My favorite movie franchise of all time is Scream. The original helped revolutionize horror movies and is my personal favorite movie. The second was trash. The third had a nice twist ending. The fourth was lack luster and forgettable. The fifth had terrible characters. The sixth had the same problem as the fifth. And the seventh was an amazing breath of fresh air that kept me hooked the entire time.
I’ve learned that when it comes to scream movies, I tend to have a more unpopular opinion. And I could rant about each scream movie for about a thousand words each, but today I want to focus on the fourth movie.
In this movie, the main heroine/villain is Sidney Prescott’s younger cousin, Jill Roberts. (Which is forgettable to the point where I had to search her name just now.) There’s an uninteresting supporting cast of new characters that are nothing but filler for the kill count (dead meat reference.) But these fodder are not what I plan to talk about. I want to focus on the returning cast.
Of course all of the main characters have been slowly killed off up to this point, but we do still get deputy Dewey Riley, Gale Weathers(-Riley), and Sidney Prescott. Neve Campbell is my love, and Dewey is the ray of light that makes this series so beautiful (until he was unceremoniously killed in 5), but I want to focus on Gale Weathers. She and Dewey are married in this movie and she has stepped away from reporting and straight into being a full-time author.
We see her in the opening minutes sitting at her computer, struggling to write. She types nonsense, expressing her frustration. This is a scene I think about a lot. It’s one that plays in my mind every time I sit down at a computer or open book while I just stare blankly, hoping something will come to mind. It’s one that resonates with me on such a deep level, partially because I relate to it, and partially because it’s from my favorite franchise.
Writing can come easy with the right inspiration, but like Gale, it’s not always easy to find that inspiration. She sits at her computer, letting out her frustration with vulgar words, jealous of Sidney Prescott’s fame as an author. And that’s another thing I can sadly relate to with Gale. It’s so easy to see people you’ve known for so long succeed and become jealous of them. It’s something I wish wasn’t so common and easy, but you really can’t help but feel a little bitter.
Gale has always been a bitter character who’s deadset on getting her story, but as far as I remember, she doesn’t take out her frustrations on Sidney (at least not in the 4th movie.) I love watching her grow as a character every time I rewatch the movies. I love seeing her go from snarky with a sore face, to a person Sidney can really trust.
I do admire her dedication to her craft and love seeing her return each movie. But that one scene is so relatable it hurts. I have felt that frustration. I have felt the need to jot down nonsense to release my emotions. Trust me when I say, if I had the ability to not relate to Gale Weathers, I’d be abusing it. Even if I enjoy seeing her grow, she’s still selfish and overly ambitious, and she’s the last person from the original cast that I’d want to see myself in. But the writers conveyed her frustration as an author perfectly, and that’s not something I can ignore.
Overall, I see myself in Gale, no matter how much I wish I didn’t.
I’m done with this topic (for now), but it would be wise to prepare yourselves for more Scream rants in the future.
BYE-

(absolute peak Gale bc I love Courtney Cox so dearly and the first movie will always be the best one)


