Red-Haired Ash Reads

“What makes Scream so relatable is that the killer, though initially masked and anonymous, is not some monster. It is someone you know who is deeply betraying you in a very traumatic and violent way.”

This book is a love letter to the Scream franchise and its impact on the horror genre. Ashley Cullins provides behind-the-scenes insight from the cast, creators, and crew on all of the films, and analyzes how these movies impacted the audience and the genre. 

As a fan of this franchise, I was very excited to get my hands on this book and hear all about the making of these movies. This goes through each movie, including the upcoming movie, and talks about the production, the struggles they experienced, the camaraderie of the cast, fun facts, and much more. Cullins really did her homework with this and I really love how she was able to interview so many people for this book. 

While I am a fan of the franchise, I didn’t know much about the production aspect of these movies. It was fascinating getting these behind-the-scenes stories about the filming. It was also interesting about how the production studios influenced the movies and made changes that the director and screenwriter didn’t always agree with. It really helped explain why some of the films were not as successful as others. It also helped me realize how much I love this franchise and how successful it has been compared to other horror franchises. 

I have two complaints with this book. One is that it expects you to know who everyone is. The main cast would probably be recognized by most fans, but who really knows the names of the directors, screenwriters, and other background people. Cullins provides quotes for all these different people but doesn’t do a great job at explaining who they are to the franchise. I had to google quite a few names because I just didn’t know who they were or had forgotten who they were because they hadn’t been quoted since the first chapter. 

My other issue was that while it was great that there were so many quotes in this, at times it felt like all I was reading was quotes for a chapter. For some people this might not be a big deal, but for me it felt a bit jarring after a white, especially if the quotes were all saying very similar things. For example, the Wes Craven chapter had so many quotes from people raving about his career and how great of a person he was, but they were all so similar that it just felt like I was rereading the same paragraph. I just wanted a bit more of a mixture of text and quotes, not 90% quotes.

Overall, this was a fascinating and wonderful look at a franchise that has changed the genre. I think Cullins did a great job researching these films and giving us a glimpse of what it was like to work on these films. Also, now I feel the need to rewatch the franchise and see if all this information changed my perspective on them. 

TW: Weinstein brothers are discussed

Fun Facts: 

“They [MPAA] hated ‘Movies don’t create psychos, movies make psychos more creative…It was saying a truth that they did not want out there voiced so clearly.”

“Ghostface never gets dressed in their trailer…They travel to set in their black outfit, or whatever, and we send the robe and the mask to set in an unmarked garment bag.”

“Some of the Scream rules are obvious: You need Ghostface, but Ghostface can’t win. You need a creative opening sequence and an equally clever reveal. It’s a slasher, so people have to die. It needs to be funny enough to defuse some of the tension , but not to the point of lowering the stakes. There needs to be a reason why this particular movie is happening now and some kind of commentary on the culture at that moment. And while Scream wouldn’t be Scream without the killers, at the end of the day they’re survivor stories.”

*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

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