Scream (1996)

WES CRAVEN

SCREAM

USA, 1996

7.5/10

"Several more local teens are dead, bringing to an end the harrowing mystery of the masked killings that has terrified this peaceful community like the plot of some scary movie. It all began with the scream of a 911, and ended in a bloodbath that has rocked the town of Woodsboro. All played out here in this peaceful farmhouse, far from the crimes and the sirens of the larger cities that its residents have fled."

In a time where Michael was boring, Freddy had lost his edge, and Jason hadn't had a good film in years, the horror genre was close to dead. And yet in that time, we get SCREAM (1996), a funny, new, and, most importantly, scary movie. For once, a horror film in which the characters had seen all the same movies we had.

The film opens at the house of character Casey, played by the famous Drew Barrymore, who is getting ready to sit down and watch HALLOWEEN (1978), when she receives a mysterious call. The rest of the film is littered with comedic moments and horror references that any slasher fan should have a fun time identifying (keep an eye out for the name of Sidney's boyfriend, the number on Tatum's shirt, etc).

And of course there is the famous line "There are certain RULES that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie." The film mentions rules which we have all learned by watching earlier slashers. There's the glaringly obvious "don't have sex", don't yell out "who's there?", don't drink, and more. And what SCREAM does is try to break every rule (though it is still rather unpredictable).

Now, of course, I hate what SCREAM did to the genre. It revived the horror genre, and specifically the slasher sub-genre, but almost all of the films inspired by SCREAM were just annoying and cheesy films that were trying too hard to be self-aware. Looking at you, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1997); it's hard to believe that I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER was written by the same writer of SCREAM. And, while the second SCREAM movie is still pretty good, the other two films in the franchise are horrible imitations, just as formulaic as the films SCREAM tried to defy.

When I first got in to horror, I watched almost every sub-genre of horror films, and had seen quite a lot of movies at young age (by the time I was 13 I had already seen THE SHINING (1980), THE EXORCIST (1973), THE OMEN (1976), THE FLY (1986) and many, many more), but one sub-genre that I wasn't very experienced in was the slasher. Sure, I had seen HALLOWEEN and the first four FRIDAY THE 13TH films by the time of watching this, but that's as deep as my understanding of the sub-genre went. So I enjoy SCREAM because it helped past-me and many other horror novices discover the slasher genre (this film led me to the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise, PROM NIGHT, THE BURNING, and many others that I never had any interest in watching before). And that is what I truly love about SCREAM: its ability to please horror experts and to educate those who aren't as understanding of the genre.

When some horror fans want to talk about shitty modern movies, their go-to film to poke fun at is often SCREAM. I find this completely ridiculous, because SCREAM is actually a very good film. I'd understand completely if they made fun of SCREAM 3 (2000) or SCREAM 4 (2011), or hell, I could even understand SCREAM 2, but the original SCREAM is actually a very original, witty, tongue-in-cheek film that still somehow manages to scare on top of all of that.

(Minor spoilers about the killer(s), no identity/identities are shared) While some argue that the killer(s)'s reason of recreating horror films (although another reason is that he/she/they are just batshit crazy) is very unlikely, I honestly believe it was the only ending the film could have done. I mean, if it turned out to be some crazy act of revenge, or another standard slasher ending, I think we'd all feel a little cheated. And this is hardly the most ridiculous ending in the franchise (as much as I enjoy SCREAM 2, the ending is pretty ridiculous, and 3 and 4 are both some of the most ridiculous endings I've ever seen, though I'll save that for my future reviews of those films). 

All in all, SCREAM is a very fun, scary, and interesting horror film that actually brought something new to a genre that had been reduced to formulaic slashers for years (if only we could have another truly original film nowadays). There are some brilliant one-liners ("You're starting to sound like some Wes Carpenter flick"), great characters (I'm not Dewey's biggest fan, but besides him I enjoy all of the characters), and a mystery-slasher that actually keeps you constantly guessing until the very end (the first time I watched this film, I never would have guessed the killer(s) in a million years). Highly recommended.