very cool film

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 1999)

This film is a landmark film of its genre, and homage to it can most strongly be payed by the certain lacking of subsequent sequels and similar films. The opening scene, with the short-lived Drew Barrymore is a piece of cinematic genius in the terror it creates despite the fact the audience have no affinity with the fated characters. The rest of the film follows in much the same vein, and what makes it scary isn`t the daring level of gore but the finely directed chase scenes and the realistically terrifying actions of the killer who is alarmingly human as opposed to the robotic psychos of Halloween and the like. The film has been rightly noted, with good and bad reviews, for the irony and self-referencing that prevails throughout it, this is in fact more subtle than made out and gives licence for any number of clichés which Wes Cravem is sparing about using in what is a highly originally directed picture. The death of Sydney`s friend Tatum is one to close your eyes (and ears!) for if you have a weak stomach, but as mentioned the violence is never excessive and is very well acted out. Watch out for the tributes to Halloween in particular, from the blatant discussion of it to the more subtle name games "go to the McKenzies....." and of course the clips of it shown during the excellent party sequence. The complements are replayed in Halloween H2O incidentally!. Scream deserves as many points as it can muster in polls, films like this are few and far between.