“A good song has the ability to continue to reveal itself to you long after you’ve actually written it. This one’s pretty good [for that].” – Nick Cave to Q Magazine in 2007.
Like a permanent resident of the Overlook Hotel, a good song in a horror film can make it seem as if it’s always been there. That it had been there all along without you noticing. That it was a tertiary character in the film, popping up in the third reel — eyes gouged out, fingers cut off, teeth knocked out.
Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” not only became the iconic theme for the groundbreaking 1996 film SCREAM (whether you noticed it or not), it became the anthem for the franchise, appearing in the first three instalments and even being rewritten by Cave for the third. It plays over the opening of the movie-within-a-movie STAB which, in SCREAM 2, chronicles the events of SCREAM. And it eventually became one of Cave’s most played songs at concerts.
It’s everywhere in these movies.
The verse chosen to feature in the first film is the last in the song, and is appropriate for the satirical, meta-movie.
“You’ll see him in your head / on the TV screen / And hey buddy, I’m warning you to turn it off…”
The killers are directing a movie at the same time that they’re exacting vengeance.
“You’re one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan / Designed and directed by his red right hand.”
The first instance of it is heard overtop an establishing shot of the town of Woodsboro and just after Sidney Prescott is called by the killer at friend Tatum’s house. The second time it plays is during a similar scan of the town when Residents and businesses shutter their doors after a curfew is established. Fitting since Red Right Hand sounds like it came out of a Western where a gunslinger threatens to execute the hero at dawn.
Woodsboro is the home Sid’s mother Maureen who left to pursue a Hollywood career, a decision that creates huge implications in the subsequent films.
“Take a little walk to the edge of town and go across the tracks…”
The title Red Right Hand is derived from the John Milton epic “Paradise Lost” which describes the vengeance of God. John Milton is also curiously the name of Lance Henriksen’s studio executive character in SCREAM 3 (who now translates as a Harvey Weinstein type — both Weinsteins of course produced the franchise) and he, perhaps more than Ghostface, could be perceived as the devil with the “red, right hand” tempting actresses like Maureen Prescott with a chance to make it in Hollywood. His underground parties were what introduced Maureen to the salacious lifestyle that followed her back home and that led to her death and the events of the film’s plot. A tenuous connection maybe, but with filmmakers knowingly having Cave compose a new version of this Milton-inspired song for the concluding chapter of their trilogy, it seems more than a coincidence.
“Hey man, you know you’re never coming back…”
“You don’t have no self-respect, you feel like an insect, well don’t you worry buddy ’cause here he comes…”
The sharp, staccato organ music, the dark voice of Cave’s; it’s a song that already sounded aged when it was released in 1994. It’s able to blend seamlessly into the background for this reason, a track with an old soul that sounds like it’s already part of horror movie lore, or at least you’d expect it to in this meta-horror flick.
(Could either director Wes Craven or writer Kevin Williamson have seen the first use of this song in pop culture which preceded SCREAM? Red Right Hand inspired X-Files creator Chris Carter to write a pivotal X-Files episode “Ascension” where a deranged Duane Barry kidnaps Agent Scully, stuffing her in the trunk of his car. The song features prominently during this sequence. What are the chances Craven and Williamson were fans?)
The second instance is immediately after the video store scene when Randy is confronted by Billy and Stu who all discuss the motive of the killer. Billy threatens Randy who turns to Stu to say “You’re telling me that’s not a killer?” The song then starts with these lyrics:
“You’ll see him in your nightmares, you’ll see him in you dreams…”
In SCREAM 2, the song immediately shows up as the soundtrack to STAB which plays in the opening scene. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment and shows early how entrenched the song becomes in the franchise’s mythology. It then pops up again after Sarah Michelle Gellar’s death when the killer is back for the first time on Sidney’s doorstep. This time, when that punctuating bell-clang of the chorus sounds, there’s a hard cut to the eventual killer: Billy’s mother.
SCREAM 3 first plays “Red Right Hand 2” as the film takes us to the set of STAB 3 where Milton and eventual killer Roman are discussing production. Again, the song is pointing the audience in the direction of the killer. The rule seems to be that if you hear it, the killer is nearby — either in the previous or current scene. The set of STAB 3 is also a recreation of the suburban Woodsboro, a place now meant to be associated with the song. Cave’s music effectively becomes embedded in the films in both diegetic and non-diegetic ways.
Listen to Red Right Hand. To hear it now is to know it as “the SCREAM song.” How many pop songs can you say became indistinguishable from the movies they’re featured in? And which became a part of the setting, the background, the mise-en-scène?
“Scream once, scream twice, now scream again / And cover that face with
your red, right hand.”
by @JoePack
Tune Spotting 
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