A seminal slasher flick for the 90's.

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2009)

By the time we had reached 1996, the horror genre was in a pretty stagnant state. With nothing to define the decade but cheap sequels and even cheaper direct-to-video productions, the timing was just right for a film to come along that both defined its era and spun the genre on its head. In the 60's, it was "Psycho." In the 70's, "Halloween." The 80's were owned by "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Enter "Scream," the one true stand-out genre flick of its time, a film that has incited as much praise as it has criticism from horror fan-boys, as well as inspiring and reviving a whole new breed of self-aware slasher films that were, sadly, not nearly as good as this big-boy.
After losing control of the franchise he started with "A Nightmare On Elm Street," director Wes Craven got his groove back with "Scream," settling in as the director of its two sequels and earning himself back some of the credibility that the late 80's and early 90's stripped him of. With a clever script from newcomer Kevin Williamson, it was the first slasher film where its characters were aware of what was happening to them. Heck, they even invoke a set of rules to survive a horror film, while blatantly taking stabs at the well-worn classics of the horror genre. While this formula became rather redundant by the time "Scream 2" rolled around (let alone, "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Urban Legend" and the like) it was rather inventive and fresh for its time, and taken in the correct context, makes for a brilliant and unique slasher film.
You'll spend the bulk of the film trying to guess the identity of the killer, but thankfully the script is smart enough to lead you astray and only by blind luck would you be able to identify him/her. The death scenes are surprisingly intense considering how neutered the genre was at the time, and in its most notorious scene – the opening – does away with a big-name star in a way that sets the tone for the rest of the film by leaving you with the feeling that anything can happen. Part mystery, part comedy, part slasher, "Scream" pays tribute to its influences but has enough of a sense of humor to poke fun at the clichés in the genre. One of Wes Craven's finest films, and certainly a definitive film for the 90's, not just in the horror genre, but in general.