Scream and the use of Symbolic Creativity (#7)

(Scream 4 trailer)

There's been a lot of hype and talk about the April release of Scream 4, a return to the film franchise that made "meta" a household name and gave critics the reason to use "post-modern" and "horror" in the same breath. All of the principle actors are back (Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette), screenwriter Kevin Williamson worked on the story, and legendary horror director Wes Craven is back at the helm. 

Looking at the article "Symbolic Creativity" by Paul Willis, I was struck at what a perfect example this particular horror series is for Hollywood appropriating the type of creative consumption Willis is writing about.Willis makes the case that young TV viewers are able to enjoy shows that a high artistic aesthetic because they have an awareness of "visual forms, plot conventions and cutting techniques" and this awareness transforms otherwise "banal, contrived, and formalistic" texts into relatable narratives. The original product is just the "raw materials" for symbolic creativity.

In Scream, the slasher genre is used as the "raw materials", and the film addresses the youth culture of the 90s in which all the young characters have seen the films of the genre over and over. Generation Y, raised on MTV and VHS, has memorized the tropes and conventions of the horror genre and feels superior to the genre, or rather, is no longer easily scared. Legions of young people in the 80s and 90s watched these films, legitimized them, and felt safe with them. Williamson and Craven found a new way to scare this generation by recognizing their superiority to the genre and then turning that on its head. The killer(s) in the Scream films play on the characters' (and audience's) knowledge of the conventions and exploit them to maximum effect. In the opening scene (and probably still the best scene in the franchise), Drew Barrymore is menaced by a killer who turns Movie Trivia into a life-or-death trap.

Craven should be given much credit for his direction. The films still hold up and are pretty enjoyable as thrillers and mysteries (the third one is pretty bad but is entertaining on a comedic/camp level). Craven had already established a cutting style that young audiences respond to (see Nightmare on Elm Street and its MTV-influenced style) and even dabbled in meta-fiction years earlier (Wes Craven's New Nightmare). Not to mention his past with "trash" classics Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes.

I'm looking forward to the fourth film, if for no other reason than to feel fifteen again and have my nostalgia receptor stimulated. I doubt Williamson and Craven will be able to find a way to scare my generation again by playing with conventions about...playing with conventions. But who knows? I'll be very happy if they do.