't see— like, in the version I watched, I remember seeing a version of this movie where we see a knife go through Steve's gut and, like, his guts spill out. Yeah. And I feel like that I must have at some point in my life watched a director's cut of this, like an unrated version, because that's the kind of thing that Craven had to do to dial back in order to get the R rating instead of the NC-17. 'Cause basically Steve gets gutted, and there is a moment a little bit in just a few minutes where she'll run past him and we do see some entrails or whatever. But like, I remember watching a version of this where it's like, right across the middle.

Nic

It's gruesome. I mean, and then, you know, using teenagers and stuff, it makes it so much more intense and fucking crazy. So she's being asked by the person on the phone like trivia questions about scary movies. 'Cause at first in the conversation, it's like a little bit, Flirty. It's a little bit familiar, and she thinks, "Oh, maybe it's someone I know just messing with me, or it's my boyfriend or whatever." Yep. So he's asking her like, "Oh, we're gonna do some trivia on scary movies. Play a game. What's your scary favorite scary movie?" She says Halloween. Right. Right. So he asks, "Who's the killer in Halloween?" That's right. Yeah. So he's asking these trivia questions. The second question is, "Who's the killer in Friday the 13th?" Love that trick question. She's like, "Jason. Jason. It's Jason." He's like, "Wrong." Right. And it turns out, like if you've seen the first Friday the 13th, it's Jason's mother who's doing the killings in that one. Before Amalavorty rises from the fucking lake or whatever. Um, so yeah, so that is what triggers them to like, well, Steve's fucked. Yep. Like, you got that question wrong.

Steve

You got it wrong. And then, and then the, the killer kind of busts through into the house, and then Casey's trying to run. She is able to like run around and kind of avoid for the most part, and then gets outside. And it's kind of interesting, she like— the, now the popcorn is like burning, so it's filling the house with smoke. She keeps peeking back into the house and sees the killer, like, running around and looking for her or whatever. So she kind of feels like, maybe I can get away. And then a car starts coming up the road, and she recognizes the car. It's like her parents' car. You know, we don't know that right away, but, like, she recognizes the car. She starts running towards it. Well, that's when she's getting— now I think the killer comes through the window.

Nic

She bursts through the window. Right, yeah. Oh, man.

Steve

And is just chasing her down and, like, ends up, you know, she's on the phone still. So it's like the phone call hasn't ended, or at least her end, you know, isn't hung up. And so then she gets stabbed, like, tackled and stabbed, and the killer, like, starts dragging her off, but she's still got the phone. So then her parents get home, they see like the broken back door where the guy busted in, the smoke in the house, the popcorn, like whatever. And they're like, where's Casey? And so the mom like picks up the phone to dial 911 and she can hear, since the receiver on, you know, on their end is on, her like moaning and kind of trying to space say something. It's very terrifying.

Nic

Very Fugitive coded.

Steve

Oh my gosh, so bad. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

And the most horrifying thing about this scene is like when she first gets stabbed, she gets stabbed through the lung. Oh yeah. Or we're meant to believe, right? Because she sees her parents and you see her doing the, Right, like, cannot— it's like that feeling when you're having a dream where you're trying to scream and you can't get any sound out. Like, so viscerally, like, that works so well. Yeah. And again, to your point about Drew Barrymore doesn't want to be, uh, or, or wanted to be killed, like, at the beginning you're like, okay, well, she's kind of getting away, or she's not, right? Like, so there's a ton of tension in this scene.

Steve

Yeah. And for me in particular, because my sleep paralysis demon looks exactly like Drew Barrymore, it was very triggering, uh, for that moment. But yeah. Um, so yeah, so basically, you know, her parents get home and then, and then they bust out, back out to go like get the cops or do whatever, like go to the neighbors or something like that, like the Dazas. And that's when they see her like hanging from a tree having been disemboweled. Yeah. Uh, completely. And so—.

Nic

Killers make quick work of stringing people up. That's one thing that— it's like digging holes and stringing people up. Hannibal Lecter stringing those guards up, you know, when he's in his like cage within a cage thing. 2 minutes. Like, how long does that— like, you already have the ropes made?

Steve

That was artistic too, because he had the guy splayed open. Like, this is at least a little messier.

Nic

Swing there, like, before it showed that there was a swing set. But yeah, um, absolutely incredible way to start this movie. So.

Steve

Yeah, and that's how— that's how we kick it off, that whole opening sequence. Like I said, it's not technically a cold open, but it really plays like one, right? Because this is just setting the tone, setting the storyline. We now have a situation where 2, you know, again, teenagers— Andrew Barrymore was like 21, I think, when she made this movie. Almost everybody else that plays a teenager in this movie was old enough to like rent a car. Like, these are not— no, not real Beverly Hills 90210 style teenagers. I think Lillard, Ulrich, and Kennedy were all like 26 or something when This movie was made. Um, but yeah.

Nic

Oh, and, uh, the other thing is that the, the smoke alarm is not going off until the parents are already there, even though the kitchen is filled with smoke. This is why you should never have a large house. Always have a small house so that when it catches on fire, the smoke alarm gets it, uh, sooner.

Steve

It's very important. It's very important. Yeah. So, uh, and then there's also like— yeah.

Nic

So this is like 15 minutes, 13 minutes, I think. Great scene though, to like kick us off. Yeah. And then we flash to— we're at school.

Steve

Well, no, no. First it's, uh, uh, at— we, we see Neve Campbell playing Sidney.

Nic

Oh, she's in her bedroom. That's right.

Steve

At night. It's like the same night, basically. Uh, and later that night, and she's in her room, she's wearing like, you know, this little like night shirt, nightgown thing, whatever. But she's like getting ready for bed, and there's like a knock at her window, and she opens her window, and it's her boyfriend Billy, played by Skeet Ulrich. And he's like sneaking in through her window and kind of like, you know, it's this standard, uh, more '80s but also '90s sort of thing of like the boyfriend sneaks in, do you want to bang? No, you don't. I won't pressure you. How about some over-the-top Like, it's all this kind of negotiation that teenagers sort of get into, and like, how far can you go? My favorite version of this ever is, um, in High Fidelity, John Cusack is talking about when he was a teenager, his character was a teenager dating this girl in high school, and he would try to touch her chest over her clothes, and she would push him away. So he would reach between her legs, and he said it was like, it was like getting turned down for, you know, it was like asking to borrow $10, getting turned down, and asking for $1,000 instead, you know? And it's like, I've always thought that was kind of a funny way to put it.

Nic

Um, her boy— and Skeet Ulrich's shithead boyfriend here, right? Oh yeah. Very. And we don't know anything about Sidney's backstory yet at this point, but still he's just being like, hey, you know, our relationship reminds me of the TV-edited version of The Exorcist. Yeah, we're basically saying like, hey, we don't do anything graphic enough to not be shown on TV, you dumb bitch. Like, he's so—.

Steve

He also mentions like, we started hot and heavy, right? Gee, I wonder what happened. And as we do learn Sidney's sort of story here, it's like, you fucking asshole. Seriously, first of all, until we really know he knows exactly what happened, even knowing what everybody knows about what happened, you know? It's like, that's shitty.

Nic

So he's, he's putting the pressure on her, but she's like, not like, okay, see you tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, we're all done. Uh, great '90s moment here. Uh, not great in terms of actually good, but very '90s is this fucking slow cover of Don't Fear the Reaper. This is such like a this era thing. And actually, this is very much a Ryan Murphy thing. Like, all his TV shows, like the American Horror Story, I feel like there'd be some slowed-down version of a song that's like not that good, you know? But if you put it in like this emotional, like singer-songwriter vein, it sounds like—.

Steve

It's also sort of the way Bridgerton did like all modern songs in like Victorian instrumentation or whatever, but it's all like, you know, Nicki Minaj or like Beyoncé, but it's like played with like a, a, you know, a string orchestra or whatever. Like, yeah, right. Um, but yeah, so the other thing we get in this scene that we just want to mention is that, uh, Sidney's dad comes to the door. Oh, I thought I heard screaming or whatever, you know. Um, and, and So, and we— it establishes that he's going away for work. Like, he's going to bed, and then in the morning he'll be up and gone before she gets up in the morning. Basically, he has to like travel somewhere for work and he's gonna be gone for the weekend. So.

Nic

This is somewhere to get paid a shitload of money based on her house. Unbelievable.

Steve

Really, all these homes, every house in this movie is just stunning. And it's crazy, except for Stu's at the end, which looks like a fucking haunted house. But like, you know, that looks like the Clopex place.

