Cravens last great movie

Rating: 8/10 (22 October 2015)

The recent sad passing of Wes Craven gave me a reason to look at some of his back catalogue, with The last house on the left and Nightmare on Elm Street being 'classic' Craven films, but I thought I would try Scream, which after its release in 1996 spawned 3 further sequels and has never really been spoken with the reverence of Cravens earlier output. Classed more as a 'slasher' as straight out horror, Scream played as a slice and dice of young, attractive American teens terrorised by a ghost faced masked killer stalking all those at Woodsboro High school, centring on the central character Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) who is still coming to terms with her mother's murder a year before. What made Scream stand out and grab the attention was the beginning. Having at the time it's one A list star brutally killed off in the first scene was a real statement of intent that no one was safe and instead of characters that you didn't care too much about who you could predict would be picked off we had a group who all were potential victims but also could hold the potential killer. Craven weaves the story around Prescott throwing curveballs as the guessing game as to who is next grows with a great supporting cast including Cox and Arquette as the older protagonists, but the key to the whole movie is its self-reverence about the 'rules' of horror movies almost played tongue in cheek for laughs at times. Craven himself turns up in a cameo as a caretaker dressed as Freddie Kruger. I always thought Neve Campbell was set for greater things. As the central character and main focus of the killer, whenever confronted with danger reacted as a survivor and not as the victim or standard fodder for the killer. She was dubbed a new Jamie Lee Curtis and the 'scream queen' but apart from reprising the role for the sequels, never really went on to bigger and better which is a pity, but time is on her side. Scream spawned a number of imitators including franchises 'I know what you did last summer' and Urban Legend, cashing in on the success of Cravens latest genre movie, upping the gore and more intricate slayings, but none as clever or with the subtle wit and execution of Cravens last great movie. https://moviemayhemsite.wordpress.com/