"Scream" defines horror films of its generation

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 1998)

"Scream" is a film that did for horror films what "Star Wars" did for science fiction: it re-awakened the horror genre. In the 1970's, when horror films stopped being made well, people stopped taking horror films seriously for the most part. Predictable slasher films generated fairly strong followings, such as the "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" films. When that general string of films died out in the late 80's, these films were still watched, mostly when people wanted a good laugh, the way people watch "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (Most commonly believed to be the worst movie ever made.) Now, in the late '90's, with the advantages of modern special effects and blood that doesn't have the texture of Kool-Aid, horror movies are being taken seriously, and are being well-made instead of just pumped out every five minutes, and "Scream" is the one movie that started this up. Writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven do brilliant jobs of making the film interesting, even BETWEEN death scenes, a concept that completely escaped the makers of the '70's and '80's slasher flicks, which went no further than scenes of sexuality in those cases. One element that made "Scream" so brilliant was the strategy the filmmakers used to get around the standard-cliched-situation problem. Instead of trying to disguise the fact that a certain scene had been done numerous times before in countless horror movies and was predictable for anyone who has seen any of them, they took another approach. They explained these cliches used in older horror movies before or while they were supposedly happening, making the scene funny when you hear about how lame they are, and scary when you realize they are actually happening to the characters. Although the movie was good all the way through, the best part of the movie is the opening scene, especially the first time watching it. This is because it starts out with a seemingly harmless phone call from a seemingly harmless person which lasts long enough for you to get the feeling of tranquility, until the voice on the other line says something you didn't expect, and catches you, as well as the person he's talking to, completely off guard, and the only reason you don't wonder if you heard correctly is the fact that you know you're watching a horror movie. Although that line was in the trailer I had seen many times before seeing this film, I still got the chills when it came. The "slasher flick" idea is also combined with the idea of standard mystery movies, which is that everybody's a suspect. This really goes well with the slasher idea, and I believe this is the first ever film that has these two ideas paired together. Other films, of course, followed using this same idea, such as "Urban Legend" (1998), but just know that "Scream" was the first. There is also very good acting in the film, and the main characters all have very distinct personalities which are portrayed very nicely by the individual actors. My personal favorite is teenage film expert Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), probably because he was so much like me it's freaky. Neve Campbell does an excellent performance in the leading role of Sydney Prescott, the primary target of the killer. Other very notable performances include over-the-top Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard), dweeby Deputy "Dewey" Riley (David Arquette), obnoxious reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and token main suspect Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). No matter what you think will happen next and who you think will eventually turn out to be the killer, there is always one more surprise waiting, and a definitely unpredictable ending. Scream makes a great film to watch alone in the dark, or in the broad daylight if you are the kind who just can't handle it. A must-see for horror fans.