I have already reviewed Scream in the past, but I felt compelled to watch it again before taking on the full franchise so everything was fresh in my memory. I’m going to copy and paste what I wrote before, maybe add some notes, but I went pretty in depth. Spoilers ahead. Please enjoy.
First off, let me say this, I love Wes Craven’s work. From Last House on the Left, Shocker, The Hills Have Eyes, The People Under The Stairs, and of course, Nightmare on Elm Street. This movie, in and of itself, is actually really good. It brought the slasher genre back in the 90’s, but it had severe repercussions. It made people feel like they were too smart for horror. It gave people this weird superiority complex, and it actually did more to hurt horror than it did to help, in my opinion. Suddenly, everybody was an expert. Well, shit, we’ve known what to expect all of these years, and you’re just getting it now thanks to Scream? Piss off. With that being said, let’s start this.
This has perhaps the most iconic and memorable opening scene in horror history. Think about that. There’s this and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I think this opening scene is better. It has been parodied to death, but still, to watch the original, it is fucking brilliant. The whole cheesy talk about a wrong phone call, what horror movies you like, do you have a boyfriend, and it slowly builds up on tension. And he says “I want to play a game”. Then she sees her boyfriend all tied up. The feeling of impending dread keeps creeping. This guy has total control over the situation. Then he gives her the ultimate trick question for horror movie fans. Who was the killer in Friday the 13th? And she naturally answers Jason Voorhees, but it’s been made painfully clear since this movie that now pretty much everybody knows that it was Jason’s mom. Anyway, this gets Drew’s boyfriend killed. Now it’s a game of cat and mouse, and the Jiffy Pop is beyond fucked. Drew is utterly fucked as well. This guy took out her boyfriend, so what chances does she have. And like that, we see the killer and his mask, better known as Ghostface.
This movie is all about the cliches and stereotypes associated with horror films and exploiting them. That is the basis and made idiots feel like they knew better. Now everybody was too smart to fall for the usual horror movie shit, Ghostface is now one step ahead of you. The best thing that came from this film was that it forced the horror genre to be more creative, and in that regard, this movie gets a lifetime pass from me. Thank you for making the Asian and French and Canadian horror base think outside the box. I can’t blame this movie for Hollywood’s complete lack of creativity so that the biggest marketed horror films during the 2000’s was Saw and remakes. We had Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th all remade. Child’s Play and Leprechaun are also being remade. I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, Hills Have Eyes, and countless others. This movie is responsible for so much.
While I just typed that lengthy paragraph, I avoided all this bullshit Neve Campbell and her boyfriend shit. So that’s a plus. Let’s tackle the big stars and their characters.
Neve Campbell is the star, and she plays the role of Sidney. Then we have Courtney Cox as Gale Weathers, she a news reporter, and Rose McGowan as Tatum, one of the high school friends of Sidney. She looks really good in this one, possibly Rose at her peak. On the male side, Matthew Lillard as Stuart, another Sidney friend, David Arquette as Deputy Dewey, Henry Winkler as the principal, Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary, Skeet Ulrich as Billy who is Sidney’s boyfriend. Then there’s Jamie Kennedy as Randy, Linda Blair has a cameo as does Wes Craven. Holy fuck, that’s a lot.
When Ghostface calls Sidney the first time, imagine how great this movie would be if she had just gotten killed. Neve is obnoxious as fuck. She fends off Ghostface, and Billy comes to her window, and he has a phone fall out of his pocket, so Sidney believes it was Billy. And Arquette is funny as fuck.
If I had my way, I’d have killed Courtney Cox, Neve, and had Rose be the girl that lives at the end. I’d kill Skeet, hell every guy except Arquette, Lillard, and Winkler. I’d make Liev the killer. I don’t remember this too much, so if anything I say comes true, its mere coincidence. Lillard cracks me up, and he made a Candyman reference. OK, this whole bathroom scene where Ghostface goes after Sidney, and she pulls this ridiculous baseball slide out of nowhere. Make a movie to mock and try to expose the horror genre, and then you pull that shit out? Sorry, minor gripe.
Thank you, Wes Craven, for having normal looking high schoolers, Rose is hot as hell, but most are average looking chicks and dudes. Well, there was Wes Craven dressed as Freddy. Awesome. Not so awesome, the Fonz just getting killed. I was just asked, “Why would he be dressed like Freddy Krueger?” I sighed. I consider this a month of education. I absolutely loved the video store scene for what it is, despite it being part of my bitchfest earlier.
Here’s the garage scene. This is probably the second best scene of the whole film. Ghostface absolutely toyed with her, and she got a fairly unique death, although I have always wondered, would the garage door opener actually pick a person up? I think I’m calling bullshit. Also, goodbye Rose McGowan’s sweet ass.
So Jamie Kennedy goes over the rules in horror flicks while Sidney is about to fuck Billy.
1. You can never have sex in a horror movie.
2. You can never drink or do drugs in a horror movie.
3. You can never say I’ll be right back.
These things will get you killed.
So they’re watching the original Halloween and get talking about the obligatory tit shot, but Neve never shows us skin, so it’s absolute horse shit. I mean, just show a breast, C’mon! Neve still thinks it was Billy. Billy just gets got, or does he? Jamie Kennedy’s whole purpose is to make fun of horror films I feel. He’s good at it, I’ll give him that. Hey, there’s a Zach Morris phone!!!! Neve was in the middle of the road as Courtney was barreling towards her in the new van, so add stupidity with female driving, and bad things just happened. Oh, and Dewey has a knife in his back.
And then the big reveal of who is Ghostface. Hey, a Psycho reference. And a Carrie reference. And a Sharon Stone reference, which I was just talking about during this film.
A big problem of this film that I don’t think gets acknowledged is just how long they take after the big reveal. It felt like a good 10 minutes of just pounding this in ad nauseam, I seriously was begging for it to just end.
In conclusion, this movie is truly a mixed bag, it doesn’t age well in certain areas, I mean it is 22 years old now. When it is on top of it’s game, it’s pretty unstoppable. At other points, it’s dull, or too silly for it’s own good. A part of me wishes there was less humor, but I can’t complain about laughing ever.
Rating: 7.8 – I originally had this at 7.6 and I think it went up 0.2 for me. It does so many things properly. And the jokes still work. Yes, the reveal does take forever, but obviously that was intentional and set the stage for the rest of the franchise. Highly recommended.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Dimension Films (presents)
- Woods Entertainment
Please go find a copy and support the creators.
I am doing a GoFundMe to help pay for the costs to keep 9deuce.com up and running. I don’t make any money off of the site. I do it because I love it, but it is expensive at times, and I had to recently renew for 3 years. So I am asking any of my readers to consider donating if they have the extra funds. If you don’t, I get it. It would mean a lot to me.
https://www.gofundme.com/keep-9deucecom-alive