Nic

But like, uh, yes, yes, totally.

Steve

But yeah, so, so then, uh, Yeah, so then we cut to like, so Dad's gonna go, we're just establishing all these bits, right? Billy's the boyfriend, he wants to bang, she's not prepared to do that. Dad is gonna be gone for the weekend. We figure this is like a Thursday night, Friday's tomorrow, and then the weekend, right? Dad's not gonna be around. Very important. So then we cut to the morning, uh, it's— we're back at school. There's news vans everywhere because 2 teenagers who go to this school, Woodsboro High, Woodsboro being the fictional town that we're sort of like dealing with here, Uh, they're dead and, and gruesomely, right? These were, these were, you know, they were gutted like fish. They were murdered kind of thing. And so, uh, we get established a few more characters here. We meet Tatum, played by Rose McGowan, who's Sidney's best friend. Uh, and I'll be totally honest here, like, I thought Rose McGowan was one of the hottest things walking on the earth back in the mid to late '90s. Like, absolutely, she looks stunning. Uh, she looks—.

Nic

I mean, it— Yeah, I was like, I was like, whoa, you know, like, oh, and I know she dated Marilyn Manson for, for a while. I'm like, oh, Marilyn Manson, great decision maker. Yeah.

Steve

Um, that girl has done— that girl has dealt with some shit, that's for sure.

Nic

So, uh, oh my God, yeah. Um, so it's so like— it's so funny how irresponsible this whole situation is, right? Like, there's no time for like notifying next of kin or whatever, just like media frenzy at the fucking high school, right, with a bunch of kids. We have, uh, Courteney Cox's character Gail—.

Steve

Gale Weathers.

Nic

Looking like April O'Neil in this scene.

Steve

For sure, with the yellow. This is a good poll.

Nic

Yeah. Um, and she's so like— yeah, the way that they're in these, these kids' faces and everything, it's, it's really unbelievable. But we find out, you know, uh, what Tatum says to Sidney is like, oh, this is the worst thing since— and then kind of trails off, right? Right. So we find out pretty soon that like Sidney's mom was killed about a year ago.

Steve

Raped and murdered. Very, like, very brutally. Exactly. And, and so we also get an introduction here to, uh, the principal, Principal Himbry, played by Henry Winkler in, I believe, an uncredited role. I don't think he's actually listed in the credits, which is wild because it's Henry Winkler.

Nic

He's the anti-Steven Seagal. A, everybody likes him, and B, he doesn't care if he gets credit or not.

Steve

And the range—.

Nic

He's on the spectrum, the Seagal to Winkler spectrum. We're going to place people here,.

Steve

Right? Like Brad Pitt is more Seagal, but Tom Cruise is a little more Winkler, you know? Otherwise you might think those guys are similar, but they got different attitudes about this stuff. Um, but yeah, so, so basically, yeah, Sydney's mom a year ago, brutal murder, terrible. The principal comes off a little creepy to begin with. He's like very, uh, uh, whatever, kind of like You know, the kid— there's some kids who put on the mask. The whole point of it is that the mask and whatever that they find, uh, or no, wait, yeah, that's right, they find a mask. Or is that later?

Nic

So there's a— let's see here, because the kid—.

Steve

The kids are running around.

Nic

First we meet the friends.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

So, so first we got, we got Sydney and Tatum, we got Rose McGowan and Neve Campbell, and then they're meeting like their other— the rest of their crew, right? Right. Who is, uh, Matthew Lillard.

Steve

Stu. Stu.

Nic

Yep. And then Randy is.

Steve

Played.

Nic

By Jamie Kennedy, right? And then Skeet Ulrich is.

Steve

Billy, right? Billy met him. But yeah, so it's like the 5 Billy.

Nic

Loomis. Isn't Dr. Loomis the doctor in in Halloween?

Steve

He's in the witch. I don't know. No, no, no. In Halloween, the Michael Myers Halloween. Yeah, that's right. It is Loomis.

Nic

So there's a there's a shout out there.

Steve

Oh my god!

Nic

During this scene, I mean, they're really Lillard and Kennedy must have had a bet to see who could be the most hateable. Like throughout this little scene here, Jamie Kennedy is like Hollywood said, "Hey, what if?" Is there a way we could do that? And he, he fucking calms down later, but this scene, I'm like, dude, if I have to sit through the whole movie of this.

Steve

I mean, at least he's minor. And I'll be honest, like, I, I, I don't want to hear any, uh, uh, slander against Lillard. I'm a big Matthew Lillard fan. Uh, I really think he's, he's wonderful. And I think that he's one of the few—.

Nic

Well, I hear a lot of good stories of him as, like, a person.

Steve

But there's also, like, a range he has that's kind of wild. Like, there is, 'cause especially when you do learn—.

Nic

Yeah, I hate his character, which is the function of it. Exactly, right, exactly. But there's only so much of that that you can do. That type of behavior. Because think of the guy who's like, that's what a cool guy acts like, when they watch this movie. And then they're just all like, like the fucking— so, uh, flip.

Steve

Side though, Jamie Kennedy, it feels like it's just being Jamie Kennedy at times. And I don't— yes, I don't get that vibe as much of like—.

Nic

And then when he's normal, they're saying, hey, be less Jamie Kennedy for this scene. And for Lillard, they say, hey, can you Jamie Kennedy it up a little bit?

Steve

Exactly right. Yeah. But.

Nic

They're,.

Steve

They're having.

Nic

This talk about like the actual murder, and they're being super insensitive and super like gross about it. Like, I mean, total boys trying to like shock their, their female friends kind of thing, right? But they're basically doing like a— Matthew Lillard's doing like his O.J., like, if I did it, right?

Steve

Yeah, yeah,.

Nic

Thing of like how he would have done it.

Steve

Yeah. Um, okay, so then we get back to Sidney's house. Yeah, that's right. So we're at Sidney's house that night and she is gonna stay the weekend at Tatum's. And so she's like waiting and Tatum said like, I'll pick you up at 7 or something like that. She falls— Sidney falls asleep on the couch And it's like dark by the time she— which is like way later than 7. I got confused at first because then Tatum calls and she like picks up the phone, um, and says something like, oh, like, I fell asleep. Oh, it's, it's late. It's after 7. And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, like, unless this is the dead of winter, like, yeah, it's dark out. It would be way after 7, you know, kind of thing. Um, I think she was just saying you were supposed to come and snap me. Right. That's my bad. But basically it's like, okay, I'm on my way, kind of thing. And then she hangs up the phone, phone rings again, like, and I think she answers something like, what'd you forget? Or something like that. And this is like you know, hi, Sidney. Like, it's the killer, right? And so the killer calls her and she, she does not play along the way Casey does.

Nic

No.

Steve

Um, and the killer is a little more—.

Nic

She thinks it's Randy.

Steve

Yeah, she thinks it's Randy.

Nic

It's like her immediate thought. Exactly. 'Cause he works at a video store. Like, he would be the guy calling with like movie trivia and shit like that.

Steve

They do establish that he's like a big movie nerd, you know, kind of thing. And she, so she, you know, was like, thinks it's Randy, whatever. And then finally the killer's like, well, I'm not Randy or whatever, you know? Uh, and then now she, you know, and she makes a joke, she makes a comment about, I hate those movies where the girl runs up the stairs instead of running out the door like she's supposed to. Yeah. Well, she like locks the door, the front door, and then unlocks it because the killer says, well, I'm on your porch, whatever. So she goes out there and like, haha, I called your bluff, nobody's here. Goes back inside and does the little chain lock on the front door, and then the killer busts out from the hall closet and like attacks her. And this was— I really like this because this is like the first time we see how Sidney reacts to being in danger. Like Casey, like Tried to hide and then tried to run. Like that was kind of her thing. And Sydney immediately is like, "Fuck you, Shane. I'm gonna fight back." Like whatever happens, right? But because she put the chain on the damn door, that's not a quick. You know, you can't just do that quickly. So she's not able to get the front door unlocked. She runs up the stairs. I think it's like a nice little very.

Nic

Clever. I mean, the way that things fall into place in this movie, it's just like wow. Shout out that Kevin Williamson.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, yeah. And when And he says like, uh, if you hang up on me, you'll, you'll die just like your mother. And like, oh right, fucking crazy, right? So she gets chased upstairs. Uh, she can't— she picks up the phone, she gets chased into her bedroom, right? And then does another slick move where she closes the door and then opens the closet so that when the door tries to open from the hallway, it like gets stuck on the closet door. Which actually has his hands—.

