90210 meets horror

Rating: 10/10 (16 April 2000)

Many IMDb-Users have commented that this is the movie who brought the horror genre back to life. I disagree. What Scream really did was to invent a more or less new kind of genre. It definitely has horror elements in it but more important are the teenagers that are all over this film. All right, "Halloween" (1978) did have teenagers too but still the film was about the killer (Michael Myers) himself and not about the kids he happened to kill.
What I'm trying to say is that Scream is a good film. But after the huge success many other studios tried to make money with other teen-horror flicks that were aiming at the same audience. And that's where it got really stupid. Scream could have been unique but unfortunately it spawned a whole generation of similar films that fed of the same basic idea but just failed to be original. The makers of Scream were lucky to publish the film at a time where there were almost no good horror films anymore and that's why it attracted that many people.
Scream is a good combination of horror and comedy/parody, there's no question about that. The general problem with this kind of film always was that it is very difficult for a film to be scary and funny at the same time. Craven and Williamson avoided to mix comedy and scares in the same scenes and separated these two elements. That's the reason why Scream did what others haven't been able to do.
The film is by no means as scary as the "true" horror films (Halloween, The Evil Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street and others) but has its scares. The opening scene is very intense and sadistic but we already get some allusions to other horror films. This scene is more intense than the whole remaining 100 minutes. There are other scenes where the killer is very sadistic when killing his victims but it never gets really scary. Although the killer looks great in the white mask I didn't have the impression that he was as dangerous as good old Michael Myers or Fred Krueger. The idea of a 18 year old psycho-boy hiding behind that mask didn't make it any scarier.
But of course Scream wasn't supposed to be plain horror. More important are the allusions to other horror films and these were done very good. Some of the jokes were a little too obvious but I guess otherwise most of the ignorant viewers out there wouldn't understand it. On the other hand I think I still haven't noticed them all myself.
Another important aspect is the who's-the-lunatic-behind-the-mask question. We have the time to get to know all the persons including the one(s) that is/are responsible for the murders. Honestly, I didn't have the slightest idea who would be the killer (I didn't think about it very heavily though). Some persons have commented that they found the film to be predictable. They are either very clever or lying and I tend to say the latter thing is true (no offence included).
I hope I didn't make it sound as if this movie was mediocre because it isn't. It is clever, suspenseful in some places and very amusing in others. Overall it is one of the most original films of the decade and perfect to watch with a group of friends.
I highly recommend this movie but also advise you to stay away from the imitations that followed.
My rating: 10/10 (Don't expect the sequels to be equally clever!)