1. Scream (1996, dir. Wes Craven)
This might seem like an odd selection for my number 1, but this movie has changed my life the most. I remember first watching it. I had taken the day off sick, I believe it was the first day off from my first year at High School. My mum had hired a movie called Scream - I thought it looked lame (the poster with a girl's face covered by a hand wasn't exactly enticing maybe why it debuted theatrically with such a low gross). I decided to watch it anyway, crouched inside my beanbag. Yet, for 90 odd minutes all my ills vanished as I became enthralled.
Was it the terrifying opening sequence involving a house-bound Drew Barrymore? I'm sure that's the moment I realised I liked it. But who could've predicted it'd become my favourite movie for about three years and that it would be my most-watched movie of all time (the current number is somewhere around the 100 mark, true). In the years since that wintery day at home in 1997 I became OBSESSED! Up until the 2000 release of Scream 3 (still the only movie from the trilogy I've seen in a cinema unfortunately) I spent hours upon hours reading about all things Scream, Scream 2 and then with the announcement of Scream 3 things hit fever pitch.
And here is where the movie changed my life two-fold. It was the movie that lead to me wanting to know about upcoming movies. To want to hear about what was being released. It made me excited about going to the cinema in the hopes of finding something that enthralling (which I since have). I became a daily visitor of websites such as IMDb, Dark Horizons, JoBlo, etc (never once did I become a Ain't It Cool News fan though!!!) and was always looking forward to seeing what movie announcements had been made. Who had been cast in what? OMG, is that a new picture from Scream 3? It is an obsession that I still have today (probably even moreso in regards to certain movies)
And the other way this filmed changed me is because in 1998ish I joined what they call a message board. It was filled with people JUST LIKE ME (Scream obsessives). We'd constantly discuss the trilogy, we'd create lavish set-ups for the unreleased plot of 3. When pictures were released we'd scrutinise them to a disturbing degree.
The picture above was the first one released and everyone was like "What is up with Courtney's hair?!" "why is Parker Posey in such a horrible outfit" "I thought Parker played this character, so why is she hanging with Gale and Dewey?!?!OMG" Do NOT even get me started on when the trailer premiered. We'd basically figured out who died and how by that alone (a lot of our predictions were wrong though). The thing is though, I still talk to people from those message boards, and have actually become some of my best friends. They're awesome. People would write horror movie scripts, Scream spoofs (before Scary Movie made it popular and we'd all read them and have a ball.
Then in 2002 me and four others (2 from America, 1 from the Netherlands and 1 from Perth) all met up in Sydney and spent about 2 weeks together! We met up with 2 others from Sydney that we knew. It was the best. And on my 36-hour stopover in LA recently I met up with the two from California and spent some great time with them.
So while the movie has changed me on a movie-related level, it's also changed me personally. The first people I "came out" to? Those guys. Here's a freaky thing though! The message board? About 75% of the males on there are gay. We all think that Kevin Williamson put subliminal messages in his movies.
And yes, I actually love Scream 3. I totally believe that they decided 'what better way to end the franchise that spoofed horror movies, by spoofing ourselves' cause really... if I don't believe that it hurts me physically.
(I have since grown to love Scream 2 more, BUT when both of them are in my Top 20 of all time it really doesn't matter that much)
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