Why Neve Campbell deserves more credit for bringing a complex softness to the Scream franchise

Anne-iversaries is a bi-weekly column by writer Anne T. Donahue that explores and celebrates the pop culture that defined the '90s and 2000s and the way it affects us now (with, of course, a few personal anecdotes along the way).

On its release day in February 2000, I did not see Scream 3. Embarrassingly, I hadn't been allowed to watch the first two movies (shoutout to my protective parents) — but I still pretended to know exactly what they were about, because from 1996 until the new millennium, Scream was everywhere. To participate in the culture and discourse surrounding it was crucial: kids dressed up in the Ghostface mask for Halloween, "Do you like scary movies?" was a bona fide catchphrase, and because middle schoolers are weird and hilarious, rule-followers were referred to as Deputy Dooey (the sheriff character played by David Arquette).

And most importantly, there was the power of Neve Campbell.

To grow up in Canada in the 90s meant that you were very aware that Neve Campbell — star of all four Scream movies and coming-of-age series Party of Five — was Canadian. And as someone who hadn't seen Scream but desperately wanted to fit in anyway, this was a fact I repeated to excess to anyone who would listen in hopes that it would bring me any semblance of social clout.

It didn't. But that might have been because Campbell has always been more than a star anchored to her citizenship. Instead, she upped her profile by using her role as Sidney to morph into an icon and bona fide Scream Queen™ — pouring vulnerability, intellect, toughness, and emotional complexity into a character who defined a franchise and kept it relevant over the course of a 15-year span. Even more than Jamie Lee Curtis as Halloween's Laurie (lest we forget that Curtis bowed out of her franchise between Halloween 3 and Halloween: H2O), Campbell sustained Sidney's momentum and growth over the initial three Scream films and again during her reprisal in 2011's Scream 4. Sidney is a woman who is traumatized, betrayed, lied to, haunted, and hunted by a rotation of characters with terrifying intentions (some of whom she had been incredibly close with) over the course of four stories — but instead of being defeated, she goes on to become a quasi-superhero.

Over the course of the Scream franchise, Neve Campbell married her softness with her ability to make us believe that she could and would take down anyone who sought to harm her. And this made her character more than just a horror movie trope.- Anne T. Donahue

Not only does Sidney outsmart and destroy these enemies, she marches into adulthood and reclaims her narrative by writing a memoir and acknowledging all that she endured during the 90s. Like many of us (see: real people), she uses her pain as a means of momentum. And she goes from shying away from her reputation as a cursed woman to standing by the events of her youth and daring haters to challenge it. Ultimately, Sidney becomes someone who refuses to be defined by her past but, at the same time, doesn't deny the damaging effects of being chased down by multiple murderers over a handful of years (and movies). She wears her experiences on her sleeves, and she wields them as weapons. She uses the darkness of trauma to protect the people she loves (not that I'm about to give away Scream 4, thank you very much) without engrossing herself in darkness, too.

And to play a character like Sidney is no easy feat. Brilliantly, over the course of the Scream franchise, Neve Campbell married her softness with her ability to make us believe that she could and would take down anyone who sought to harm her. And this made her character more than just a horror movie trope. Through her shitty relationship with Billy (her terrible — for many reasons — boyfriend), her fear of being defined by her mother's murder, and her determination to survive, Campbell helped create a young woman who felt complex and interesting and human. And without that dedication to shaping her, there'd be no Sidney at all.

Which is why the legacy of Neve Campbell as Sidney has endured. Whether through our introduction to her as a high school student in the first film or as a grown-ass woman in the fourth instalment, Sidney Prescott has outlasted both anyone trying to kill her and the legacy of most horror film stars. (Minus Jamie Lee Curtis who, for the record, is our mom.) And while Campbell's career post-Scream may be prolific and serves as a testament to her range as an actor, there's a reason we keep celebrating Sidney: she seemed like someone we could actually aspire to be like. Someone complicated who could be brave and conflicted and scared and funny and over it all at once — kind of like any teen or 20-something, or, for that matter, any person worth knowing.