Craven Rejuvenates The Genre He Pioneered

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2000)

Wes Craven's Scream is a welcome, fresh, and fun endeavor into the seemingly tapped horror genre. It's smart, fast-paced, deliciously self-referrential and tense, but above that, it's a breath of life into the tired, predictable horror movie.
When a killer begins terrorizing a small town with is love of slasher films and incessant quizzing, Neve Campbell becomes the object of his perversion and just about everyone becomes a suspect.
Kevin Williamson's smart, tight script highly original method of literally revealing all the cliches and 'rules' followed in making a horror film. The fact that the film's devices make it much more interesting, leaving the viewer to wonder exactly what will be done to create suspense now that the bag of tricks has been emptied. Craven's direction is once-again in top form, and this is certainly one of his most suspenseful films since her introduced the proverbial nightmare walker, Freddy Kreuger. Unlike Nightmare on Elm Street, however, the tension is built not only by the killer but by the revelation of horror tactics. Scream is certainly not as gory as some of Craven's other outings, but it will still satisfy gore-lovers.
Performance wise, the cast is an effective array of over-confident teens, with Lillard's annoyingly off-beat character stealing a few scenes. Neve Campbell does well, making Sidney a strong, formidable foe as the Langenkamp-esque heroine. Skeet Ulrich eminates Johnny Depp during some scenes and fares well as Campbell's boyfriend.
With its self-referrential quirkiness, some truly genuine scares, and a pulse-pounding, satisfying last half hour, Scream delivers the goods as an inventive horror film and reinforces Craven's masterful standing in the genre.
8 out of 10