The Film That Rewrote The Horror Rules

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 2001)

Scream is one of those films that took everyone by surprise. Wes Cravens previous films hadnt gained the attention that he had scored in the eighties with the Nightmare On Elm Street series.But in 1996, Scream opened and took a huge box office..Miramax's most successful film a the time(It has since been beaten by SCream 2, Scream 3 and SCary Movie)..That alone suggests that people keep coming back for more because Craven and Kevin Williamson (Dawsons Creek) have created characters that the audience warm to. The casting is also perfect. Drew Barrymore makes her big comeback following a dead patch in her career and proves that she was right to turn down the lead role in favour of that of Casey Becker. The opening scene is amazing and although the rest of the film doesnt match it, it still maintains an excellent pace and quota of slicin' and dicin'! Campbell slips nicely into the shoes of Sidney Prescott, a teen who is still coming to terms with her mother's untimely murder which happened nearly a yr ago to the day. As the anniversary of the death approaches she finds herself the victim of a stalker who dons a scary mask and starts cutting up all her friends! There is a great supporting cast with impressive turns by Rose McGowan as Sid's best mate (Tatum Riley), David Arquette, the local deputy sheriff (Dewey Riley) and Jamie Kennedy as movie buff, Randy Meeks. However the most impressive acting comes from Courtney Cox as fame hungry news reporter, Gale Weathers. Proving that she can do other stuff as well as being "friendly", Cox creates a character that is entirely her own! After watching teh film you cannot imagine anyone else taking her role.. As the killings increase, Dewey, Sid and Gale have to unite and track down the murderer and start to discover that it is a little bit too close to home..
This film is absolutely amazing..It started a new trend of teen slashers and also kicked the careers of several young American hotshots back into action..(McGowan, Kennedy, Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard). It is also hysterically funny..if you know your horror films look for in jokes and references to Halloween, Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday 13th. Also you may spot cameos from Liev Screiber, Henry Winkler and Wes Craven (playing a caretaker called Fred who looks spookily like Freddie kruger!)
Watch this film..There arent many as good as this!
10