Good, in and of itself

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2001)

A lot of people hate this movie, mostly because it inspired the glut of awful postmodern horror flicks we've endured over the last few years. The complaint is valid (don't get me started about Urban Legends: Final Cut), but don't let that stop you from watching and appreciating this movie for what it is.
Scream really is a good film. Sure, some of the characters are a bit annoying and some scenes just kind of slow things down, but as a whole the movie is exciting, well-written, and occasionally truly frightening. The Drew Barrymore sequence, as overly familiar as it has become, is horror filmmaking of a high order--Craven proves that even the same old cliches can be frightening if they are used with the right timing and balance. It's nearly impossible to make a good slasher film, since the genre has been so overdone; Scream pulls it off, and does it with a smile on its face.
Sure the sequels and imitators and spoofs are awful. Sure Craven and his colleagues fell back into the same old rut that this movie protested. But Scream exists on a higher level than the rest of the pack.