SCREAM **** OF **** grade is A-
Scream is the best and worst thing to happen to the horror genre. Horror films were pretty much gone in recent years and Scream revived them, it has also probably killed the horror film without self-referencing dialogue. Now like Halloween, Psycho or Night of the Living Dead we have a horror film that will create scores of imitators, for better or worse.
Scream starts with a masterpiece scene that could make an exceptional short film. A girl is home alone in a big spooky house. She gets a phone call from a stranger, who slowly becomes more threatening and deadly. The stranger then puts her through a movie trivia test, the results of which could prove fatal to her. These scenes are taunt and unrelenting and start Scream's flare for taking standard horror film cliches and turning them on their heads.
After the opening tension the film settles down into a group of teenagers stuck in a horror film (al a Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc.) and gives them satirically smart dialogue and a darkly comic surrounding in their High School. The group consists of two girls (Campbell - our hero and McGowan) and four boys (Ulrich - Campbell's boyfriend, Lillard - McGowan's boyfriend, and Kennedy - movie-addicted nerd).
The film has many key scenes that work very well. As when Kennedy explains the probable killer to Lillard or as he explains the rules ("Never Have sex!." He yells as Campbell is deflowered). There is also a wonderful scene that has Campbell call the bluff of the killer on the phone.
A lot of credit has to be paid to screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven. They both handle the film marvelously. The script, which was part of a major studio bidding war, is very smart and funny. So funny that most horror directors passed because they wee confused of the films actual genre (even though the original title was Scary Movie). Craven is a natural choice to direct this film because he never really takes his films that seriously anyway. He tried a similar mix of horror and comedy with Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Vampire in Brooklyn, the first was successful. He plays this film expertly careful not to be too funny in key scenes that require empathy for dying characters and he also finds ways to keep comedy up while anticipating violence.
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