I screamed alright.

Rating: 1/10 (1 June 2005)

I screamed because of how bad this movie is.
We'll start with Wes Craven. The guy made one good movie in his whole career...A Nightmare On Elm Street. And even that could have been twice as good as it is. This is just more generic crap from the Craven factory.
Second, the writer. Kevin Williamson. I think that's his name. I'm not going to look it up either because he doesn't deserve it. Not only did he write this horrible piece of crap, but he also wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer (AKA Prom Night the remake). The only good thing about that was the possibility for a spoof called I Forget What You Did Last Summer. But enough of that crap (literally), let's get back to Scream.
The movie starts with a carbon-copy of the opening of When A Stranger Calls (which was fifty times scarier than everything Williamson and Craven did put together twice). Then we get into the actual movie, which is just constant references to other horror films.
My main gripe with this movie is not the writing or directing...but the characters. All of them. We literally have NO reason to care about ANY of them. Rose McGowan is nice to look at, but that's as far as it goes. But the worst is the actual killer himself. I know they were trying to break the invincible horror movie killer cliché intentionally, but they went WAY too far. This guy falls over at the drop of a hat! Instead of being totally indestructible, he's just plain clumsy. And why on Earth was he dressed up in his disguise while at the grocery store in broad daylight? And when the identity of the killer is finally revealed, it's really no shock considering he did absolutely nothing for the whole film, not to mention that he has no motive except for some little soap-opera bullcrap that we're just supposed to believe. It doesn't come as any type of shock at all.
Is this movie horror, or comedy? It tries to be both but never goes far enough in either direction and just ends up being neither funny nor frightening. Williamson and Craven think that referencing great horror movies means that theirs will be great, too. All that did was remind me of how awesome a movie like Halloween is and how pathetic this tripe is.
But the worst to come out of this movie is actually it's influence on other horror films to come. The fresh teen cast, all featured on the cover art in the same exact fashion as this movie. If you're ever at the video store and see a box cover that mimics that of Scream's cover...just walk away. Because honestly...what Scream-influenced movie was even halfway decent? None.
Scream is anti-horror. It's everything that a horror movie should NOT be. Fresh teen cast, bright cinematography, clumsy/harmless killer, fast-cut editing, banal directing, forgettable action movie score, references to other horror movies, too much comedy, unbelievable sequences, characters that we have no reason to care for, and to top it all off...it spawned countless imitators that were even worse! Do yourself a favor...don't watch this. Watch something great instead. Something like Rosemary's Baby.