Kevin Williamson says the Scream movies are ‘coded in gay survival’

Words: Jamie Tabberer; pictures: Wiki/Paramount Pictures

Kevin Williamson has said the Scream movies he wrote are “coded in gay survival.”

The screenwriter launched the franchise with 1996’s Scream, directed by Wes Craven. A fifth film, also called Scream, is due out in early 2022. Williamson is serving as an executive producer on the project.

Speaking to The Independent, Williamson – who also wrote Dawson’s Creek – furthermore explained how his own past as a gay teenager inspired the character of Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell.

“It’s what one has to do to survive as a young gay kid, too”

The 56-year-old, who also wrote Scream 2 and Scream 4, said: “As a gay kid, I related to the final girl and to her struggle because it’s what one has to do to survive as a young gay kid, too. You’re watching this girl survive the night and survive the trauma she’s enduring.

“Subconsciously, I think the Scream movies are coded in gay survival.”

On the casting of actresses popular with LGBTQs such as Parker Posey, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Carrie Fisher, Williamson added added: ““It just happened! It’s a gay universe, I guess.”

Speaking about Scream‘s characters, Williamson said: “They were unique to their time. Scream was a new way of doing a horror film, a deconstruction. And everyone on Dawson’s Creek spoke like pop psychologists, but they were very much talking about real things.

“Despite the Nineties sheen it has, it also has a bunch of honesty. That was the magic of it.”

Williamson’s other screen credits include Cursed, The Faculty and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

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