Dear Scream Fans,
The first Scream movie was released in 1996 when I was in middle school. I was scared of everything at the time—I was once scared to meet a cousin from Puerto Rico because his name was Freddie, and I was positive he would be Freddy Krueger. My parents were always watching movies like Predator, Alien, Terminator, and Jaws, and all of them terrified me.
The things I remember most about Scream’s release are that my parents had the same cordless phone as Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker (which I’d only seen in the trailers) and a girl walking ahead of me in the middle school hallway, saying, “That movie is gay. Drew Barrymore dies in the beginning.” My first big spoiler, alongside some casual homophobia!
Falling in Love with Scream’s Characters
Later that year, I rented Scream from Blockbuster with some friends and fell immediately in love. At that point, I’d never watched a movie that scared me so much that I genuinely loved and cared about all the characters. It felt so cool, so hip. The women were tough and fashionable, while the guys were all hot. I was fully in.
Scream 2 came out a year later and would become the first in the franchise I saw in theaters. Now we’re coming up on the release of Scream VI, which officially means this franchise has been releasing movies for over half my life. The last standing characters from that first film are my absolute favorite final girls, Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers and Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott.
Scream VI: Sidney’s Absence and Gale’s Return
Unfortunately, Sidney will not be in this new installment because Paramount wouldn’t pay her what she deserves. But, inversely, we are still getting the beloved shit-talking Gale Weathers—alongside the return of Hayden Panettiere’s fan favorite Kirby Reed from Scream 4. We are, of course, also getting the return of the new batch of survivors from 2022’s Scream. For me, this franchise has always been the horror franchise. The characters are always dynamic, and I always care about them. Sure, there are older franchises with more sequels and scarier villains, but this one is it for me. It’s why I love horror. But most importantly, no one tells someone to “fuck off,” quite like my gay icon Gale Weathers.
The Scream Franchise Toxic Fandom Problem
So, tell me why over the past year, I’ve had more Twitter accounts with Sidney Prescott as their avatar on social call me a “fake fan” than ever before in my life? What the fuck even constitutes a “fake fan”? If you’re a fan, you’re a fan. Hosting a queer pop-culture podcast (Slayerfest 98), cohosting a horror podcast (My Bloody Judy), and running the social media account for both over the last few years has taught me how even the fandoms I’m in, the fandoms I love, can be extremely toxic. The fact that any adult would even use the term “fake fan” would be truly laughable if it wasn’t also accompanied by a zillion more harassing tweets and comments.
Neve Campbell’s Exit and Fan Outrage
Am I upset Neve Campbell isn’t coming back? Fucking of course I am! She is the face of the franchise—without Sidney Prescott there would’ve never been a Scream franchise. Does that mean I will take that anger out on the folks doing the new movie? No, I’m not a child—I know that’s all because of the higher-ups not caring. The original script for Scream VI had a role for Sidney—the creative team clearly did want her back. Do these people who have turned their whole personality into hating the current state of the Scream franchise know they could spend their time doing literally anything else? Do these people who say, “Wes Craven wouldn’t have wanted this,” talk to him from beyond the grave? Do these people know Wes Craven killed Heather Langenkamp’s beloved final girl Nancy Thompson in the 3rd Nightmare on Elm Street movie? Do they realize they sound just like the killers in 2022’s Scream?
Why Scream Fandom Toxicity Hurts the Community
Before the new film’s release, two horror podcasters told me they’d never cover Scream because the fandom was so toxic online. I was so young and naïve back then I assumed they were exaggerating—but, dear reader, they were not. My horror pod once did a recording on things we’d like to see the franchise do next, and foolishly, my cohost Zachary and I both said Sidney deserved a break. We felt the franchise should stop punishing Sidney and move on to new motivations for Ghostface; she deserved to live a happy life. We also talked about new opening kills they could do. I talked about my idea (aka my fanfic) of Gale getting attacked at a Stab-themed drag competition where she tells Trixie and Katya to “fuck off” backstage. So many comments asked us if we’d ever watched a Scream movie. When we did a livestream and talked about how much we wanted Kirby to come back, someone in the chat wouldn’t stop telling us how stupid we were to think they’d ever bring her back (well guess what Mimi).
Understanding Toxic Behavior in Scream Fandom
What makes fans become this way? What joy does it bring them to find folks who enjoy the new additions to the franchise that they hate and tell them they aren’t real fans for liking it? These people clearly love the original movies—we love the same thing, so why fight? I don’t care if some random person online doesn’t share the same opinion on a movie as me, so why do they?
I have friends who didn’t like 2022’s Scream, and that’s fine! Why would I be mad at that? I disagree with it, and that’s normal. I haven’t liked many movies folks have loved, and I don’t go to their social media accounts to harass them for it.
The Loud Minority in Scream Franchise Fandom
And it’s, of course, these toxic folks who happen to be loudest online, unfortunately. They are absolutely not the majority of Scream fans. All of the Scream fans I’m friends with (the ones who did and did not like the newest one) are all fun and chill.
Comparing Scream to Other Toxic Fandoms
It’s like Star Wars! I love Star Wars, I grew up on Star Wars but the toxic fans who are the loudest online make it pretty impossible to post anything about Star Wars without drawing in at least someone telling you that your mom deserves to die over your opinion (I once had folks angry in my Twitter mentions over a viral tweet about loving Baby Yoda). It’s mostly turned me off from the franchise so I’ve become more of a casual fan now. My podcast Slayerfest 98 talks Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all things Marvel, and you can be sure I’ve encountered toxic fans with both. The toxic corner of Buffy fans are the ones who get furious over Sarah Michelle Gellar’s iconic slayer’s boyfriends—which is totally not the point of the show.
It’s a discourse I truly wouldn’t give a shit about if not for the angry Spuffy fans that once campaigned for a publisher to drop one of my cohost’s novels and then told me I needed to fire her. All over her hot take on the beloved vampire, Spike. Then there’s the many toxic corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe where folks will get furious if you say anything bad about it or the folks who get mad if you say anything nice about any of the properties where, you know, a woman exists as more than a side character. Then there’s the corner of the internet that are Marvel Haters and will hate on anything Marvel.
A Call for Positive Fandom Culture
The internet is a hellhole.
We are constantly dealing with exhausting election cycles, racists, homophobes, mass shooting news, and the ever-charming incels. Fandoms should not be like that. They should be fun! Celebrate what you love about the fandom! The killers in the newest Scream weren’t supposed to be models of how one should act in a fandom…and yet! And if you can’t just enjoy the parts of a fandom that you love and just can’t help screaming online about how much you hate Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera (the franchise’s first non-white Final Girls), then at least leave me alone.
With love,
Ian Carlos Crawford