Badlands Story Hour Ep 139: Scream

Chris Paul and Burning Bright slice into Wes Craven’s 1996 classic Scream, a film that redefined horror, rewrote the rules, and made meta mainstream. They explore how Scream turned the genre inside out, balancing humor, fear, and self-awareness with a cast that captured an entire generation’s coming of age. From the iconic Drew Barrymore opener to the film’s commentary on culture’s feedback loop, how movies shape us and we, in turn, shape movies, the duo breaks down why Scream still cuts deep nearly 30 years later. Their discussion peels back layers on everything from the film’s sexual politics and generational cynicism to its eerie parallels with today’s media landscape, propaganda, and perception of reality. Between jokes, ads, and deep dives into cultural meta, they reveal how Scream wasn’t just about killers in masks, it was a mirror held up to the audience itself.