Steve

The fun part was established when her dad knocked on her door. The reason her dad didn't just come in when Billy— is that she had done the same thing.

Nic

Fucking screenwriting.

Steve

Exactly. Before that even.

Nic

Um, and the Scream guy, his arm is through there with a knife swinging at her. She picks up the phone, the phone is dead, but luckily I can go to 911.com.

Steve

It's so weird. It was so weird. But she's got like an AIM chat room 911 thing, dude. I don't understand it. It's like suddenly we're in WarGames and like Matthew Broderick's putting the phone on a little receiver. Exactly. Calling into Whopper. Like, it's so bizarre. Like, what's the nature of your emergency?

Nic

So as she's doing that, it shows that she establishes contact and is saying like, what's going on? You know, the killer's kind of gone, and then there's something at her window,.

Steve

Right? And Billy's very much—.

Nic

Startles her.

Steve

Startles her. And it's Billy again, right? And he's coming back through, and she— again, we established just the night before, this one night ago when Billy popped in, that he had never done that before. This is not like the normal way Billy comes over. Yeah, right. Especially given that Billy knows Dad is gone. Neil is, is not there. So it's very strange. But he immediately is like, like, oh, I saw him, I scared him off, I scared him off, or whatever. But like a cell phone drops out of his pocket, which is like— it was '96, so like, yeah, people had cell phones, but like not very many people had cell phones, especially teenagers. Just not real common. And this is like, you know, basically Sidney is now terrified of Billy. Yeah. 'Cause it's like, you're there, you've got a phone, and like, what the fuck's going on? And then because she did contact 911, almost immediately showing up is some sheriff's deputies, including Dewey, which is played by David Arquette and is Tatum's older brother, who is also like a sheriff's deputy and just a few years older than maybe like, 21 or 22 or 24. I don't know what he says, but it's like he's just a few years older. And, uh, they find the mask and the costume and all this stuff. No knife or anything, but they find those things. And apparently they make a point to say this is sold at every— he even says five and dime, which is like nobody in fucking '96 would have said five and dime. Folded every five and dime in the state.

Nic

Oh, we need to small town vibes this script up a little bit. Can you change that to five and dime? And the way that Dewey— so, so Casey runs down the stairs fucking horrified. Or Sidney, and opens the front door, and the mask is right there, and you're holding it up. And this is Dewey holding the mask.

Steve

It's so bizarre. Almost like it was in front of the peephole. Yes. Right? Which is like— and this is the thing we should mention, right? They do— Williamson and Craven do such a good job in this movie of letting us believe any number of, like, 7 different characters could be the killer.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

There's so many red herrings and misdirections and different things. You know, we now have good reason to suspect Billy. He was there. He's got the cell phone. Okay, we have some reason to suspect Dewey only because like also he was there very conveniently. Yep, he's got the mask. He's weirdly holding it up to the thing. Like there's very strangeness going on kind of stuff. Um, but they do—.

Nic

And he also probably would have known that her dad was gone because he would have been aware that, that Sidney's going to their house.

Steve

Yep, exactly right. He's got all the right information. Yeah, so there's all this stuff that's like, okay, well, it could be these guys. Um, but yeah, so basically Dewey and the other cops, they arrest Billy, and Billy is like yelling out to Sidney, like, Sidney, tell them, like, it's not me, tell them. And she's kind of like, I don't fucking know. Yeah, I don't know. It's not you. You were there, bro. Like, you showed up. And that's kind of what she says, like, well, he was there. Yeah, you know. And he's like, yeah, the cops said I scared him off or whatever. But it's like she doesn't really buy it, um, nor should she, frankly. Oh.

Nic

God. Uh, um, yeah. And, and they're, uh, and they're trying to find Sidney's dad, and he's not answering. Like, he had given her information about, I'm staying at this hotel, like Call me if you need me. So Sydney's at the police station now, and Billy's being held, right? And it's fucking crazy. I mean, you're in a small police station, but like Billy's across the room from her, right?

Steve

Which is like in a holding cell, just like in an office.

Nic

He's just chilling. And as they're leaving the police station, the whole thing is swarmed again by cops, or by press, which again is like, you're getting news pretty quick. I think they have a cop like in Seven. They have a Somerset or a Mills like selling them some information so they could show up there. But Gale gets in Sidney's face, you know, asking questions, and then Sidney just punches her, which is nice.

Steve

She slugs her. And so we get this little— or not quite yet. I think next is Sidney goes to Tatum's house. Yep. And Tatum's mom is like— they're kind of in bed, but Tatum's mom is like, oh, there's a phone call for Sidney, right? And she's like, oh, okay. And she gets it. My dad? And she's like, I don't know. So she goes and takes the phone call, and it's the killer again. Yeah. And so now we're establishing, oh no, the killer called Sidney while Billy is in jail. Ooh, maybe it can't be Billy, right? That kind of thing. Um, and then here's the part we get a little bit of news information that gives us some exposition about what happened to Sidney's mom. And so the storyline here, I think we've seen enough to this point in the movie, we can kind of figure it all out. But like, uh, basically, uh, there's this man named Cotton Cotton Weary, I think, or— yeah, Cotton Weary. And I had totally forgotten that he was played in his momentary appearance on screen by Liev Schreiber.

Nic

I was surprised too. I was like, that's the best actor in this whole movie.

Steve

Absolutely, 100%. Pure acting talent. By a mile. By a mile and a half. Henry Winkler is next. Yeah, you know, as likable as he is, like, you know. Um, but yeah, like, Liev Schreiber is like in this little, uh, uh, you know, footage clip, news footage clip of like having been the person arrested and is on death row. Yeah, for the rape and murder of Sidney's mom. And Gale, Courteney Cox's character, does not believe that he did it. She says the only actual, like, evidence or whatever that, like, put Cotton away was Sidney's testimony.

Nic

Sidney's identifying him.

Steve

Yeah. And she's like, I don't believe that you actually saw him, like, all this kind of stuff, whatever. And I might be jumping ahead a little bit. These little bits of information come in several parts of the movie. But basically, that's why Sidney hates Gale. And that's why Gale is so interested in what's going on, because she's writing a book about Cotton Weary and, like, the actual murder and all this stuff. And Gale's convinced that Cotton Weary didn't do it. Exactly right. It's convinced there wasn't any evidence other than, uh, Sidney's, uh, uh, testimony, and that she very much, just given the circumstances of like it was dark or like whatever, it could have been somebody else. Like, oh, you saw a jacket and not like whatever, all this stuff. Um, but yeah.

Nic

Um, so, so they're back at school again, right?

Steve

And Billy's been released, right?

Nic

And, and as Sidney— so now the word is out that Sidney has been attacked by this, this killer, and she's got this other reporter in her face Like, how does it feel to be almost brutally butchered? And then Tatum like pulls her away, and then the reporter's like, the people deserve to know. It's like, Sidney, you gotta bring more punches next time because she deserved a damn uppercut there.

Steve

It was really bad. But now there's all these people because this mask is so commonly available, we're told. Which, by the way, just side note real quick, it was actually a generic Halloween costume mask before this movie.

Nic

Oh, okay. I wasn't sure if it was made.

Steve

Okay. Yeah, the production design crew created one Um, and, you know, Craven was like, okay, whatever. And then apparently he or another production assistant or somebody stumbled upon this mask and, and sort of outfit. It was called, um, like— It was called William Shatner, right? No, it was called— that's Michael Myers. Uh, no, it was called like the, you know, Ghost Grim Reaper or something. Was like the generic name. Yeah, it was used. And they— and Craven just liked it way better. Um, the Weinsteins, who are, you know, the executive producers of this, kept pushing him to change it. They're like, it looks too goofy, it looks too silly. Yeah, don't— we're not doing this. You're not using this mask. This mask looks awful. And so Craven cut together a very, very quickly cut together a version of the opening sequence with Casey to show to the Weinstein brothers. And after that, they said, okay, do whatever you want. Nice. Like, this works fine. And so it really was like a generic, you could find it. Like, you know, I don't remember seeing it before this movie, but like, arguably, depending on what part of the country you're in, you might have been familiar with that mask before this movie came out. Like, it did exist as like—.

Nic

That's crazy.

Steve

Like a five and dime, you know?

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Like Halloween masks.

Nic

And is it produced by the evil mask company from Halloween 3?

