Dawson's Creek

Dawson's Creek

Episode 11: The Scare

By: Carlos Uribe

Dawson's Creek is a show about teenagers growing up. It ran from 1998-2003 and was created by Kevin Williamson (creator of the Vampire Diaries and the Secret Circle).

Spoilers Ahoy!

Let's begin this review by talking about horror movies. I'm not interested in talking about the state of the genre or why there's no middle-ground in quality for scary movies. I'm interested in discussing why they're so popular. It's possible that the most profitable films are not the giant action blockbuster films but the low-budget horror film. The only major cost of horror films generally tends to be marketing. When they do well, they make quite a bit of money. Why do they make so much money? There's people out there who actually like the idea of getting scared. I don't think it's the fear that they like but the burst of adrenaline that generally comes with it. The more adrenaline then the “scarier” the movie is. It's true that the genre has lost itself, believing that what people really want is the gore, but true scary movies will make your heart race. Horror fans generally believe that the adrenaline boost that comes with the scary bits are worth the other effects of fear. They might not know what part of being scared they like. They just consider it to be fun. The people who don't like to be scared and don't like scary movies tend to be the ones who don't think the adrenaline is worth it. Their heart racing is more unpleasant. There's the people who don't like horror films because they don't find them to be scary and the characters are generally stupid. I belong in the third group. While I can appreciate a well-done horror flick, it's difficult for most scary movies to come close to scaring me So why am I talking about scary movies?

Dawson's Creek had an episode that paid tribute to it. In what must be a surprising feature of the episode is that it doesn't use Halloween as an excuse. You'd think that would be the perfect time to have a scary episode but the series had launched too late. It instead decided to use Friday the 13^th. It's a day that is generally seen as unlucky and has it's own famous horror film series. Dawson's Creek begins the episode by having Dawson and Joey having a scary movie marathon and in doing so signals what the episode is going to cover. It also uses the scene to establish the idea that there's going to be a serial killer that is going to come to Capeside. It doesn't spell out the idea as it merely informs the audience there's a serial killer. The newscast is generally in the background and it seems to not be of any actual importance to the plot. The story fits into the point that Joey was trying to make and therefore more relevant to the dialogue than to the rest of the episode. It isn't until later when the characters are freaking each other out that the serial killer starts to become more important to the story. There's even a sub-plot where the viewer is led to believe for the possibility that the serial killer is actually stalking Jen. He obviously didn't but he did have a creepy conversation with Joey. When the serial killer is caught at the end of the episode, it becomes clear to Joey that she managed to dodge a bullet. It is a pity that Joey's feelings for Dawson are merely referenced. It looks like the love triangle has gone back to stalling.

Dawson decides to host a seance due to the day. He invites his friends and Jen. While she turns him down to go on a date with Cliff, she's surprised when Cliff ends up taking her to Dawson's house for the party. He knows that she doesn't like to be scared but he decides to continue trying to sabotage Cliff's chances with Jen by telling him that she does. This is what leads Cliff to pretending to be a serial killer. It's a bit surprising that Cliff comes up with the idea. It does lead to some interesting camera angles to give the feel of a horror movie. It should be noted that Cliff does get a little too dense in this episode. He actually thinks that taking Jen to her ex-boyfriend's house right after a terrible double date with him is a good idea. While I understand the necessity to bring Jen into the storyline while also having her date other men, it's simply a bit much to chew on. If the series had been able to come up with another excuse, like Cliff's truck breaking down and so he and Jen decide to go to Dawson's for the date, then it might have better served the episode. Jen and Dawson almost share a kiss near the end but she backs off. This makes it clear to Dawson and the audience that she still has feelings for Dawson but she's refusing them. This is also exemplified whenever Jen talks about Dawson's dating strengths to Cliff.

Pacey attends the seance and he brings and older date. He meets this older woman at a gas station store, where she had been fighting with her lover. She acts unbalanced simply to add to the creepiness level of the episode and to also give it it's “horror” climax. That climax being that her lover attacks the characters to try and get his wife back. Pacey invites her not only because she's beautiful, but because she also stole some wine for him and his friends. The character he invites never really evolves beyond just being a bit nut. He also stole the family jeep, but I'm not entirely sure why that was relevant to the plot. It's not like he needed to quickly start the car or anything. It merely seemed to be added as a poor excuse to keep Joey in the car for her conversation with the serial killer. The thing is the series didn't need an excuse. It could have simply have had Joey stay behind because she didn't feel like getting down.

This was a pretty good episode of Dawson's Creek, even if it didn't really advance a single storyline. After last episode's questioning cliff-hanger, that's a bit disappointing. If anything, it felt like this episode could have fit before the last the episode. It did succeed at it's goal: creating a successful horror tribute surrounding the events of Friday the 13^th. Is it a bit ridiculous that Joey had a talk with the serial killer? Sure. It was an entertaining episode simply because of how Dawson kept trying to scare anyone and how everyone eventually tried to scare him. It was an episode that worked well but it isn't really essential viewing.