The Screamer

Internet screamers or Jump Scares where popular for awhile in my younger days, one of the most famous was The Maze by Jeremy Winterrowd where you played a straightforward game with your mouse and travel through a maze. If you hit the edges it sends you back to the start. On level 3 the path is narrowed near the end. Just when you think you've got it and you're about to beat this level a picture of Linda Blair from the Exorcist pops up with a loud scream intended to scare the viewer. I painted "The [NEON] Scream" awhile back, using fluorescent acrylic paints. I wanted to recreate The Scream by Edvard Munch but give it a modern twist using a big meme-like face in the background. Delving through my old works "The [NEON] Scream" stood out and I knew I needed to animate it. I didn't have anything in particular in mind, but as I was animating it, I thought it'd be funny if the central character just popped up and made a grey scene colourful. After I completed the animation I realised I'd created an "Internet Screamer" so I got to work on the audio using a loud scream, weird music and laughter. This piece is a homage to both Edvard Munch who was a very influential painter, and to the "Internet Screamer" trend which is still being used today.