The film that resurrected the horror genre

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2005)

People go to the movies for lots of reasons: they want to escape from reality, they want to learn a lesson other than education, they want inspiration, or something they want to talk about. Horror movies were dead in the early nineties where we didn't have characters that can scare us, but that made us laugh. Not only were people in America were starting to label video games but actually went to family movies rather than horror movies. Scream is a resurrection of the horror movies, where the film itself is a parody of horror movies and understanding the rules of who lives and who dies.
The film's prologue begins with Drew Barrymore as a driven sex teenager who gets an anonymous phone call from a mysterious man that says he's going to kill her and her boyfriend if she doesn't cooperate with his scheme. They play movie trivia on horror movies where if she answers one right, the game continues, if she answers wrong, he dies. The boyfriend dies either way, so now it's up to Drew Barrymore's character to escape or die; the killer appears in a black costume with a white mask along with a sharp knife chasing her and than mutilating her body.
We move on to the film's hero Sidney Prescott, (Neve Campbell of "Party of Five") an average high school bookworm who hasn't lost her virginity yet as her boyfriend Billy Loomis wants her to open up to him (you know what I mean); her father is leaving on a trip for the week, leaving Sidney by herself since her mom has died.
The next day, its total chaos at Woodsboro High where reporters are all over the incident, questioning students, teachers or anybody who knew the death of Drew Barrymore's character and her boyfriend. Even Sidney's friends Tatum (Rose McGowan), Steward (Matthew Lillard), and Randy (Jamie Kennedy) the movie freak, find it all to be a big horror movie.
One night, Sidney receives a call from an anonymous stranger and asking her what is her favorite scary movie. It's a dark and raspy voice just like the film's prologue where we don't know who the person is. It's the same murderer who killed Drew Barrymore's character and is now after her; Sidney escapes this time but the killer will return again.
To quote Randy: "Everybody's a suspect!" Indeed the whole town is suspected after Billy Loomis had been taken in by authorities, because of a cellular phone he carried. Now a curfew has been placed, with people getting killed one by one, especially a new clue involving the anniversary on the death of Sidney's mother. The final showdown is taken place at Steward's house where the mysterious murderer is revealed with a twisted ending.
"Scream" is not a horror movie, in general, but a homage where everything we see is a reference to most of the popular movies from "Evil Dead," "Halloween," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "When A Stranger Calls," "Psycho," and many more. Nonetheless, this a popcorn treat that I wouldn't recommend going to the bathroom after wards.