05/29/2026
My darling DeVoTees, I remember the first time I saw Scream. Not watched it... Saw it.
There is a difference.
Some films pass before the eyes like fog over a graveyard. Others crawl through the window, knock over the lamp, steal your snacks, and leave bloody footprints on your memory. Scream was the second sort.
The phone call. The rules. The cutting wit. The way it knew horror, mocked horror, loved horror, and then stabbed horror in the ribs while grinning.
That twist killer reveal was everything.
Of course, that is the curse of such a twist. You only get that first stab once.
You can watch it again, sure. You can return to the scene of the crime and admire the clues scattered like little bloody breadcrumbs. You can catch the looks, the lines, the suspicious silences. You can appreciate the craftsmanship of the trap.
But you never get that first reveal again.
Not really.
That particular lightning only strikes the cemetery gate one time.
Or so I thought.
Years later, I sat down to expose Activity Grrrl to Scream at an age when she was just old enough to appreciate masked mayhem, bad decisions, and a knife-wielding menace with theatrical timing. So… very young.
She watched.
I watched her watch.
And there it was again.
Not in me, but through her. That little jolt. That widening of the eyes. That moment when the pieces snapped into place and the whole wicked machine revealed itself.
I had already taken the ride.
But through her chaos-goblin gaze, I got to feel a sliver of that first-time fright again.
That is one of the grand little gifts of sharing the things we love. The movie does not become new. Instead, we become haunted by someone else discovering it.
What is your favorite scary movie?
