Editorials
‘Scream’ at 25: From Sleeper Hit to Horror Franchise Juggernaut
When Wes Craven’s Scream was released wide in theaters on December 20, 1996, small opening weekend numbers pointed to a slasher movie audiences weren’t interested in, especially not at Christmas. Then a rare thing happened; its numbers only got more substantial with each passing week. Twenty-five years and a full-blown franchise later, it’s hard to imagine Scream as an underdog. The sleeper hit inspired a new wave of teen slashers, and its fanbase is now larger than ever as a fifth installment rapidly approaches. No one could’ve predicted Scream would remain one of the most enduring and beloved slashers of all time, not even the cast and crew, but it’s not difficult to see in hindsight what makes Craven’s movie so special.
The production comprised mainly of unknowns and teen television stars, Scream marked Kevin Williamson’s first screenwriting credit. Drew Barrymore offered up the most significant slice of star power, originally anchoring the project as lead final girl Sidney Prescott. Her involvement prompted Craven to reconsider joining, as he’d previously turned the project down to develop The Haunting remake. Then scheduling conflicts arose, causing Barrymore to pull back from her leading role. She convinced Craven to let her play Casey Becker instead.
Without a Sidney, production offered the role to Molly Ringwald, Alicia Witt, and Reese Witherspoon, all who’d turned it down before Craven suggested “Party of Five” breakout Neve Campbell. Then came Courteney Cox, a sitcom star known for playing nice girl roles. Cox fought for the part and the chance to prove she could play mean, and Gale Weathers was born.
Williamson based the script on the real-life Gainesville Ripper murders in 1990, inspired by watching the story on a news broadcast and feeling spooked. Williamson’s blend of horror and comedy, with a unique deconstruction of the slasher formula – long after the craze had died down – presented an easy sell for producers. Finding the Woodsboro High School setting was trickier. The violent nature of the story and concern meant the Santa Rosa High School board denied permission to film there, earning a special “No Thanks” in the credits from Craven.
Production challenges aside, Craven and his cast were free from preconceived expectations. No one expected a juggernaut horror movie on their hands, and it made for a much more relaxed set free from pressures. Well, perhaps until it came time to film the final 40-minutes of the movie, a marathon shoot that took 21-consecutive nights to complete.
The cast, their chemistry, Williamson’s script, and Craven’s complete understanding of its tone culminated in a sleeper hit that never stopped amassing an audience. The whodunnit aspect of the plot brings the suspense, the kills hurt, the jokes stick their landing every time, and the commentary on the slasher subgenre brings unexpected layers. Horror-comedies rarely ever tip the scale in favor of horror, and Craven demonstrated that it could be done with effortless style.
The surprise success of Scream inspired a quick turnaround on a sequel, leading to two more. The original 1996 film still holds the top spot as the highest grossing, inspiring a new slasher craze in earnest. And of course, Ghostface entered the area as a new horror icon.
From that unforgettable, shocking opening demise, Scream held audiences in its grip and never let go. It has grown into an enduring franchise that gets introspective on its place in the horror canon and reflective of the current social climate, the film shaking up the tropes and archetypes in unconventional ways. Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey (David Arquette) are as intertwined and essential to the series as Ghostface, a rarity in a subgenre that prefers disposable characters for a higher body count. The dialogue remains endlessly quotable, and despite the dated technology, the narrative still holds a timeless quality.
Scream’s popularity is even more considerable today than it was twenty-five years ago, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In a slasher whodunnit that lays out the ground rules of survival, Scream broke them all.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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