Stylish and full of surprises

Rating: Null/10 (4 October 1999)

This is the movie that made I Know What You Did Last Summer look like the complete turkey that it undoubtedly was. Scream is a clever, slick, inventive slasher from beginning to end, with an absolutely riveting first 15 minutes where one of the famous actresses of the film finds herself in a life-or-death situation with the killer.
During the film, you begin to suspect almost every cast member of being the killer, due to something that they say or do, but the identity of the person or persons responsible isn't revealed until a fair number of the cast have been hacked to death. The plot is as follows. Someone is dressing up in a gown and scary mask and is killing people. Sounds dull as hell but don't you believe it! This is a tremendous re-invention of the slasher genre, which has (and will) spawn numerous inferior sequels.
There are plenty of surprises along the way, such as how many cameos you can spot. Linda Blair and Wes Craven both appear, and although famous actors Drew Barrymore and Henry Winkler are in the cast, they don't actually take up too much on-screen time. It's the lesser known Neve Campbell and David Arquette who take the acting honours. The only one I wasn't sure about was Courtenay Cox who wasn't wholly convincing as a reporter.
All told this is one of the best horror movies of the 1990's.