Steve

Oh no, it's not. Silver Shamrock? No, no, unfortunately that was, uh, it was, uh, it's too generic for even them, you know. That's, that's, it's not Irish enough.

Nic

So, so these students, uh, like you said, they're, they're running through the halls with the mask on to fuck around with it. And again, we're 2 days removed from like 2 students being brutally killed and then someone else being attacked, and we know this thing's still on the loose. And they're running down the hall and Winkler takes them into the office and he's fucking pissed. He's being tough guy.

Steve

Oh, he's got these huge scissors. These fucking like opening of a new gas station cutting ribbon scissors.

Nic

These are only for mayors in fake in like ceremonial hard hats.

Steve

Yeah, it's like if you've got something in between bonsai and a hedge that you need to need to trim, you know? But he's so but he's like you know shaking them at the kids and he's like oh you monsters your whole generation da da all this stuff and it's like this is like is the principal the killer? Like he's certainly comfortable wielding a weapon like all this.

Nic

They are the size of the Lebowski dream sequence. We're gonna cut your Johnson. Off scissors. Um, but yeah, so he's like, he's telling these kids like, you're both expelled.

Steve

Yeah, you know, immediately. Which is like, I don't think he has the power to do that.

Nic

No, but, but I do like that as a first move, just because I would be like, this is so egregiously awful what you're doing. Like, A, the school should not be operating for— it should be no school the rest of the week, right?

Steve

At least. Like, yeah. Which, like, now I'm not even sure what day of the week it was. Like, I thought it was going to become the weekend, but then it clearly isn't. So it's the middle of the week sometime. That, that part I was just wrong about, because they keep having to go back to school.

Nic

Right.

Steve

Um, but here we get, uh, so then, uh, Sidney goes to the bathroom. Yep. And there are these 2 girls talking about how Sidney, like, might be the killer herself, or like, you know, whatever. This is like cheerleader chick who's got this crazy theory about how, you know, she went crazy because her mom got killed. Yeah. And since clearly Billy didn't do it since they released him, so obviously that means he's completely innocent if you're like arrested and released. Like, clearly you did nothing wrong. You know, all this kind of stuff. And she's like hearing this in the stall, and it's like hard for her to hear. And finally these bitches leave. She goes back to—.

Nic

These two girls in the thing, terrible. The other, the one who's speaking less with the short hair, head to toe, worst look I've ever seen. Like clothing, haircut, every single thing. I'm like—.

Steve

Also, again, on the topic of actors who are not teenagers playing teenagers, the cheerleader one is a mother of 2. Like, this is not a person who's like, Like, real young, this woman. Like, I've seen that lady at soccer games. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that is a soccer mom right there.

Nic

It is crazy. Um, so Sidney— so these, these awful— and again, great device to like move things along. These awful girls leave and Sidney's like kind of checking for feet under the stalls.

Steve

Well, she starts hearing something.

Nic

And she's like, what's going on? Right? And then she sees a couple feet.

Steve

Well, because she hears Sidney, the whispering. Sidney is like whispering. Oh yeah, yeah. See, I watch all these— I know I watch all these with headphones in, so all I heard was cars driving by the front.

Nic

Of my house.

Steve

But yeah, so she hears whispering, whatever, so she starts looking around. And yeah, then like 2 boots sort of like come down, like as if they were sitting maybe up on the toilet, and then the bottom of that outfit, right? So she knows what's up now. Now, you know, bust— the killer busts through the door of the, of the, uh, stall, tries to attack her. She like does a slide move.

Nic

I know, that was a very cool move.

Steve

Very, very, uh, uh, True Lies bathroom fight kind of going on.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

Um, with no guns. But yeah, so So she slides out and is able to like run away and get away, and the killer doesn't follow her out of the bathroom. Like, obviously, like, that's the thing. But now, like, uh, the, the classes get suspended. Yeah. The principal calls out over the PA like, hey, with everything going on, like, everybody go home, no classes. The, the, uh, police are putting together a 9 PM curfew. Nobody's allowed to be out after 9 PM. Get on out of here. Um, and then there's this great moment where now the principal's basically alone in the school. He's got the mask, he's like looking at it, but he's kind of like, like looking around, or he thinks he hears something or whatever, and he looks out into the hallway and it's like, huh? And he's like— and the guy looks up and it's, it's this janitor dressed like.

Nic

Freddy.

Steve

Krueger. Oh, that is Wes Craven. Nice dress. Yeah, and the hat and the, and the red and green striped sweater. And he goes, huh? And the principal goes, not you, Fred. And like, it's the little things like that I fucking love in this movie.

Nic

That is like a top-tier random janitor moment, right up there with Billy Madison. What about you, Sideburns? You want some milk? I'd rather have a Like, I think those are neck and neck for me. Like, I really like that. Um, yeah, so, so the principal's there and he keeps hearing— he hears a knock on the door again, right? And he comes out, nobody's there, uh, and he ends up getting—.

Steve

And somehow the killer is like behind the door in his office, or it's not— it's hard to tell exactly how the killer gets to where he needs to get sometimes. But sure enough, you know, he, uh, Principal Himbry closes the office door and there's the killer, attacks him, kills him. Him, just, you know, stabs him, the whole deal. So now, like, the principal's dead too. So we've got what? We've got, uh, Steve is dead, Casey's dead, the principal's dead. Sidney was attacked 2 or, I guess, twice really, not 3 times, but you know, there's all this stuff. And then there's a great line in here. Tatum and Sidney are like chatting again, uh, and I remember just saying that Tatum says something about watching a Wes Carpenter movie. Yes. And I just love that line too, where it's like she doesn't know well enough to separate Wes Craven and John Carpenter.

Nic

Uh, they also say some shit. I forget who mentioned this because I just wrote the phrase down. Yeah, they mentioned Richard Gere's gerbil. Yeah, the Richard Gere gerbil story, which is very funny. Uh, it's having kind of a renaissance lately. Um, and again, the news people before classes are suspended standing outside there— 2 are already dead, who's next? It's like irresponsible. Fucking stop it.

Steve

Well, and Gale, it turns out if they mention something— I think when she was talking to Dewey at one point She's on, I don't remember what they call the show, but it's essentially an Inside Edition or Hard Copy kind of thing. It's not, you know, it's definitely like news magazine style. Gotcha, yeah. Not like Channel 4 News or some shit. Like, she's like a tabloid, like a TV tabloid person. And so there is that element of like, no, it has to be sensational 'cause that's the whole point. That's why people tune in. This is also, you gotta remember, like really early in the 24-hour news cycle, cable news kind of phenomenon, right? Like, I mean, that really started in like the early '90s. We're only a few years into things like CNN and Fox News and whatever. Really being right.

Nic

So it was like a current affair and stuff like that with the things that we had.

Steve

Exactly. And that's, and that's who she's like based off of or whatever. So yeah, so now we're at the.

Nic

Video.

Steve

Store. That's right, we get to the video store where Randy, Jamie Kennedy, works, which makes a lot of sense. Yep. Did you ever work at a video store? You worked at a Blockbuster?

Nic

I worked at a theater.

Steve

Oh, that's right. You just—.

Nic

Not at a video store. I worked at a theater for a few years. I had a bunch of friends that worked at Blockbuster. Matt Jones, Matt Silbert, everyone named Matt. Yeah, I mean, that, that job again in high school was like, that was the, the holy grail of things.

Steve

I did the warehouse. It was like across the.

Nic

Street from Blockbuster, so we did music.

Steve

And, uh,.

Nic

Then you're in line early for the tickets when you had to physically line up to buy Pearl Jam tickets. Yeah, fuck. So this is, this is very nice though. And, and the Randy character, and then now I flip on him because, yeah, from this scene on I'm like, okay, he should have been like this at the beginning, right? I don't like him being so weird at the very beginning.

Steve

It's like too much Malibu's Most Wanted at the start or something.

Nic

He has a hard time turning that off.

Steve

Yeah, I think so, exactly. Yeah, 'cause he starts off as like the, almost like as if Seth Green in Can't Hardly Wait was parodying him, even though that movie was later parodied in many ways. Totally. That's what it feels like, until you're right, at this point now he gets kind of picked on. We see that he's like, yeah, he's quote friends with like Stu and Billy, but they don't actually like him. They just like fuck with him.

Nic

He's like the screech of the group. He's for sure. He's the stray guy who's like been a childhood friend, but doesn't have a girl, you know, know, um, and, and he's kind of talking about the video, the, uh, horror movie formulas and stuff, right? You know, this is the way things happen.

