Review: Scream (1996)
by Luke Buckmaster
>From the spine-chilling director Wes Craven, who's made himself known as one of most prominent figures in the genre after the well known Nightmare on Elm Street series and various other films, comes the best horror movie so far in the 90's.
If you don't agree with that statement, you'll be more likely to agree with this one: the reason why this super popular teen flick has been so successful is not because it features completely original scenes or avoids common horror film cliches. Victims still run up the stairs instead of out the door, murderers still miraculously get inside rooms unnoticed and police seem to do everything but solve the crime. No - the difference between Scream and other horror films is the fact that it knows that cliches are being used and parodies itself by regularly announcing the "rules" of a successful horror film.
Party of Five's Neve Campbell stars as Sidney who, one year before the film is set, lived through the trauma of having her mothered violently killed in their local small town. News spreads thick and fast across the state and country, and in no time this murder mystery becomes the number one story in newspapers and TVs.
A year later, a killer is again on the loose. The same town, the same media hype and a similar target - it seems that to be hunted by a homicidal freak runs in the family. So as the number of murders rapidly increase and the list of suspects' covers the whole town, there is only one question that needs to be answered - who is the killer?
Could it be the obvious boy friend Billy (Skeet Ulrich), the horror film freak (Jamie Kennedy), the flamboyant student Stu (Matthew Lillard), Sidney's father who has mysteriously disappeared, small-town cop Dewey Riley (David Arquette) or even TV reporter Gale Weathers (Courtnery Cox)? Everyone is a suspect.
And when everyone is a suspect, the viewers' eye will shift suspiciously over every character on the screen - but all is revealed in due time and the ending comprises all the elements of witty cleverness that is felt from start to end. Forget the average cheapo horror flick - Scream truly is a modern masterpiece.
The only minor grumble is when you look at the films bare bones; it only really consists of 3 or 4 key scenes, and because every minute is so enjoyable the audience is left craving for more blood to fill the screen.
Many of Scream's scenes will no doubt be remembered as classic moments - the phone conversations alone are more than enough to remain in knife-edged nightmares. Yes - it is a scary film, but in no way is Scream a nightmare to watch. It's slick formula of killing off characters one by one until the list of potential killers gets noticeably smaller hits exactly the right note for a terrifying yet very entertaining experience.
4 = stars out of 5 Never before has horror looked so good
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