Classic Movie Review: Scream (1996)

Wes Craven's Scream was known for revitalising the horror genre. It came after a decade of a cheap horror flicks a that took themselves way too seriously. The self referential nature of the movie combined with Wes Craven's own history with the genre brought a new element to horror films that is still a big part of the genre today. Twenty years later, the movie is still terrifying despite the fact that it is an incredibly 90s movie.

One night, teenager Casey (Drew Barrymore) is settling in to watch a horror movie when she gets a mysterious phone call toying with her, asking her to name her scary movie. More than just a prank call, a killer shows up and murders both Casey and her boyfriend. These murders petrify the town of Woodsboro and in particular Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who is still reeling after the brutal rape and murder of her mother a year earlier. As more murders happen, everyone ends up being a suspect. It turns out that the killers are following the rules that are set out in horror movies for who gets killed.

The best part about Scream (and it's sequels and recent Netflix series) is that you don't know who the killers are until the end of the movie. There are multiple suspects, everyone from Sidney's boyfriend Billy to the horror obsessed Randy. Spoiler alert: it ends up being both Billy and his friend Stu who are obsessed with horror movies and taking revenge for what has happened in the past. This is the second most reason for why it is so terrifying. These aren't unstoppable supernatural beings like Freddy or Jason, they're teenagers who have taken their love of horror movies to an extreme level. Skeet Ulrich (who plays Billy) is legitimately scary as this super serious psychopath and Matthew Lillard (Stu) is this weirdo who just loves to play games. Interesting side note: Skeet Ulrich was actually cast in this movie because he looked exactly like Johnny Depp in the first Nightmare on Elm Street. The final scene in which these two characters end up stabbing each other to make it seem like they are victims is both terrifying and darkly funny. 

Scream's multiple references to other horror movies would be considered cheap these days (the Scary Movie franchise definitely made that a reality), but these references work so well here. That primarily has to do with the fact that it uses them in its story. The rules of horror movies (and variations of them) that are set out in this movie have been used so many times in other movies that they have become a parody in and of themselves. In other movies they are used almost as a joke or a shorthand that most movie fans will know them without realising it.

Ghostface doing his thing

The only thing that doesn't work (and it's not really the fault of the movie) is that the technology has dated quite a bit. There is a lot of talk of cellular telephones as though they are a fad that is about is very comical. All the video cassettes is also very humourous. This has been made up for in the following movies, which update the technology accordingly and the recent Netflix series even introduces smartphones and gifs to the horror equation. In any other movie that would be irrelevant but in this movie franchise technology is key.

Despite having spawned a huge number of sequels, spin-offs and parodies, Scream is still a super scary and original movie. While sequels are generally considered bad, Scream 2 is just as a good, with Jerry O'Connell, Timothy Olyphant and Liev Schreiber bringing some really good acting to the series. This first one however is a must watch.