Steve

And he's saying too, like, that he's suspicious of Billy. He's like, oh man, if you were— if you were— that's out— that's in bad taste, right? If you were like a suspect in a brutal murder, why'd you be hanging out in the horror movie section or something like that? Yeah, which is maybe a little much, but, but yeah, it's like, uh, you know, we get all this stuff and he starts laying down— you're right, like all these kind of— he talks a lot about the— he's the meta horror guy, right? Like, a lot of the stuff that comes in the movie, uh, is, is all about, uh, you know, basically just like it comes from him. It's because he knows movies and he knows horror movies.

Nic

Um, it's interesting that they're kind of doing the thing that they always do with like a, like a vampire or a werewolf movie where they have the person who's explaining like, well, you know, the garlic thing's actually bullshit, but they can't be near holy water, and like running all that down. And then they're turning that into like the slasher killer, and that's its own type of thing. So very cool with Randy going through there. Funny line is that they're talking about like if you were in a movie, who would play you?

Steve

Okay.

Nic

Yeah, right. And Sidney is Sidney. They're talking about who they play. And she says, with my luck, they'd cast Tori Spelling, who plays the Sidney role in Scary Movie.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

So again, like just, just these guys all winking at each other behind the scenes.

Steve

Well, and funny thing too, I didn't mention this earlier about the name Scary Movie in particular. That was originally the name of Kevin Williamson's script. Oh, funny. And it was actually changed by the Weinsteins after production started. So production started on this movie as Scary Movie, and the Weinsteins came in and said— because they got to put their fucking chubby little fingers in there. Yeah, they're like, no, that's like too generic, we don't want that. Like, I think they possibly even said they were concerned about the copyright or something because it's such a generic term or whatever. So they came up with Scream, and Wes Craven was basically like, okay, fine, that's fine. Like, it's still sort of generic enough that it'll work. But then when the Wayans wanted to do their parody, it's like, well, Scary Movie's right there, man. So good. You get to use it. But yeah, so the key here is that Stu, the Matthew Lillard character, is throwing a party tonight. We don't get the sense of why his folks are not around, but they're not apparently. I don't think he even says— Because he's 24. Right, exactly. He's fucking 26 and has a mortgage. Um, but yeah, so like, that's— they're, they're like renting a movie. Like, Randy's like, I'm gonna bring over like a Halloween or, or, uh, I know he says prom night or whatever, like a couple of Jamie Lee Curtis, you know, type movies.

Nic

Yep.

Steve

And so, so then, uh, everything we see, we get this little montage almost of like all these these things in town closing down for the curfew, and it's— again, it's still light out.

Nic

I know, they're saying, they're saying the curfew's at 9 PM. It's already been established a few days ago it's pitch-ass black at 7 PM, which is what I thought. And then we've got like a mom having a picnic with a little kid in like the park and like quickly scooping him up and running away. It's like, it's 3:15,.

Steve

As if an air raid siren just went off and the Purge is about to begin. Oh shit, we gotta get home. Like, give me a break. Like very weird because Tatum and Sydney are still food shopping. Yeah, they're supposed to bring all the food apparently for this enormous party, this big old party, fucking 7,000 square foot haunted house. Um, because when we get this establishing shot of Stu's house,.

Nic

It's.

Steve

Crazy.

Nic

It's huge.

Steve

Ridiculous.

Nic

Yeah, and there's a, there's a scene I really liked with the, the sheriff and Dewey. Yeah, kind of talking back and forth about their theory. But it's funny, the sheriff's out there smoking a cigarette and Dewey's like, you know, I thought you quit, whatever. And Dewey's like got an ice cream cone. And then it keeps showing back and forth. The sheriff will take a puff of the cigarette as Dewey's taking a lick of the ice cream. Really funny.

Steve

There's also a moment there where I swear we get a focus on the boots of the sheriff because he like steps out the cigarette. Oh, yes. That I think was meant to evoke the boots in the bathroom. I don't know if they were the exact same boots. I didn't go back and check. I think that's a great point. But I think that was another sort of like, could it be this guy? Right. Like, you know, there's so many of those things.

Nic

Or Dewey has the same boots. Or something.

Steve

Yeah, exactly. Because we definitely like Dewey, we get, I think, as a legitimate, it could be him. Like, they try that. I don't know that the sheriff, we get enough pieces of that, but like Dewey, Neil, you know, Billy, like there's so many people that get— I mean, Randy, for a while we were led to believe it's Randy. Like the principal, there's so many people that they let us think could be the killer, which is one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Nic

Yeah, it's very well done. Um, so we're at the party now.

Steve

Dewey has brought Tatum and Sidney, I think, like, like given them a ride.

Nic

Yes. And then Gale is there, like, not far behind. And Gale and Dewey are being very flirty with each other. It's like we see the real life relationship happening, right? Between— what an odd pairing.

Steve

Yeah, that never made sense to me. I guess it's one of those— like, look, as an overweight, bald, funny guy, I really should respect the idea that sometimes being funny is the way into a girl's heart. And David Arquette must be fucking hilarious at some point in his life because I don't really see it, but like, that's gotta be what happened, right? He must be a funny, funny guy.

Nic

I've heard her, like, years ago in interviews, talking about him, and, you know, she's just like over the moon. Everything he does is brilliant. Oh, and he does music, and I love when he does the— sings these songs so soulful. And it's really funny because she used to date Adam Duritz from The Counting Crows.

Steve

That's right, yes.

Nic

And it's funny for Adam Duritz to be like, she said all that stuff about my music. David Arquette just playing a guitar at a campfire is getting the same props as August and everything after. What the fuck?

Steve

But apparently Courteney Cox's type is weird-looking dudes who like are vaguely musical. Like, that's kind of like her guy, I guess. Like, artistic weirdos is Courteney Cox's type. I missed my— I missed my chance, I guess. Yeah.

Nic

Um, so Gale— Gale has kind of gone into the party with Dewey, and Dewey's like, oh, she's my guest. And Dewey's like fucking with people, like, hey, put that beer down. Are you— ah, just kidding.

Steve

Which is like, that is actually a minor drinking alcohol, and you are actually a law enforcement officer. It's probably something you ought to actually deal with.

Nic

Um, and she manages to, to put a camera Yeah. In the party. Yeah. Very discreet. Just cameras sitting on top of—.

Steve

Sitting on a VCR or whatever. But I do love that this camera thing works because, or the way it works, 'cause it's got like a 30-second delay.

Nic

Brilliant.

Steve

So fantastic. Such a great choice. 'Cause they could have made it a thing that just real time, like whatever. Like they could have.

Nic

'Cause they have like the van, they have all that capability.

Steve

Oh, if you had told me they had that ability 'cause they're the news van, I would've bought it in a second, even in 1996. But having the delay gives this great thing that keeps showing up over the next, 'cause we're basically into the 3rd act here. And this 30-second delay matters in several different spots, which is really great. I think Stu asks Tatum for a beer. That's, by the way, I don't think we mentioned, but Stu and Tatum are dating. So Rose McGowan and Matthew Lillard, they're dating as well. He asks her for a beer, for refill, whatever. So she goes out to the garage to go get some beers, and she decides to grab 6 or 7 and just carry them in her arms. Like ridiculous. Like just bring the whole fucking 6-pack at that point. But the door back into the house gets locked on her. And so she like kind of knocks like, hey idiots, like what the fuck, you know, kind of thing. So then she goes to like open the garage door to walk out and come back around. She opens, sets the garage door open, and then starts walking towards it and it starts closing again. And that's when she turns around and the killer is there. But you know, it's just a guy and it's not holding a knife. It's the guy in the mask. And again, we've established this is a well-known costume, right?

Nic

And they're do— they've been doing it to fuck with each other over the last few days. So of course at this party where everyone's getting drunk, like And I think.

Steve

She thinks it's Randy. I think she talks to him as if it's Randy or whatever, and the guy kind of, you know, like shrugs, like, you know, kind of plays a little pantomime for a minute, but then pulls out the knife.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

And it's like, whatever. And so I think, like, you know, cuts her arm, like really just kind of slices a bit of her arm. She drops the beers, but then she starts fighting back. She's throwing beers at the guy, like cracking them. Chucking the bottles. Really great stuff. Yeah. And then my both favorite and least favorite moment in the entire film happens. Yeah. I love the creativity of this kill. It's like one of my— it's— I will point out this as one of the most creative kills I've ever seen. And it also is so physically impossible that it's hard for me to kind of like deal with.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Right? Garage doors have so many sensors, and this is a rolling garage door. This is not the old-school flip-up, right? This is a rolling garage door. There's so many things that would've stopped— like, first of all, the weight. It's not gonna be able to carry a person. You know, it would've— as soon as there was any resistance, it would've stopped, like all this stuff. But the fact that it lit— she goes through the like cat door, door and gets stuck. Yeah, I guess her boobs or something.

