Editorials
Looking Back On the Scariest “Dawson’s Creek” Episodes
“Horror films provide positive examples of ordinary people overcoming their worst fears and conquering evil.”-Dawson Leery, Dawson’s Creek
Whether it be the fear that comes with first love, a first kiss, and even a first run-in with a serial killer, overcoming your fears is a recurring theme on the groundbreaking teen drama, Dawson’s Creek, which aired on the WB (now CW) from 1998-2003. Created by Kevin Williamson (the writer of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Faculty), the series was infused with heart, charm, and at times, horror. In honor of the show’s 20th anniversary, I’m taking you up the creek for a look at the scariest episodes of the series.
When Dawson’s Creek premiered on January 20, 1998, it opened like a monster movie. A pretty, raven-haired girl is sunbathing on a dock as ominous music slowly begins to surround her. Suddenly, a fish-like monster reminiscent of the creature in Creature from the Black Lagoon pops up from the water and violently pulls her into the depths below.
It all turned out to be a scene the kids were filming as a part of Dawson Leery’s (James Van Der Beek) film project, but it set the tone that the series would have many unexpected turns, and that the characters would face numerous other battles on their journey together.
While the battles mostly revolved around love and self-identity, the series was also permeating with campy horror moments paired with Williamson’s fun, self-aware writing that made Scream so enjoyable to watch. These episodes weren’t of the same caliber as Wes Craven’s slasher hit, but they were just as entertaining…
Season 1: The Scare
By far the most fun–and most Williamson–horror episode of the series, “The Scare” takes place on Dawson’s favorite holiday: Friday the 13th. The episode opens with Dawson and Joey (Katie Holmes) in their usual position on the bed–watching a movie. This time around the pair are watching a little horror movie called I Know What You Did Last Summer.
“This movie sucks!” cries a frightened Joey, who goes on to say that she doesn’t like watching horror movies that are loaded with “cheese wiz.”
The pair continue to deconstruct the movie and the necessity of horror films, with Joey arguing that the world is already filled with enough fear, death, and evil that it doesn’t need to be recreated on film. Whether or not her opinion is right or wrong doesn’t matter, because Dawson slides out from under his bed with a hockey mask and scares Joey in good old-fashioned slasher movie form.
During all of this we learn of an unknown serial killer called “The Ladykiller” who is stalking women around Boston. Little do the teens know, The Ladykiller has his eyes set on Capeside.
The rest of the episode is a perfect mix of soapy teen drama and slasher film with the gang accidentally inviting a crazy woman back to Dawson’s home for a Friday the 13th seance that goes horribly wrong. It culminates with a cruel prank that brings the friends closer and ends with a revelation that Joey could have been The Ladykiller’s next victim.
Season 3: Escape from Witch Island
The year is 1999 and The Blair Witch Project was a surprise success. The episode, “Escape from Witch Island” pays homage to–and pokes fun at–the found-footage horror film with its own take on the witchy story.
In between Jen (Michelle Williams) professing her annoyance with the female lead of Blair Witch and insistence that the film wasn’t “remotely scary,” Dawson expresses his love for the film, calling it “groundbreaking.” In fact, Dawson is so impressed with the low budget horror movie, he wants to set out to make his own documentary film about Capeside’s very own witch legend: Witch Island.
He convinces his friends Jen, Joey, and Pacey (Joshua Jackson) to join him to investigate the legend of three 18th century girls who were murdered after being falsely accused of being witches. The legend claimed that the three girls haunt the island and anyone who goes there.
Filmed part documentary-style, the episode teeters on the line of legitimately creepy, and over-the-top cheesy. While not as charming as “The Scare,” this Blair Witch rip-off was still just as engaging to watch. The horror elements are perfectly intertwined with the character drama; particularly Joey, whose life parallels some of the experiences the teenage witches went through. As Joey uncovers the truth about the girls, she learns that she’s not so different—and neither is the world.
Season 5: Four Scary Stories
As Grams (Mary Beth Peil) beautifully states at the end of the episode, “A truly scary story should hit you where you live. Find you in a safe place and turn it into a den of nightmares.” And “Four Scary Stories” does just that to Joey, Pacey and Jack (Kerr Smith) when the group begin to divulge their real-life horror stories as they sit snug by the fireplace.
The episode plays out like a horror anthology and follows along with the four characters as they each recount their creepiest experiences. From Joey’s late-night library study session from hell, to Jack’s run-in with a frat boy ghost, to Pacey’s showdown with a mystery car seemingly out of an urban legend (Jackson starred in the 1998 horror Urban Legend), the fluffy tales were ghoulishly delightful.
While their light-hearted campfire tales were fun, Grams shuts the group down with her story—retelling an experience her granddaughter, Jen, had while working the late shift at a radio station. The episode, packed with excitement and dread, ends with an essential jump scare, and leaves the audience wondering if their favorite college kids from Capeside are ever truly safe.
Season 6: Living Dead Girl
Halloween is in the air, and Dawson is on the set of a Hollywood slasher movie starring his beautiful girlfriend, Natasha. Todd, the film’s director, tells Dawson about an eerie Hollywood legend where an actress was murdered on the movie lot they’re working on. Dawson brushes off the story until he begins seeing the ghost of the actress everywhere on set.
The episode, “Living Dead Girl,” is filled with inappropriate Halloween parties on film sets, cheap costumes, and haunted houses, making it a worthy addition to the Dawson’s Creek horror collection. While it’s the worst of the horror round-up, the filler episode provides a welcomed escape into a Halloween wonderland after a season filled with heartache, sexual harassment, and alcohol addiction.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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