Scream Of The Crop Riding The Sucess Of The Original, ‘Scream 2’ Follows Horror Trend

What a difference a year makes.

When “Scream,” a modestly budgeted slasher flick, hit theaters last Dec. 20, it was only the second horror film in 1996 to receive national distribution (the first, “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” died a quick box-office death).

But when “Scream 2,” the inevitable sequel, hits 3,000 screens on Friday, it’ll be the latest in a number of horror movies - “Anaconda,” “Mimic,” “Event Horizon,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Devil’s Advocate,” “Alien Resurrection,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer” - that have flooded movie theaters this year.

After a long drought, it’s boom time for scary movies again, buoyed by our collective interest in dark subject matter, the participatory experience of watching horror movies in crowded theaters and Hollywood’s rediscovery of the lucrative teenage audience.

Most of the credit for the genre’s revival is being attributed to “Scream,” which was made for a relatively cheap $18 million and went on to gross $103 million. “Scream” was as funny as it was frightening: Its characters ran around discussing the virtues of movies like “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween,” unaware that they themselves were acting out a slasher film.

“There’s a bandwagon mentality in Hollywood, and ‘Scream’ was one of the most lucrative horror movies ever released, so naturally a gold rush ensued,” says David J. Skal, author of “The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror.”

“But the gold rush wouldn’t work if the public wasn’t interested in that kind of entertainment to begin with,” Skal says. “Horror films are linked very closely to things that are frightening in the real world that cannot be easily resolved. They provide lightning rods for free-floating anxieties - and we live in very anxious times.”

In his book, Skal charts the cyclical nature of the horror genre, showing how societal dramas throughout the 20th century - wars, economic depressions, political upheavals - traditionally manifest themselves in new waves of horror movies. “Frankenstein” and “Dracula,” both released in 1931, could be seen as a subconscious manifestation of the nightmarish mood of a nation struggling with the Great Depression. The graphic gore in George A. Romero’s 1968 “Night of the Living Dead” was a direct response to the unfolding horrors of the Vietnam war.

“Horror movies let us look at things that really bother us without having to look at them too directly,” Skal says. “At a base level, they’re really dealing with social, political and economic issues.”

Wes Craven, the director of the “Scream” series and creator of Freddy Krueger, the razor-fingered killer from the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films, agrees the trick to coming up with new movie horrors requires taking a look at modern-day events.

“You don’t actually sit down and create these monsters,” Craven says. “You simply get a handle on what’s out there and devise a costume to fit it. It’s the naming of the beast.”

Skal believes that the current popularity of serial-killer movies can be attributed in part to our collective state of mind.

“Today, we’re dealing with a general coarsening of life,” Skal says. “People are suspicious, hostile, paranoid. Slasher films in particular reflect the idea that there is somebody out there after you. It’s a complete breakdown of law and order. These killers seem capable of getting away with anything. They’re the modern-day equivalent to the gangster figures of the 1930s.”

Another reason for the horror boom is that movies like “Scream,” which practically beg for audience participation, are the kind of films people still prefer to watch in a crowded theater rather than on home video. At a time when traditional community gatherings like churchgoing and town meetings have dissipated, moviegoing remains one of the most popular communal experiences - and watching horror movies may be the most communal of all.

“When ‘Halloween’ came out, I went to see it again and again,” says “Scream” screenwriter Kevin Williamson, “and people would yell out the same things every time: “‘Don’t drop the knife! Don’t go back in the house!”’ And of course, she’d drop the knife and go back in the house!

“The reason for the success of ‘Scream’ is simply that it said what audiences had been yelling at these movies for the past 15 years. It exposed the conventions of horror movies and brought everything back to ground zero. The characters speak the same lingo you and I, who have seen all these movies over the years, would speak.”

Those characters, of course, are teenagers - the segment of the moviegoing population that is driving the current horror boom.

“When I first read the script for ‘Scream,’ I was bowled over by the way it combined so many elements - smart, clever, scary,” says Bob Weinstein, president of Dimension Films, the branch of Miramax Films specializing in genre films. “The only question was whether to release it at Christmas or not. That was always my plan, because I felt there were a lot of romantic comedies out last Christmas, and I figured teenagers would want to see an alternative.”

The gamble obviously paid off - and is already being imitated (the Walt Disney Co. changed the release date of “An American Werewolf in Paris” from its original Oct. 3 date to Christmas Day).

“When ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ became the highest-grossing film of the past fall (earning $67 million), that convinced studios that ‘Scream’ was not an anomaly,” says Michael Gingold, managing editor of Fangoria magazine, which covers the horror genre. “Every single studio has a teen-oriented horror film in development or going into production right now.”

Williamson will make his directorial debut next March with “Killing Mrs. Tingle,” which he describes as a “wicked ‘Breakfast Club.”’ Also due next year are “Halloween 7” (featuring the return of original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis) and “Freddy vs. Jason” (which will pit nightmare master Freddy Krueger against the masked killer from the “Friday the 13th” series), both of which will appeal primarily to young adults.

And if “Scream 2” does well, you can expect to line up for “Scream 3” sometime in 1999.

“I always planned it,” screenwriter Williamson says. “When I sold the first one, it came with a treatment for the second and third films. It was always a trilogy, completely planned. So let everyone know: There’s another one coming!”