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This was on TV just a couple of hours, and I thought I might as well watch it and pop up a review of it. So as the UK dwellers on here may already know, I'll be reviewing Wes Craven's 1996 cultural sensation, Scream.
The plot follows Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) who has previous traumatic experiences re-surfaced after one of her classmates, Casey (Drew Barrymore) is brutally executed by a costumed psychopath, who initiates a massacre on a unsuspecting little town in the depths of the USA.
Positives
I liked it's trueness to life. All of the sequences felt very real, even down to the most minor of details, and it made me quite surprised as to how many horrors really do over-dramatise their death sequences to proportions so extreme and drastic that they simply do not reflect the true essence of violence at all. Yet this was different, for example in one scene, Sidney is fleeing from Ghostface and so slams a door into him, causing him to fall flat on his face and mutter 'ow' under his breath, and it was depictions like this that distinguished Ghostface as a normal human being and not some sort of omnipotent force that is incapable of feeling pain and is consequently unstoppable, a bit like Michael Myers was in his later appearances. The actual fights themselves were very rapid and when characters had to stop and recover momentarily, a realistic amount of time was used in order for them to do so, and the even the exchange of expletives just felt so real, and I really did quite like that because it felt so unique and new.
Sort of expanding on this, I think its criticisms of media sensationalism were shockingly accurate, seeing the media circus ruthlessly hunting down the victim of a brutal attack, they come across as heartless beings just as emotionless as Ghostface himself. They then begin to circulate myths about Sidney, and whether or not she actually was attacked or not, and you literally still see it happening all over the place today to the extent that they take pleasure from such violence occurring, just like Gale. So it was very relevant, even almost 20 years on.
The acting was fairly good too. Although this isn't the first time I've watched Scream, so I watching it retrospectively, and when you look at the killers throughout the film, it's pretty obvious that they're the ones responsible, although one of them (the handsome one) is far more guilty of this than the accomplice is. Nevertheless, I did like Neve Campbell in this role, although she wasn't anything terrific either. I actually really liked David Arquette and Courteney Cox though, I think they perfectly enacted out their roles, Arquette came across as very awkward and socially lacking whilst Cox portrayed an egotistical, confrontational woman superbly and when combined, they really did share quite a chemistry, more so towards the conclusion of the film though.
Drew Barrymore is also mentioned a lot in relation to this film, and although her scene is probably the best scene in the entire film, I would not say it was because of her, I thought she was good in her role, but it wasn't until the last few moments of her character's life when she calls out for her mother that she really did shine in her role, but that was literally just for a couple of seconds, and she was pretty mediocre for the other 15 minutes or so sadly.
Speaking of that sequence, it was perfect
I remember getting massive chills when the killer said lines like "I want to see what your insides look like" and I think it was something like "I'm looking at you right now" yikes, it certainly was creepy. Brutal too, and that made the climax of the scene extremely heartbreaking. Did anyone else think that her bloodied corpse hanging from a white rope was a bit reminiscent of Suspiria? Just me? Probably is to be honest 
Negatives
For a film that criticises the tropes of horror so heavily, it has some stupid elements in. I'm a bit tired of producers, directors etc. thinking all teenagers are thick as sh*t as well, and although I adored Casey's scene, she makes some ridiculously daft choices. For example, not once does it cross her mind just to hang up and call the police before it gets too out of hand. No, she keeps answering the phone and engaging in conversations with an anonymous lunatic. Then she doesn't attempt to hide and wait for help/call the police, nah she runs into her illuminated front garden and makes herself extremely visible and noticeable. I mean I'm the same age as the character and I know loads of people that age too, but I don't think I've ever come across a single person who would do what she did. The only other scene which really got to me was when Sidney was in the supermarket and Ghostface appears in the reflection of a glass door. That effectively means that either someone dressed as the infamous killer walked freely into a giant supermarket, or they walked into the shop, and got dressed in the middle of an aisle... now I wasn't around in the mid nineties, but I'm guessing they had surveillance cameras back then.
Normally, I wouldn't be so hyper critical, but for a film that brutally criticises horror films, every little instance becomes quite hypocritical, and kind of damages its overall credibility.
Therefore, I'm not sure the whole self-aware idea did it much justice to be honest, because not only did that above damage its image, but the comedic aspect fell flat on its face really, and is one of the many many examples that proves that horror and comedy should just be left completely separate. The references were quite quirky too, but they didn't feel like something teenagers would say either, so I don't really know how to feel about that.
