The Next Day: Scream Park Edition

The film Scream Park concerns an attempt by the owner of a theme park to arrange the murder of his staff in the hopes that the publicity surrounding the massacre will turn the park into a major tourist attraction. Setting aside whether or not this would work (the film seems to think it would), it's one of the most inept examples in recent memory of a film struggling to obtain a 'the killer wins' ending that I've ever seen.

These are the film's two survivors. Woman and her Boss. After a terrible struggle against some killbillies, Woman manages to save the day, while Boss hides in a closet the whole night. Then, right at the end of the movie, it's revealed that Boss was in on it all along, and murdered Woman's would-be boyfriend because he was romantically fixated on her.

That's the severed head of the would-be boyfriend in the Boss' locker. Which he then walks away from,  smiling, leaving the audience with the impression that his plan has worked to perfection.

Except, you know, when he'll be caught and jailed the very next day. Or, indeed, later that same day.

I'm not sure how the filmmakers didn't notice this, but the guy is screwed in any number of ways. First off, one of the victims is, you know, missing a head. The cops are going to go looking for it, probably bringing dogs. And it will only be a matter of time before they find that severed head in the Boss' locker - or if it's not his locker, than at least it's a locker completely covered in his fingerprints.

Beyond the incredibly damning evidence, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten that Boss has already confessed his involvement to Woman. While they were hiding, she accurately guesses that he seems to know a lot more than he should about the killers who are running around the amusement park. He recounts a conversation he had with the park owner in a scene in which the producers hired a marketable celebrity for a four-hour shoot to help get the film distributed.

Once upon a time, that man was Pinhead!

Here's the thing about Boss' story, though - it wouldn't be especially convincing to the police. While Woman might accept his version of events in the heat of the moment, anyone giving the facts a sober second thought would pause to say 'hey, this guy's basically admitting that he heard the park owner planning a murder and did nothing about it'. At best, he's criminally negligent, at worst he's directly responsible for the massacre. And since he actually is directly responsible for setting up the massacre, that shouldn't be too difficult to prove.

It's like the filmmakers haven't considered for a second what the Park Owner would say when the police got around to talking to him. Since he's been accused of mass murder by someone in a position to know - specifically the guy who he employed to set up the mass murder - there's only two possible responses.

1 - He admits his guilt and implicates Boss in the scheme.
2 - He says he had nothing to do with it and implicates Boss in the scheme.

The second of these two options is the more likely - he could admit that he asked Boss to come up with some kind of stunt to attract attention to the park, then claim to be horrified at what the deranged young man came up with.

Telling this story would lead Boss to turn on him, of course, and both men would spend the rest of their lives in prison!

It's a little strange that the filmmakers didn't understand that their attempt to put a 'scary stinger' at the end of their movie not only didn't have the intended effect, but actually wound up guaranteeing that the villains' schemes couldn't possibly have worked out.

So, fantastic work there, guys.

Now, because there was nowhere else to put it, here's the last shot of the movie, Boss looking at the severed head in the locker.

Only the director didn't have him take his glasses off, so we can clearly see the the outdoors and even a hint of the camera in the reflection. Come on guys.