Nic

Yeah, but her boobs were through.

Steve

That's the thing. So she either should be able to go back or go forward. It's weird where she gets stuck. And obviously it's just for the moment.

Nic

As somebody with the automatic garage door who's run into times where it's like, I'm trying to leave the house and it's closing, and then like a flap for a box like crosses the plane of the sensor and then it goes— it's like, mother—.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

Like, I wish I had that reliable of a garage door. So yeah, like you said, It's, it's unlikely that it would actually work that way, but what a creative way to, uh, to have somebody die in a horror movie. Yeah, from a guy who's like written hundreds of deaths, you know?

Steve

Exactly. And that's the thing too, is like, so I love it because I love the creativity behind it, but I also kind of like, fuck, it's like the least realistic way anyone dies in this movie, or in many other— not all, obviously, but many other movies.

Nic

Yeah, yeah.

Steve

Um, but now, but Tatum is dead and also kind of like not seen by anyone. Like, that's the other key too, is like this garage is sort of off the side of the house. You know, sometimes houses are built like that, right? The garage door's in Not in the front, so like nobody sees her right away or anything. Killer goes back into the party apparently.

Nic

I'm surprised that a party of people who need beers send someone for beers, don't get their beers, and nobody goes— like forget about checking on the person, go get the beers for everyone.

Steve

Or was there like other beer in the inside fridge? I mean, there's all kinds of like potential questions here. But basically Sidney and Billy are gonna go chat because Billy's kind of like, you still don't think it's me, do you? Like whatever, like it obviously isn't me, da da da da da, whatever. And this is when they— like Sidney decides, okay, We can bang. Yeah, apparently she decides like I need to trust that it wasn't you. It's not you. Whatever. Let's go ahead. And then kind of simultaneously with this happening is Randy down in the living room. They're watching Halloween. Yeah, the original. And he's talking about the rules of a horror movie. And and this is like one of the more famous honestly will almost assuredly be the intro clip right for this episode because it's great stuff. And he's talking about how like you know the virgin always survives. You don't ever have sex. Don't ever drink or do drugs. Like everything he says, all the people are like oh no that sucks. Yeah, whatever. And he's like never say. Gonna be right back, whatever. And that's when Stu gets up and goes like, I'll be right back. Yeah, yeah, kind of thing. Um, and then it's like when he mentions nudity at one point, we cut back up to Sid and Billy. But of course, uh, uh, Neve Campbell did not agree to do— to be nude in the film, so there's like, uh, creative camera work, but she's taking her top off and Billy and her are gonna get down, get down to business up there, as kids are wont to do.

Nic

Yeah, so we got that, we got that happening. Uh, Dewey approaches Gale outside, right, and says like, hey, there's a, you know, someone said there's like a car down the road, like in the bush, go check it out, like do you want to come with me? And this again, like, is it Dewey? Like, Dewey's still a suspect, right, in our minds,.

Steve

At least in the.

Nic

Audience, for sure.

Steve

And this is like a little shady, and is he gonna now do something to Gale, right, whatever? Because I do feel like we have given— been given no reason to think that Gale could possibly be the killer, right? I mean, for one thing, the voice on the The phone's obviously male, and even if it is sort of like adjusted, it sounds very male. So there's not really any women in this that are ever pointed at, right, as suspects. But could it be Dewey? I don't know, maybe. Well, so at the same time that, uh, they're walking down the street, I can't remember what it is, but all the guys at the, at the, uh, party still who were watching Halloween with Randy decide to get up and leave. There's something going on at the school or something. I don't remember what exactly. Oh, the principal! They found the principal.

Nic

That's right, they found out that the principal died.

Steve

And he's like hanging from the football field goalposts or something like that, right? And so they're all like, oh my God, we gotta go see it. We gotta go see it. Yeah. And they all—.

Nic

And they were all like, when they find out the principal's dead, they're all like celebrating.

Steve

They're cheering. Wow. Like, brutal, dude.

Nic

When they— when they first showed the party they had, like, after he canceled classes, they're playing School's Out by Alice Cooper. It's like, we need a new song about school being out, even in 20 years later in 1996. Um, so, uh, so Dewey and Gale end up finding in the bushes a car, and it's Neil Prescott's car, Sidney's dad's car.

Steve

Yeah, because they almost get hit by the drunk assholes leaving the party and they run off the road and kind of, you know, they dive and Dewey ends up on top of Gale and there's like a moment for them. And then yeah, they find this car and Dewey's able to recognize quickly. I don't know if it's something that he already knew what license plate to look for or whatever, but he recognizes that it's Neil Prescott's car and he's like, oh my God, Neil's here. Like, that's his first mind. It's not that Neil's in trouble or something happened to Neil. It's that Neil is here and he's the killer. Because that's the thing is the sheriff and Dewey have been suspecting, could it be Neil? It's a 1-year anniversary from his wife's rape and murder. And so is it, is it just, is he snapped finally and he's getting revenge? Like, is that kind of what's going on?

Nic

And he probably went through the whole process of being a suspect, at least for a little while, when his wife was killed. Yes. So the cops know this guy very well.

Steve

Exactly. Um, we cut back to the house, back to Stu's house, where, you know, Billy and Sidney are wrapping up their, their little session, getting dressed, like, whatever. And, and Sid still is not— she's not She's not 100% convinced that Billy's not the guy. So she looks and goes, who'd you call? When, you know, when you got one— he's like, what do you mean? Like, well, you get one call in jail, which I don't think is actually true. I think that's like a standard movie sort of kind of bullshit thing.

Nic

It's kind of like, if you're a cop, you have to tell me.

Steve

Right, yeah, I think it's that kind of thing. But anyway, regardless, this is, you know, whatever. And he goes, oh, I called my dad. And she's like, no, like, I saw the sheriff call your dad. So who'd you call? And he's like, what are you talking about? And she's like, well, you wouldn't use your one call to call me. Like, to pretend, you know, because of whatever— because they're basically saying, I still think you could be the killer. Yeah, kind of thing. Uh, and then this is when the killer shows up, busts in the room, and stabs Billy like several times, and he's bleeding, and oh my God, he's covered, and she freaks the fuck out and is able to like get out the window, I think, out on the roof.

Nic

She's out on the roof, uh, So I Married an Axe Murderer style.

Steve

Yeah, yeah.

Nic

Um, yeah, and she's out there on the roof, doesn't really have anywhere to go, but luckily there's like a covered boat.

Steve

Yeah, so she jumps down and just kind.

Nic

Of softly lands.

Steve

She kind of falls. I think she like slips over. Yeah, it's— thank God she has like this trampoline-style boat. Yeah, they're like— yeah, it's crazy. There must be 5,000 cushions in the back of that thing or else that really would have hurt.

Nic

But the boat is in front of the garage, which has the open door and Tatum dead hanging there. So Sidney sees that, fucking freaking out, right? Um, I think— does she make her way to the van?

Steve

No, there's like a barn or something. She like runs towards like a garage or barn, some other building that's there, and it's like trying whatever. And that's when Gale returns with the news van. Van and like crashes it. Uh, what does she crash into? She crashes something.

Nic

So first I think they're in the van watching the video.

Steve

Oh, right, right, right, that's right.

Nic

So they have this video on tape delay and it's Gail. And then she's— throughout the movie, Gail is with her cameraman. Yeah, I don't know the name of the guy, uh, later known for playing the have you seen my baseball guy in Something About Mary, which he probably would not be recast in a remake. And then he also played, uh, Dan Doherty on, uh, Deadwood. Oh, so one of, uh, the main henchmen.

Steve

Nice.

Nic

Um, so they're watching this video and they're on tape delay, right? They see everyone run out of the house, everyone leaves, and they don't see that on the video yet. Yeah. And I think they notice, um, that the killer's behind Randy.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, because he's the only one left watching the movie, right? Yeah.

