SCREAM
A film review by Chris Casino
***1/2 out of **** (Pretty good)
Director: Wes Craven, Writer: Kevin Williamson, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, Henry Winkler.
I was anxious to see this for a long time. A friend of mine recommended this to me because he has a crush on Neve Campbell, and he wanted to prove that she's as hot as he thinks he is. He proved it for me all right, but the reasons I enjoy this film go way beyond that.
SCREAM treads on familar ground, horror movie with, as star Neve Campbell puts it,"Some stupid killer stalking some big breasted girl who can't act who's always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door." It's very familar, your typical horror film.
So why, you may ask after watching it, does it seem so new and original?
Because it treats itself as if it hasn't been done before, and thus the viewer is disilusioned into believing that it is not old, familar tired stuff.
This raises another question: How does it do this?
Simple: The characters. They're not your typical stupid horror film victims who don't know what the hell to do when being chased by a guy in a ski mask and a machette. They are horror fans, they know how stuff happens in a horror movie, they know what to do and what not to do, and that makes it scary, and even funny at certain times.
You can tell this just by watching the opening scene where Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) is making popcorn, getting ready to watch a video, and some guy who sounds like a killer calls her up to play a game with her that involves horror movie triva that, if she gets it wrong, will get her and her boyfriend killed. She knows what to answer when he asks her horror film questions, she just can't answer his final question,"What door am I at?" And that gets her killed. That scene works because in a normal horror film, half the things that happen in that scene would never happen.
The plot is typical horror stuff: Sidney Prescott (an impressive Neve Campbell), an attractive young high school student who's mother was killed a year ago tommorrow, is being stalked by a killer who's previously murdered one of her classmates (Casey, naturally), and everybody in this small, California town is a suspect, including Sidney's boyfriend, Billy Loomis.
But as I said before, these people know how horror movies work, and that's what makes it so appealing. That and the references to horror movies, like when Casey says,"The first (NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) was scary, but the rest sucked." which is obviously director Wes Craven (who does a good job of poking fun of the genre that made him a legend) patting himself on the back as he directed the first NIGHTMARE movie and none of the others, and when Tatum, Sidney's friend, mentions the director, Wes Carpenter, which is obviously an homage by writer Kevin Williamson to not only Craven, but also director John Carpenter.
The cast is well chosen, Neve Campbell pulls off a good heroine (and unlike most horror film heroines, she *can* act), Drew Barrymore does a good Janet Leigh impression for what little time she has in the film, and David Arquette is impressive. Also good (and funny) in his role is Henry Winkler ("The Fonz") as the school principal.
I took half a point off for the unnecessary (albeit limited) appearance by FRIENDS' Courteney Cox as reporter, Gail Edwards, Sidney's rival because she covered her mother's disappearance. I hate that show, I hate those actors. They're untalented, overexposed, and overpaid, IMHO, and I would think Wes Craven is smart enough to know those actors are overexposed enough, but I suppose he isn't.
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