scream review

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2013)

The killer Ghostface is terrorizing a small town, killing off the people who dare break the 'rules' of horror movies. His victims are mostly teenagers, but he has his eyes set on Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell.) Everyone is watching.
Scream was released in December of 1996, before many people had seen it they were calling it DOA. It was during a time were slasher films where starting to die, and only seeing the light of a VHS release. Scream came out and single handily saved horror. Become the 16th highest grossing film of 1996 making over a 100 million at the box office, to mainly positive reviews. It made Neve Campbell a household name and showed the world that Wes Craven still is and always well be the master of horror. Scream blew the doors back open to slasher films and paved the way for the likes of I know what you did last summer, Urban Legends and many many more.
Scream has one the best and most shocking openings ever. For 15 minutes we sit on the edge of our seats as we watch a young Casey being harassed as Ghostface keeps calling her on the phone. All he wants to do is play a game, sounds simple enough. Only he is outside her window watching her, and his game is horror movie trivia, a game that always proves to be deadly. None of the viewers seen this opening happening, some of us couldn't believe it was happening. It sets the tone for the whole movie and makes us wonder if they open like this, then wheres the ride going from here? Well my friend put your belt on nice and tight because this ride does not let up.
We meet our main girl Sidney Prescott. We find out that her mother was killed just a year before. The man who did it in jail. When Ghostface puts his sights on her she is quick to learn that running out the front door doesn't always work. On top of this Sidney has to put up news reporter Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox.) Who wrote the book about the murder of Sidney's mother. Gail seems to put Sidney though more hell than Ghostface, but she well get whats coming to her. Sidney's boyfriend Billy don't really seem to understand her drama filled life to make matters worse. Of course we also have the hot blonde played by Rose Mcgowan, your film geek played by Jamie Kennedy, and you stupid cop played by David Arquette. Only they are all very real in depth people.
Scream puts every horror rule ever made in your face and then breaks them. It's a tongue and cheek horror film with some laughs but a hell of lot more scary's and blood. The most clearly written teen horror, its packed with lots of turns and drama. Wes Craven is a great story teller with how he tells the camera move, It is so slow well pasted that its very creepy. You just sit back and watch it unfold. There is lots of conversations that just make your blood flow cold, Wes makes this very intense by his use of close ups on the speakers face I found myself holding my breath at times. The last 20 minutes of this movie is filled with great surprise. You wont see any of this coming I promise you that.
Scream is a very important film to horror, and the history of horror, and it is one of my favourite films. It paved the way for so many. If you have not seen this film you really should. It well not let you down.