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.
Editorials
Not Another ‘Scary Movie’: Revisiting Forgotten Parody ‘Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th’
After Scream (1996) made a killing at the box office, as well as won over critics and audiences, a lot of folks in the movie biz thought they could do the same thing (and yield similar results). That thing, of course, being a slasher. Most of these opportunists wound up being pretty straightforward; they were low on humor or commentary. Yet others, like Scary Movie (2000), saw the potential for spoofing Scream, and acted on that impulse with both haste and excitement.
A few months after the Wayans’ comedy first hit theaters, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th landed on the USA Network, as part of the channel’s “Shriek Week” programming. That straight-to-cable (then home video) destination is possibly why many people still don’t know about this one. Or they simply chose to forget. Whatever the reason, only one of these two horror parodies came out on top—and it’s certainly not the movie where Coolio channeled Prince, and Tom Arnold saved the day.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th previously went by the name of I Know What You Screamed Last Semester. That Trimark acquisition then settled on a wordier title, just so it could avoid the litigious wrath of Miramax Films. Folks may or may not remember that Columbia Pictures was sued over the “implied connection” between I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Scream. So, yeah, there was no way that this competing Scream parody wasn’t going to be kept on a tight rein.
A Heavy Reliance on Late ’90s TV References
Simon Rex, Julie Benz, Majandra Delfino, Harley Cross, Danny Strong, Tom Arnold and Tiffani-Amber Thiesen in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Naturally, there would be similarities between Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th and Scary Movie—their scripts are built on the backs of the same two movies. It goes without saying that the other big slasher of the 1990s, I Know What You Did Last Summer, was as much of a target as Scream. However,the film pads itself with more TV references than Scary Movie did.
Half the cast coming off of (and in some cases, returning to) a WB show could be a reason why. Dawson’s Creek is particularly zeroed in on, based on how there’s a central character named “Dawson Deery“, and how the teen drama’s teacher-student affair plotline is satirized to the nth degree. As if there weren’t enough nods to television, Baywatch, VH1’s Pop Up Video, and even those cheesy Mentos commercials all serve as joke prompts.
Shriek director John Blanchard and writers Sue Bailey and Joe Nelms all hailed from television, so it’s understandable that they would stick close to home. The movie’s humor in general makes more sense, in light of learning that Blanchard worked on SCTV, Kids in the Hall, and MADtv. The writers, on the other hand, were each fairly green, with Bailey being the most experienced of the two; she wrote and produced the game show BattleBots. Nevertheless, they, plus Blanchard, churned out a passable, joke-a-minute movie. The whole thing is staggeringly of its time, but no one here was aiming for longevity.
Having seen enough of these kinds of movies, we know to expect jokes of the low-hanging fruit variety. That’s the parody’s whole prime directive. From the characters having names like “Screw Frombehind” and “Doughy Primesuspect”, to stereotyping that feels taboo nowadays, this is a movie from a different era of comedy. Its coarse, corny, and unapologetic sense of humor won’t sit well with everyone in these more enlightened times. In which case, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th can be treated as a time capsule.
Does Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th Humor Still Hold Up Today?
“You may already be a victim”—Someone receives a most peculiar threatening piece of mail in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Although Shriek doesn’t live up to its own claims of being so funny that you’ll die of laughter, its bawdier parts could still lead to some nervous laughter. For instance, after this movie’s parallel to Drew Barrymore’s Scream character is done in—not by the killer but by a bug zapper—the movie throws a newspaper next to the victim’s fresh corpse. The headline? “Popular slut killed! Football team mourns”.
We then move on to the wacky and inappropriate goings-on at Bulimia Falls High School, home of the Hurlers. At this nexus of constant absurdity, indecency, and surrealism, students are seen fornicating on the lawn, cheerleading squad applicants are advised to be comfortable with partial nudity, and terrorists openly prepare for an anthrax attack. It can be a tad jarring to watch, especially if you didn’t grow up witnessing this style of comedy firsthand. Hell, even if you did, you may still have a “what the hell were they thinking?” reaction.
It’s not just the aggressively edgy humor here that can make you chuckle—the slapstick, the sight gags, and the ribaldry all have a decent chance of landing. The movie’s own villain, whose hockey mask was instantly transformed into a crudely Ghostface-esque one after coming in contact with an open flame, commits more cheap laughs than kills. His and his victims’ chase sequences, most of which are cartoonish in nature, left this writer grinning. The Scooby-Doo fan in me also totally ate up that clever unmasking joke.
Final Thoughts on This Forgotten Horror Parody
Shriek If You Know What Did Last Friday the 13th
Now, the jury is still out on whether these comedies are to blame for the death of the first slasher revival. There is more to consider than some parodies. At the very least, the likes of Scary Movie didn’t exactly encourage big studios to put their money on a trend that was being derided to death (and not as profitable as the spoofs). These sorts of movies also felt unnecessary at the time, given how their principal inspiration is already a deconstruction of the genre. But like anything else that quickly becomes popular, mockery is unavoidable.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th is indeed a movie nobody asked for, much less needed. As a sample of pre-millennium humor and cultural attitudes, it’s not always precise. But as I’ve laid out, your mileage may vary. Horror parodies typically don’t have the best track record, so managing one’s own expectations here is recommended.
Upon rewatching, I for one laughed a bit more than I did back then. Only this time, I responded to the jokes that my younger self didn’t notice or find all that amusing. So it just goes to show that the movies don’t change—we do.
Harley Cross and Majandra Delfino must unmask the killer a number of times in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th before learning their true identity.
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