We all know the infamous scene from Wes Craven’s 1996 film, Scream. Drew Barrymore as the terrified ingenue Casey Becker represents each and every one of us at some point in our lives: Totally scared shitless of something we can’t see or understand. She is taunted and baited by her mysterious caller as she tries to figure out where he’s lurking. Like the rest of us, her inability to detect the source of her fear is driving her to the point of insanity.
When we’re all trying to go about our business and simply take pleasure in the little things (e.g. making popcorn and watching a movie), our unknown fear creeps up on us when we least anticipate it. But instead of avoiding that fear, we should all take a page from Barrymore as Casey Becker and just fucking deal with the problem that’s thrown unexpectedly in our direction.
Unfortunately, taking on our problem doesn’t always result in success. Sometimes, when we stare our fear in the face, it stares us right back, smirks and then tears us apart from the inside out and strings us to a tree. But at least we made the attempt at not living in fear. And it’s nice to be able to turn to Drew Barrymore in Scream as a constant metaphor for inspiration.
