An Analysis of Scary Movie!

In the fall of 1998, three students from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania presented a project on Scary Movie!  or Small Town Serial Killers and Flesh Eaters for their horror film class.  The students Larry Mauk, Frank Stetar, and Jim Raggle introduced the film to the class.  They also gave a short synopsis of Firefly and its beginning.  Below is a transcript of the project.  Thanks to the group for their support of Firefly!

 The movie we based our project on was Scary Movie! or Small Town Serial Killers and Flesh Eaters.  This film was produced in 1997 by Firefly Entertainment.  Firefly Entertainment was founded in 1994 by Ryan Dixon and less than a dozen other high school students from western Pennsylvania.  Their first film was based on a play written in response to an English project by Mr. Dixon.  This first film was entitled, The Unknown Inheritance of John Franklin.  Eight films, two television series, and a half-dozen theatrical endeavors later, Scary Movie! was created.  A standing room only premiere welcomed Scary Movie! to the movie industry.  It is intriguing to the makers that this movie is ranked with the best such as Night of the Living Dead because of the technical similarities of production and budgets of the film makers.  The minuscule budget of Scary Movie! left the film makers with no option but to rely on their homemade costumes, personal equipment, and creativity.

 The largest, most talented and varied Firefly cast to date made Scary Movie! such a box-office hit that it was demanded in other countries such as France and India along with premieres at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.  Thus, a foreign subtitles version had to be pressed and is currently available in Letter Box, PAL, and 8mm.  Due to the overwhelming response in mail from adoring fans who hunger for more from Firefly, a web page was soon developed featuring a huge Dal Dalmane award winning page for Scary Movie!

First, let us chat a white with Frank and discover his views on the film.

Frank, how do you feel about family issues such as the psychic family?

Well, most of the horror films that we've watched and dealt with in class had at least something to do with the family. Scary Movie!, however, takes family values past the point of most of the low budget films that we've watched in class and takes them to that next level.  This awesome film goes to the next level because there really are not any normal people.  Every family and even person in Scary Movie! is "screwed up" in one way or another whether it be because they are psychic or demented.  The psychic family, is non-stereotypical and dysfunctional.  They have supernatural powers which enable them to talk to the dead brother/uncle.  They spend the whole length of the movie not knowing or caring where Harvey is.  In the end, mom allows him to become a zombie and run off with a dead girl (though hot she mady be) because just as long as he is happy.  This on the other hand one way that they are somewhat stereotypical in that Harvey asks mom's permission to become a zombie and she is fine with this because he would be happy.  This is no Donna Reed show but this does give evidence of normal family life (though far fetched).  They do have strong family ties though.  It does not matter to them where they have family members located, they communicate with them whether it would be because they are in another country or dead, they communicate and keep close ties.

How do you feel about Nellie's family?

Nellie's family is another example of dysfunctional.  When the two small town agents come to interview her mom after the murder, there is not a father to be found.  You can't even tell if he is just away or non-existent.  The biggest quirk is that the agents are there to interview this woman about the murder of her daughter and all she cares about is giving the agents cookies.  She also does not seem to be upset that there was a young man constantly peeping at her daughter.  She also makes the comment about her daughter being shunned for the lead in the school play because of the other's girl's mother sleeping with the director.  You have to set back and think of whether this is woman's normal state of mind or is she just in shock over her daughter's murder.

Great, what comments can you make about the old couple?

I wish to make none at this time.  I am still contemplating them myself.

I agree, but can you tell us anything about the zombies?

Well, the zombies seem to be the best example of a normal family in the film.  They all get along with each other.  They seem to work as a team and work for the best of their family.  Id'ana, the hot zombie girl, commented on several occasions on how she didn't want to be alone and seemed to be craving a family-like structure to belong to.

Do the zombies in this film seem similar to zombies in other films?

Well, physically yes.  They look and move like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead.  The similarity does end here though.  The zombies in this film, again, follow a chain of command, where Romero's do not.  This among many other things suggest that these zombies have a significant amount of feeling and intellect.  Some of these zombies can talk and these are the zombies that show the most amount of intellect and emotion.  Di'ana, for example, passed for either a human or a very nicely embalmed corpse for most of the movie.  The dead politician was one of the leaders of the zombies.  He had a great amount of intellect and even called his former running mate on the phone.  Mitch, the mechanic, vowed to kill Chad after he joined the other side, he bashed Chad's head in with a monkey wrench.  the professor in one scene quoted that they want to be like us and that they are not zombies, but people like you and I.

Thank you Frank, now let's chat with Larry.  Larry, tell us your views on how this film presents the government.

The government was initially brought in to fix what the small town detectives were bumbling with.  They were shown as a savior to the ordeal that the town was going through.  the government's representative, Agent Sommers, has no trust in any form of local government.  This is a stereotypical view that most have of this system.  Mistrust in many forms.  He even called Chad, the mayor's assistant, "just a hassle."  What we find out is that however impressive the agent may be, he is just as ineffective as Beldrick and Doleman and ultimately fails in his attempt.  We also see this mistrust in the town's mayoral office.  chad is taking advantage of his position, going behind the mayor's back, and is attempting to blackmail her to gain her position.  the mayor is also not very effective at her job.  She seems to only be interested in getting reelected.  she also discusses her sinful rendezvous.

Is the zombie government similar to their human counterpart?

They seem to be a more effective form of government.  They follow an effective chain of command which is very military-like.  As Frank said, they work for the good of the whole and interact efficiently.  Their system, however, seems to be more of a communist structure than our democratic system.  However we may feel about this, they do eliminate the majority of the town in the end.

OK Larry, enough easy questions, now let's see if I can stump you.  Tell us your views on whether this is a classical or a post-modern horror film.

