Wes Craven's Scream

Does everyone remember director Wes Craven’s Scream? When I think back to 1996, I remember thinking that this movie was more of a comedy than a horror flick. Yes, it had its semi-scary parts, but so much of it was just plain funny! What I found most amusing, was one of the characters, named Randy, who was a horror film junkie and who basically revealed many of the generic horror/slasher film stereotypical "rules", the same exact ones that appear in Scream:

Randy: There are certain RULES that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie. 
Randy: You can never drink or do drugs.
[crowd cheers and raises their bottles]
Randy: The sin factor! It's a sin. It's an extension of number one. And number three: never, ever, ever under any circumstances say, "I'll be right back." Because you won't be back.
Stu: I'm gettin' another beer, you want one?
Randy: Yeah, sure.
Stu: I'll be right back.
[crowd cheers]
Randy: See, you push the laws and you end up dead. Okay, I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife.

Back in 1996, Scream was considered a hit. Everyone I knew was watching it and loving it. (It also helped that Skeet Ulrich, the main villain, was super attractive.) “Ghostface” even became the coolest new Halloween costume.
However, there were some people who were inspired by this movie a little too much... and in the wrong way….

Quite a few teenagers have committed murders using Ghostface as their inspiration. A mother was stabbed 45 times by her son and his cousin, both of whom were supposedly obsessed with Scream. Another woman was shot and killed by a man wearing the Ghostface mask. A teenage boy, allegedly acting as Ghostface, killed his own parents.

Perhaps the most intriguing case of Scream-inspired attempted murder, was the story of two boys from England, Daniel Gill and Robert Fuller. They stabbed someone eighteen times and then left him to die. It was only after a day and a half that a man who was walking his dog happened to come across the victim’s body. Surprisingly, the victim was not dead and later recovered from the wounds that the boys inflicted. When questioned, both Gill and Fuller had claimed that Scream had made them commit the crime. Before attacking their victim, the boys had visited a drug dealer’s house with whom they were friends with. It was there that they were shown different Scream collectibles and weapons and then were convinced by the friend that killing their victim, who happened to also be a friend of the two boys, was a request from “the gods.” According to BBC, in the midst of the investigation, drawings of Ghostface and pictures of knives were discovered in one of the boy’s schoolbooks, which further testified to the influence that Scream had on the two boys.

In my personal opinion, I don’t think that a movie like Scream can actually create killers. I do think, however, that horror/slasher movies can evoke strong emotions that may prompt a person with a personality disorder or other mental illness to act more violently and even murder.

Skeet Ulrich’s character in Scream, Billy, said it best:

Billy: Now Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!

What do you think? Do you think that watching a movie can drive a man to kill?