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IN "GENERICITY IN THE NINETIES: ECLECTIC IRONY AND THE NEW SINCERITY," published in 1993, Jim Collins examined a number of popular genre films released in the early 1990s,1 remarking that "what we have seen of postmodernism thus far is really a first phase, perhaps Early Postmodernism, the first tentative attempts at envisioning the impact of new technologies of mass communication and information processing on the structure of narrative" (262). In December 1996, Dimension Films released Scream, a slasher film that went on to resurrect and redfine that dormant genre for a new generation of teenagers. The Scream trilogy (Scream 2 [1997], Scream 3 [2000]) also marks a later phase of postmodernism than the early postmodernism highlighted by Collins. I have labeled this more advanced form of postmodernism "hyperpostmodernism," and in the Scream trilogy it can be identified in two ways: (i) a heightened degree of intertextual referencing and self-reflexivity that ceases to function at the traditional level of tongue-in-cheek subtext, and emerges instead as the actual text of the films; and (2) a propensity for ignoring filmspecific boundaries by actively referencing, "borrowing," and influencing the styles and formats of other media forms, including television and music videos-strategies that have further blurred the boundaries that once separated discrete media.
The Slasher Film: Emergence and Evolution
The teen-oriented slasher film came into its own in the 19705, with the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978), and became one of the most popular horror subgenres in the decade that followed (Clover 24; Ryan and Kellner 191; Tudor 68-72). It was in the 19805 that the familiar conventions of the teen slasher film were established. These conventions include: a group of young, often teenage, characters as potential victims; imperiled, sexually attractive young women being stalked by a knife-wielding, virtually indestructible, psychotic serial killer; and scenes of unexpected and shocking violence and brutality. Teen slasher films also originated the trend toward spin-offs, sequels, and imitators, sparking a rash of successful slasher film franchises.2 With the release of each installment in the series, the conventions of the genre were repeated and consolidated. The growing popularity of these films was in fact tied to the increasing familiarity of these conventions. As Andrew Britton argues, film audiences were drawn...