Well, I would have to say that this is a overwhelmingly post-modern, but still contains some classical elements.  Classically speaking, it is, like those of that genre, filmed entirely in black and white.  also, the professor speaks about his thoughts that the zombies were produced by nuclear testing, much like the classical creature features.  The professor himself represents the old and exotic settings of these films.  This film is more post-modern, though.  It, like Night of the Living Dead, includes a violent disruption of the everyday, small town world by a zombie attack.  Normalcy is also invaded by the multiple murders of young females.  These "living dead" also transgress and violate normal boundaries.  For no apparent cause, we see the dead come to life and attempt to destroy human life in the town.  This also ties in with the film's lack of rationality.  Science and the government cannot answer questions about the occurrences.  There is also no substantial proof.  The ending of Scary Movie! is an obvious characteristic of the post-modern horror film.  It repudiates narrative closure.  The undead take over the town with the permission of the survivors.  We never do find out what happens to the psychic family and the professor, Harvey or Di'ana, or the new zombie town.

I myself lost many a night's sleep over the ending.  How do you feel this film portrayed the female?  Typically, the horror genre is not extremely positive towards female characters.

This film is no exception.  Women are the focus of the majority of the film's violent crimes.  The three murders at the beginning all involve female victims.  This is very reminiscent of the "slasher" films, such as Friday the 13th, A nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween where the male oppressors spent the majority of the films hunting down a female victim.  Even when a female is not being the center of violence, this film portrays them in a less than wholesome and intelligent manner.  As Frank mentioned, Nellie's mom did not seem extremely intelligent or moral.  As I said, the mayor seemed weak, ineffective, and was adulterous.  She is eventually killed by the male, ex-politican zombie.  Chad, who was a womanizing sleeze ball, spoke of how they needed "a new man to lead the town."  Chad also has no belief in the psychic mother when she attempts to warn him of the oncoming terror.  This is just one example of the negative attitude toward women that the film's male characters hold.  Larry, the character, seems to have only one thing on his mind.  Especially in the scene where he is attempting to seduce his girlfriend, in his car, in the middle of nowhere.  the previously mentioned mother of Nellie was also into the neighbor boy's peeping addiction.  This boy, Tracey, was also caught, by the detective, with a Hustler magazine in his hands.  The females who appear to be somewhat strong, the psychic women, eventually rely on the male professor to escape and survive.  Even the female zombie that is about to be killed by the professor is saved by a fellow male zombie.

Is there any hint of feminism in this otherwise perfect film?

The mayor does take charge and fire Chad before she is killed.  She shows us that under her exterior, there is a powerful female figure.  In the end, two of the survivors are female.  This is rare of horror films.  One seems to be the unwritten limit.  The zombie queen is extremely feminist in a certain view.  She does use her feminine powers to seduce and kill the men of this film.  She is only shown eliminating male victims.  She also seems to have a significant "rank" in the zombies' chain of command.  Di'ana, despite being the poster girl for dumb blonde jokes, is the most non-threatening zombie.  She is also one of the most moral, emotional, and caring characters in the film.

Thanks Larry! That was powerfully interesting and informative.  Now, let us speak with the wise and wity Jim.  Hey, where is Jim?  Oh, there he is.

Sorry, I am late.

Jim, we've already talked of the images and characteristics of stereotypical small town life in this film, do you have anything to add to this prominent topic?

You know... this film is similar to Romero's zombie films in that it deals with the issue of invasion versus isolation.  Normal small town life was disrupted by an invasion of evil.  The confined and seemingly safe aspects of this life were destroyed and changed forever.  The outsiders who come into this town, whether it be government agents or the zombies, seem to be more educated, knowledgeable, effective, and powerful than the "local yokels".  This aspect reminds us of the episode of the X-Files that we watched in class.  The towns people were afraid and placed no trust in the government agents.  Also, the fact that everyone in this film knows each other is another characteristic of small town life.

Wow, thank you Jim, I never looked at it that way.  You mentioned the mistrusted government, do you think that there is any evidence of a conspiracy theory here?

Ummm... Larry, the character, believes that "the police know who did it."  This is just that the local law enforcement and even the government could be hiding something larger, more meaningful, and dangerous.  The scene in which Tracey is interrogated includes Beldrick and Doleman not believing a word that he says.  They even suggest that Tracy's mother could be in on the murdering spree with him.  This seems to go beyond normal questioning procedures.  Also, the fact the zombies arrive and that the professor already knows about them leads us to believe that someone has been hiding information from the public.  This could be either a government association or individuals with enough knowledge to know that they would be a threat to human existence.  this is a conspiracy theory at its extreme.

By the way Jim, what other sources do you think contributed to the making of this project?

We relied heavily on the books that Dr. Slater placed on his reserved reading list.  David Skal's The Monster Show, Isabel Pinedo's Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film, Jonathan Lake Crane's Terror and Everyday Life.  carol J. Clover's Men, Women, and Chainsaws, and William Paul's Laughing and Screaming were extremely helpful in our research.  We also included some comments that were made by Dr. Slater and other members of our class.

Thank you guys for that extremely wholesome and exquisite interview.  I do not think that there is anything left to be said here, so back to you at home...

Special thanks to the three gentleman for taking a study of Scary Movie! and Firefly.  This study was presented in Fall of 1998 for Dr. Tom Slater's Horror Film class at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  Here are their professor's comments:

"I think that covers it all pretty well.  I guess we can just conclude that this film contains everything..  Finally, Larry, thanks for presenting this film to the class.  It fit in really well, showed how much horror-film has become a part of the culture, and was a great example of what determined, creative people, can accomplish."

In case anyone is wondering, the group got an A on the project.