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Scream (1996) Cert 18. Director - Wes Craven. Writer - Kevin Williamson. Starring - Neve Campbell, David Arquette & Courtney Cox. |
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Premise - Someone is stalking and killing the residents of Woodsborough, but who could it be? Scream single handily re-energised the slasher flick genre. Wes Craven built on themes from his earlier movie 'New Nightmare' to bring us a clever, post-modern slasher flick. Scream was clever because the characters know the rules of the slasher flick and abide by them. However the killer doesn't. A fresh young cast of relative unknowns does a good job on Scream. Most notable is Neve Campbell playing the lead who goes on to flesh out her character more in the sequels. Also good is David Arquette as Dewy. He gives a nicely understated comic performance, which he has played to in his subsequent films. Cox is also good, playing against her friends' character type as a bitchy, trashy tabloid news reporter. Special note should go to Jamie Kennedy as the geeky, movie loving Randy. Randy acts as our guide laying down the rules for surviving a slasher film. The script from Williamson, though is the real star. It is bursting with horror movie references. Whilst Scream follows the basic rules of a slasher flick it also has a knowingness about it so that it never falls into direct to video nonsense. Direction from Craven is tight, but this is to be expected from 'the master of suspense'. One of the best scenes is the pre-credits sequence with the killer quizzing Drew Barrymore on her knowledge of horror films. This scene sets the tone for the movie and we know what to expect from that point on. Scream has been copied to death(no pun intented) since it's release, with almost none of it's copiers even coming close to being as good. It has even been parodied by Scary Movie, no mean feat considering that Scream itself is somewhat of a parody on the horror genre. Scream is a marvellous movie. Clever, witty, funny and on occasion scary. Believe the hype. |
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8/10 for Scream. Poster quote - In a movie theatre no one can hear you scream! |