Nic

And it's like, dude, he's about to go out, but this is still 30 seconds before. And really, the killer has made his way out to the van, right? And takes out the camera. That's right. So he's, he's dead. When Gale ends up coming back to the van, she sees him dead, and that's when she decides to do her horrible driving.

Steve

Well, it's— no, it's more like she gets in and there's like blood all over the front or whatever. That's right. She uses the windshield wiper and then he like falls off the roof. Brutal. And then, yeah, then she ends up crashing the van. That's how that went. Um, and so, but now we're— somebody gets Dewey's gun. I think Sid— Sidney gets Dewey's gun. I'm all confused now. Darn it, I just watched this the other day. But.

Nic

Like, Dewey gets stabbed in the back.

Steve

That's right, right? That's right. He stumbles out of the van the house having been stabbed in the back.

Nic

And Sidney goes to kind of seek refuge in the police Jeep. She's in Stewie's, uh, Cherokee. And, uh, and, you know, she locks the door and stuff, and she's doing, okay, well, where's the keys? The visor clearly is where the keys are. And she looks, there's no keys in the visor, and the killer's outside and kind of dangles the keys at her and then ducks under. So we had this great scene of her trying— like, the door lock pops up and then she pops it down. Again, doesn't work with automatic door locks. Like, there's certain technology that has ruined things like this.

Steve

Yeah, you would be able to open all of the locks super easily today. Like, yeah, yeah.

Nic

Visually, like, an automatic door lock opening doesn't look that cool unless it physically, like, pops up and down.

Steve

For sure.

Nic

Um, and, uh, let's see. So she's in there, and then Stu and, uh, she— what the fuck did she do?

Steve

So, so all I remember for sure is, like, somebody gets— somebody gets a hold of the gun. Sidney gets a hold of the gun eventually. And, uh, Stu and Randy are both outside saying, that's right, they're the— he's the killer. No, he's the killer. Like, whatever. Like, pointing at each other. And Sidney, like, doesn't listen to either of them, just closes the door, locks She's got the pistol, she's got Dewey's gun. Billy comes down the stairs stumbling, you know, like, oh, like, but like, oh my God, Billy's alive! Like, wow, you know, graphic fall, really good. Good tumble. Tumbles down the stairs and is like, oh my God, Sidney, I'm not dead yet, you know, whatever. And, uh, he goes to the door and she's like, no, no, no, no, he's out there. And she's like, no, no, give me the gun, it's okay, it's okay. So she hands the gun over to Billy because now she's seen him get stabbed by the killer, so she is 1,000% convinced Billy is not the bad guy. And so he opens the door and Randy is there, and Randy comes running in, and that's when Billy like turns and like, like Randy says something about like, oh my God, he went mad and ran off, talking about Stu. And Billy quotes Norman Bates from Psycho and says, well, we all go a little mad sometimes, and shoots Randy like in the kind of upper chest, the standard, uh, Louis Gossett Jr. Went all the way through. Went all the way through, sort of like safe, safe place to get shot. So Randy will be okay. Um, but yeah, so now Sidney freaks out, Billy like attacks her, and then Stu shows up back again, whatever. And now we get kind of the big confession. And so there's like all this fake blood everywhere. Billy says it's corn syrup, just like they used in Carrie, you know, whatever. And they basically confess that like— first, this is one of my issues with this movie, that I don't have a lot of them. One of them is like this whole thing where Billy makes a big deal about how there's no motive and it's so much scarier when there's no motive.

Nic

Right.

Steve

Also, I killed your mom. Because she was sleeping with my dad and broke up my parents.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So I was like, okay, well, that's clearly a motive. Now, I guess the idea is that the further killings were just, well, it was fun to kill one person. Let's go kill some more. Like, so I guess there is no true motive for those. At one point, she asks Stu, what's your motive? 'Cause I have called the cops. What are you gonna say? He's like, peer pressure. But basically, their idea here is that they are gonna stab each other so that they are also injured and can claim, right, that they were also victims. But they've got Neil. They've got Sidney's dad. He's like tied up, bandaged over the mouth, duct taped, the whole deal. And they're basically gonna frame him. They've got his cell phone, his car in the bushes, you know, whatever. Like, he's gonna have his hands on the knife, all this kind of stuff, and he's gonna kill himself after with the gun after he kills, uh, her, basically. Right. So the only people that are gonna survive are Stu and Billy. That's their plan. And, you know, they don't have to necessarily explain all this stuff, but of course they do because it's standard movie villain stuff. Stuff. Um, but this is when—.

Nic

If you kill for fun, you have to get off on explaining why you did it, right?

Steve

And Billy goes to stab Stu, and they've, they've talked to each other about where to stab and whatever, but it hurts, I think, a lot more than either of them were expecting.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Uh, and this is one of, one of Heather's favorite lines in this movie, is when Billy turns to ask Stu to do something, he goes, Billy, I'm feeling woozy here. Like, woozy is just such a funny way to put it.

Nic

It was good. I Stu and Matthew Lillard is bringing like real Anthony Kiedis in Point Break energy to like this whole scene. Like, okay, that would be a waste of time. Like, I'm just out of my fucking mind the way I talk, you know? Like a, like a 14-year-old trying to do a Jack Nicholson impression or something like that.

Steve

Or Christian Slater, period.

Nic

Oh, absolutely. Um, so, uh, it's—.

Steve

So the gun disappears. Like, like Stu goes to get the gun because they're gonna kill Sidney, they're gonna do this whole thing, right?

Nic

Oh, and there at this point there's like a sound effect of like the guys who've been stabbed. Yeah, like literally the blood like dripping on the floor, which is crazy. So good. I was like, oh, that's— that really—.

Steve

Because he gets stabbed several times. Like Billy takes one.

Nic

Yep.

Steve

Uh, in the side, but like he stabs Stu like 3 or 4 times.

Nic

Yeah, way too many times.

Steve

Way more unnecessary, which I think is sort of like Billy's plan all along.

Nic

For sure. I'm gonna kill him as well.

Steve

Wild card knowing about all your serious shit. Fucking Charlie Day over here. Fucking like, um, but yeah, like,.

Nic

Uh, so Gale pops up with the gun. Yes. They're looking for the gun. They're like, where's the gun? And then there's Gale in the door.

Steve

Yep, exactly right.

Nic

And she's got the gun and she's ready to shoot them and fails to.

Steve

That's right. Yeah, she just like does— has the safety on or whatever. And Billy makes a comment about having the safety on, like, is able to get gun back from her.

Nic

And then he does the— one of my favorite evil guy moves is like the Gary Oldman in The Professional evil neck crack. Yeah, like where you kind of tilt your head and it cracks like 5 times. Great move by Billy, uh, or Jimmy, Billy, whatever the.

Steve

Fuck. Skeet,.

Nic

Uh, Skeet, Skeet, Skeet.

Steve

Um, but they go back to the kitchen. Yeah, Sidney and her dad are both gone, and they're like, wait a fuck, now where, you know, where, where are they? Kind thing. And so now I think— does she call one of them? Like, there's like— she's— or no, the voice comes on. She's got the modulator now. Yes. So I don't know if she calls them. Yeah, cuz that's right, cuz Stu ends up on the phone and that's when she asked him, I have called 911. Stu, what are you gonna tell them your motive is? Peer pressure. But basically they're like hiding, and then, and then Sidney is in the outfit and busts out from like— it looks like store stairs to like a basement or something, or maybe a closet. It's something that in the hallway and like stabs Billy, I think, with an umbrella.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

That's awesome.

Nic

It's a good move. I mean, I think she heard the story about that assassination with like the ricin on the tip of the umbrella, and she didn't realize that was a ricinless umbrella, so it was not quite as lethal.

Steve

No, not quite.

Nic

But still, a nice, nice way to— nice way to get at somebody.

Steve

It's still lethal if you get it deep enough.

Nic

Yeah, yeah. And if you open it from there, that really opens the wound. So, uh, so Stu is, uh, She's like struggling with him and pushes the TV over.

Steve

I mean, she also lifts it.

Nic

Like,.

Steve

It's—.

Nic

That is so heavy.

Steve

Those things are like 90 pounds.

Nic

Have you ever tried to like dispose of one of those?

Steve

No, never actually. Like, I've let movers do it. Like, I can't even like—.

Nic

I remember I had this like, it was like 36-inch but like super deep dish. It must have weighed like 350 pounds.

Steve

Oh my God.

Nic

And it moved to too many different houses with me. I'm like, what the fuck? This is crazy. So like you said, we need a new hashtag for our podcast because we've now seen in 3 different films Yes, somebody get a cathode ray tube TV to the face.

