Movie Review: Scream (1996)
It’s nearly impossible to overstate the influence Scream had on the genre of horror. By the ’90s, the slasher genre was dead. Everybody knew the cliches, and they just didn’t seem to be scary anymore.
And then Scream came along.
This was the first horror franchise I was aware of as a kid, which really speaks to its influence. Scream was to me what Freddy or Jason were to people about ten or fifteen years older than me.
While Scream is directed by horror legend Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street), I think it owes most of its success to its very clever script, by Kevin Williamson. It references and often jokes about other horror movies, and in some ways, the influence is still being felt today. Meta-horror has become its own subgenre, really, and I suppose it was only a matter of time. The horror genre often has to rely on characters behaving stupidly, so it makes sense that you’d have characters making fun of that. The characters in Scream still make many of the same mistakes that anyone does in a slasher movie, but them being aware really makes it feel all like an act of defiance, or perhaps of these teens not fully grasping the gravity of their situation.
Scream is a clever movie. Its cleverness is evident in so many ways other than its self awareness or its humor. It is actually a really compelling mystery.
One of my favorite things about this movie is its cast. Jamie Kennedy and Matthew Lillard both stand out for their over-the-top goofiness which usually works, but I’ve always appreciated Neve Campbell in the lead just as much. She plays the role so straight while everyone else winks at the camera. It may sound like it wouldn’t work, but it actually does. Sidney Prescott is a more compelling heroine than you usually get in a horror movie.
As over the top and goofy Scream can often be, realism is still at the heart of its story. The killer isn’t supernatural or superhuman, like Michael Myers, Freddy, or Jason. It’s a real person. The idea behind this movie is really that anyone could potentially do this, and the implication is that in the modern age, teens have become so desensitized to violence, which just reinforces the possibility.
Scream is a lot of fun, and it’s actually quite nostalgic for me. I probably didn’t see this movie until I was in college, but there’s something about this movie that is so ’90s. I don’t usually care about that kind of thing, but I find that interesting here.
Rating: 7/10
