The Filmaholic RetroReviews: Scream (1996)

Boo.

The Lowdown: A horror movie within a horror movie. Wes Craven’s slasher opus is insanely creative, self-aware, and hilarious; it somehow manages to remain scary and suspenseful while totally mocking itself and horror movies in general. The famous 15-minute opening scene is arguably worth the price of the DVD alone.
1. The Plot: In the town of Woodsboro, Sidney Prescott’s mother is brutally murdered. One year later, Sidney (Neve Campbell) still grieves at her mother’s untimely death. However, when a serial killer emerges, later dubbed “The Ghostface Killer”, and begins picking off teenagers, Sidney begins to suspect that her mother’s death and these new killings are related. No one is safe, and everyone is a suspect as the body count rises. Soon, Sidney and her friends find themselves the stars in their own real-life horror film.

2. The Characters: Neve Campbell (Party of Five) is Sidney Prescott, who is emotionally fragile and withdrawn as a result of her mother’s savage murder. She can’t even bring herself to have sex with her boyfriend, Billy Loomis, played by Skeet Ulrich. Billy comes under fire as a suspect in the Ghostface murders, and his and Sidney’s relationship becomes even more strained as a result. Not helping matters is nosy, self-absorbed reporter Gale Weathers, played by Courtney Cox (Friends). Weathers is always after a breaking story, and after earning fame by publicizing the investigation and trial of Sidney’s mother’s murder, continues to stalk Sidney, eager for the next scoop. Other characters include Sidney’s friends, Tatum (Rose McGowan), Stu (Matthew Willard), and Randy (Jamie Kennedy), who each come with their own little quirks. Randy, in particular, is a film buff and knows everything there is to know about horror movies. He ultimately spells out the rules of horror movies for everyone in the film, as well as to the audience (meta!). There’s also Dewey, played by David Arquette (Never Been Kissed), Tatum’s dopey brother and a police deputy. Frequently assigned to protect Sidney, he ends up falling for Gale Weathers and constantly gets distracted.
3. Subverting Clichés: The Scream films remain some of the best in the genre by going against the grain. Screameven helped revitalize the horror genre after it was run into the ground in the 80s and 90s. Tired clichés and endless and increasingly-crappy sequels were slowly killing the horror genre. The whole point of Scream was to spell out every horror movie cliché, point out exactly what was wrong with them, and then slyly do something new and fresh with them, and it worked beautifully. There are even numerous references to classic horror films, actors, and directors as icing on the cake. They didn’t ignore clichés and stereotypes; they embraced them, and that is why Scream feels so fresh even today. Scream goes even farther by being a movie within a movie (more meta!). Sidney and her friends are living a horror movie, but only later in the film do they (and we) realize it. This one brilliant element is what makes Screamtranscend horror and become full-blown satire. Still, despite being hilarious, Scream lives up to its title. The famous opening scene featuring Drew Barrymore is one of the best scenes in any horror movie, and is still shocking and suspenseful to this day. Like so many modern horror films, Screamalso doesn’t shy away from graphic violence. Some of it is hilariously over the top, but even when the film is poking fun at the violence, it is still enough to make one wince a bit.

The Bottom Line: Scream is so much more than a horror film. It is a horror movie, a horror satire, and a horror-critique, all in one. The only movie equivalent is probably The Cabin in the Woods (2011), which is also a masterpiece and will surely become a classic over time. After 17 years, Screamis still smart, sharp (pun intended), and scary to this day. It is a near-perfect scary movie. So come on, it’s Halloween. You’re done trick-treating and you’re at home munching on your treats.

All you need now is a scary movie to finish off the night.

"Do you like scary movies? What's your favorite scary movie?"

Happy Halloween.
Scream is property of Dimension Films and Woods Entertainment. This review was written by me.