Steve

Yes. Well, I know— did Stallone actually take it to the face in Demolition Man, or was he just kind of a threat?

Nic

He swung it around by the cord and hit Simon Phoenix with it. Not in the face, right? But he did say the very funny, very clever line, you're on TV. Yeah. So,.

Steve

So we have CRT television as a weapon. We have it there. We had in Grosse Pointe Blank. That's how gross— Grosse Pointe Blank. And here, this is Stu's end, is this, because those really are incredibly dangerous. Dangerous once you get inside of them. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so, uh, and then we've got one last moment here where Gale is back, uh, not dead, and she's got the gun again and she shoots Billy.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

And so now Billy's dead, Stu's dead, Neil and Sidney are alive, Gale's alive, Dewey's alive, Randy's alive. Everybody else we've met is dead. Basically everybody else who had a speaking line except for maybe the sheriff. Like, there's so many bodies in this fucking movie. But yeah,.

Nic

And that's,.

Steve

That's pretty much how it is. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's like we've got, you know, the killers have been— have confessed.

Nic

Yep.

Steve

Now they're dead. Uh, you know, Gale has got a great set, you know, whatever, I don't know, second half of her book about, you know, the actual murder of Sidney's mother. Uh, because now, now Billy confessed to it and everything, and it's not Cotton Weary or whatever his name is, Liev Schreiber, right? Uh, yeah, so there's— that's how the movie ends, and it really is— there's no need for an epilogue. No, you know, it's just very clean.

Nic

I mean, like, wire to wire, this movie doesn't stray from like what it's trying to do. Like, very, very efficient. So absolutely, that is Scream. That's Scream.

Steve

Yeah, so I'll go ahead and I'll give my notes first on it. Like, I, I, like, I really enjoyed this movie. I haven't seen it as many times as I feel like I should have over the years, but like I've made up for it. I think over the last like 5 years I've watched it like 3 times or something. Uh, it's It's just so much fun. Like I said at the opening of this, it's a great kind of meta parody—not quite parody, but definitely it's like meta about its genre—while also being just a tremendous example of the genre. It's a really good slasher flick. You know, it's not the original Nightmare on Elm Street. It's not, you know, Halloween. I mean, it doesn't quite go up there to me with some of the absolute greats of the genre, but it's a ton of fun, and it really is great. I really enjoyed it. I'm gonna give it a four out of five. I think that's where I'm at with Scream. Scream. Um, super enjoyable. Obviously, like you said, spawned sequels and spawned, uh, you know, the, the whole Scary Movie franchise really kind of came about because of this movie, or at least got the green light because of it. And then also there's stuff like I Know What You Did Last Summer and other movies that came out around the same time that, you know, there was this horror renaissance in the '90s. Like, yeah, I just feel like the early '80s and like the mid to late '90s had really fantastic horror movies, and in between those two it was like, eh, there was a couple of gems here and there, but like a lot of kind of misses. So yeah, so I'm a 4 out of 5 on Scream. Scream.

Nic

All right. Yeah, the late '80s were kind of like, oh, we're getting sick of Freddy and Jason. Yeah, a little bit. But yeah, this was such a renaissance of the genre. Yeah. So having only seen this one time, a lot of it wasn't like super familiar to me, but there were different parts. I was like, oh yeah. And I really enjoy— I love talking about this with you, by the way. This was good. And I think this is one where the convo bumps an extra half point for you. Um, but yeah, I don't know like what you would want from this movie that it doesn't really give you. The actors are fine, like nobody's really that good in it, but they don't need to be really.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, and then the little plot holes like the garage door thing. What one I had a problem with is that, uh, when you go to jail, how they take your shoelaces but let you keep your voice modulator.

Steve

No, but that's the thing is it wasn't Billy calling from there, that was Stu calling her. Oh, because they had two guys. So that was Sidney being like, I'm suspicious of this, but really, yeah, no, he didn't have That in jail. That was stupid.

Nic

Okay, that makes much more sense because I was like, what the fuck? The cops in this town are garbage. Um, but yeah, a lot of fun, and it didn't have too much other than the shitty Don't Fear the Reaper song. There wasn't a lot of like '90s stuff that irritated me. Sometimes I'll be like, yeah, this fucking sucked. It sucked when we were kids and we thought we were— it was cool. But this is a blast of a movie, and if you haven't seen it, yeah, this is a— it's a fresh horror movie. It holds up very well for being 30 years old, you know, other than the technology stuff, but that's necessary to make it work anyway. Yep. Um, this was a great, uh, a great choice, Steve, and a great way to end Shocktoberfest II. Scream is a 4 out of 5 for me as well.

Steve

So that's 8 out of 10 from the 2 dads on Scream. And as we are turning the calendar from October to November, next week is of course the first Wednesday in November. We're leaving Shocktoberfest II: Electric Boogaloo behind. That's it. Uh, we have— last year for November we did Cagevember and we did all Nicolas Cage movies. And this year, instead of doing like an actor-focused theme month, we're doing something a little different where we are going with another holiday theme month. And I decided we would call it Feast Mode, partly to give homage and to honor my favorite NFL player who never played on the 49ers. As a lifelong 49er fan— Who is this? Most of my favorite players all at least had some amount of time on the Niners. Marshawn Lynch. Cal great, Oakland native, my favorite player of all time who never put on the red and gold. Uh, he was of course called Beast Mode. So this is Feast Mode. And what is the feast of November? It is Thanksgiving. So we're gonna do Thanksgiving movies all November long. This was a little harder to do. There just aren't as many of them as there are, dude. Christmas movies and stuff.

Nic

Go to pick horror movies. It's like easy, sweet. Christmas movies is fine.

Steve

Yeah,.

Nic

But this was like.

Steve

A little tougher, but I think we got 4 4 really good ones that people are really gonna enjoy.

Nic

Very nice. And, and keeping with like the theme of our podcast where we're kind of all over the place, we're not trying to be like a horror and action movie podcast, even though that's the kind of stuff that, like, you know, to quote Curly Bill, that's our kind of stuff. Um, but it's fun to find these movies that are like, that hit different parts of you. And, uh, and I picked one for Feast Mode that I had never seen before. Oh, interesting. I never saw it before. And, uh, through my Google search of what movie takes place at Thanksgiving, like, because I had one in my head which is coming in a few weeks, but I didn't have the other one. And, uh, and I thought, oh, like, I heard a lot of great things about this. They made a sequel of it. Uh, it stars people that are very well regarded and stuff and who I've really enjoyed in other, uh, work.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And it's so different than anything we've done, but I think now that I'm closer to the age of the stars than I was when it came out.

Steve

Sure.

Nic

Uh, I think maybe it would be the time to go to Minnesota and hang out with a couple of grumpy old men.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

So we're gonna watch, uh, we're gonna watch Grumpy Old Men from '93, I think. '93. Okay, 1993. Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Burgess Meredith.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, I got Ann-Margret, Ann-Margret, Darryl Hannah.

Steve

This is one of those movies that I'll just tell you, like, I actually watched this movie several times when I was younger. I was into like Neil Simon and The Odd Couple. I used to watch The Odd Couple TV show on Nick at Nite, so I was a big Lemon Matthau guy. Uh, and so I saw this movie several times throughout high school and stuff, even though it really was not targeted at us at all. It's a movie where like everybody in this movie is somebody. This cast is like all somebodies.

Nic

Kevin Pollak in a small role.

Steve

Daryl Hannah. Even Christopher McDonald, Shooter McGavin, shows up at the end. For like 2 minutes. But yeah, that's awesome. So for our first Feast Mode movie, our first Thanksgiving movie of the year, we're gonna watch Grumpy Old Men, go up to Wabasha, Minnesota and hang out with those 2. I'm super looking forward to it because I did see it several times as a youth. I don't think I've— it's probably been 25 years maybe since I've seen it. So very excited to watch Grumpy Old Men. And thank you so much for choosing it. I think that's awesome.

Nic

Heck yeah.

Steve

That's a wrap. If you like what you hear, please consider heading over to Apple or Spotify and leaving us a 5-star review. It helps new folks find the show. Be sure to check out our website at twodads1movie.com. It's the number 2 and the number 1. There you can explore the movies we've covered and even get sneak previews of upcoming episodes. Once again, this has been Scream, another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

Thank you so much for listening, and we'll catch you next week.

Nic

Thanks, everyone.