Scream (1996) Review

 

Scream (1996)

Scream follows Sidney Prescott, who, a year after the murder of her mother, is terrorized by a new killer, targeting her and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game. 

Single-handedly breathing life into the slasher genre, Scream did the unthinkable in 1996 and brought about a new wave of slasher films, a genre that had all but fizzled out in the almost 20 years since Halloween officially kickstarted the craze back in 1978. In commanding fashion, it integrated witty, post-modernist self parody with genuinely effective (and often intense) scares in a way that really broke all of the rules and rebuilt them from the ground up. 

This meta, deconstruction of the genre served as a clever vehicle to not just poke fun at the predictability of slashers, but also used it as a narrative device to (not so) subtly hint at the events of the film. It’s use of inter-textual references to horror movies, while being in one, allows Scream to be both obvious but misleading all at once, lending itself to being a more than competent whodunnit, where even the most obvious (and eventual) identity of the killer is called into question. What’s most impressive though, especially looking at this in retrospect, is just how original Scream is. It somehow follows the slasher playbook to the letter and yet, it feels fresh, wildly hilarious, and at times, intensely shocking, enough so to only get better with time. 

Scream also benefits from a now iconic cast, starring Drew Barrymore, Rose McGowan, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, and Neve Campbell. I love everything about Matthew Lillard and this movie only solidified that love, showing who easily he can transition between terrifying and hilarious in the blink of an eye. And let’s not forget Campbell, who is quite possibly the best final girl in existence, proving her worth as an ass-kicking heroine who is in full control of her movie. 

Scream, directed by Wes Craven, quite literally reinvented the slasher, not by being bloodier or more violent but by being smarter. It’s a smart movie for fans that love horror, building it’s identity around that fact, to craft an intense horror that is just iconic now as it was 25 years ago. 

9.8/10