Conclusion
It's an entertaining film, yet I wouldn't say it was magnificent and changed the face of horror like some people would. But it did have some terrific acting and sequences, but Craven has done much better work before this as well. Therefore, I'll simply give it
The plot follows Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) who has previous traumatic experiences re-surfaced after one of her classmates, Casey (Drew Barrymore) is brutally executed by a costumed psychopath, who initiates a massacre on a unsuspecting little town in the depths of the USA.
Positives
I liked it's trueness to life. All of the sequences felt very real, even down to the most minor of details, and it made me quite surprised as to how many horrors really do over-dramatise their death sequences to proportions so extreme and drastic that they simply do not reflect the true essence of violence at all. Yet this was different, for example in one scene, Sidney is fleeing from Ghostface and so slams a door into him, causing him to fall flat on his face and mutter 'ow' under his breath, and it was depictions like this that distinguished Ghostface as a normal human being and not some sort of omnipotent force that is incapable of feeling pain and is consequently unstoppable, a bit like Michael Myers was in his later appearances. The actual fights themselves were very rapid and when characters had to stop and recover momentarily, a realistic amount of time was used in order for them to do so, and the even the exchange of expletives just felt so real, and I really did quite like that because it felt so unique and new.
Sort of expanding on this, I think its criticisms of media sensationalism were shockingly accurate, seeing the media circus ruthlessly hunting down the victim of a brutal attack, they come across as heartless beings just as emotionless as Ghostface himself. They then begin to circulate myths about Sidney, and whether or not she actually was attacked or not, and you literally still see it happening all over the place today to the extent that they take pleasure from such violence occurring, just like Gale. So it was very relevant, even almost 20 years on.
The acting was fairly good too. Although this isn't the first time I've watched Scream, so I watching it retrospectively, and when you look at the killers throughout the film, it's pretty obvious that they're the ones responsible, although one of them (the handsome one) is far more guilty of this than the accomplice is. Nevertheless, I did like Neve Campbell in this role, although she wasn't anything terrific either. I actually really liked David Arquette and Courteney Cox though, I think they perfectly enacted out their roles, Arquette came across as very awkward and socially lacking whilst Cox portrayed an egotistical, confrontational woman superbly and when combined, they really did share quite a chemistry, more so towards the conclusion of the film though.
Drew Barrymore is also mentioned a lot in relation to this film, and although her scene is probably the best scene in the entire film, I would not say it was because of her, I thought she was good in her role, but it wasn't until the last few moments of her character's life when she calls out for her mother that she really did shine in her role, but that was literally just for a couple of seconds, and she was pretty mediocre for the other 15 minutes or so sadly.
Speaking of that sequence, it was perfect
I remember getting massive chills when the killer said lines like "I want to see what your insides look like" and I think it was something like "I'm looking at you right now" yikes, it certainly was creepy. Brutal too, and that made the climax of the scene extremely heartbreaking. Did anyone else think that her bloodied corpse hanging from a white rope was a bit reminiscent of Suspiria? Just me? Probably is to be honest Negatives
For a film that criticises the tropes of horror so heavily, it has some stupid elements in. I'm a bit tired of producers, directors etc. thinking all teenagers are thick as sh*t as well, and although I adored Casey's scene, she makes some ridiculously daft choices. For example, not once does it cross her mind just to hang up and call the police before it gets too out of hand. No, she keeps answering the phone and engaging in conversations with an anonymous lunatic. Then she doesn't attempt to hide and wait for help/call the police, nah she runs into her illuminated front garden and makes herself extremely visible and noticeable. I mean I'm the same age as the character and I know loads of people that age too, but I don't think I've ever come across a single person who would do what she did. The only other scene which really got to me was when Sidney was in the supermarket and Ghostface appears in the reflection of a glass door. That effectively means that either someone dressed as the infamous killer walked freely into a giant supermarket, or they walked into the shop, and got dressed in the middle of an aisle... now I wasn't around in the mid nineties, but I'm guessing they had surveillance cameras back then.
Normally, I wouldn't be so hyper critical, but for a film that brutally criticises horror films, every little instance becomes quite hypocritical, and kind of damages its overall credibility.
Therefore, I'm not sure the whole self-aware idea did it much justice to be honest, because not only did that above damage its image, but the comedic aspect fell flat on its face really, and is one of the many many examples that proves that horror and comedy should just be left completely separate. The references were quite quirky too, but they didn't feel like something teenagers would say either, so I don't really know how to feel about that.
Conclusion
It's an entertaining film, yet I wouldn't say it was magnificent and changed the face of horror like some people would. But it did have some terrific acting and sequences, but Craven has done much better work before this as well. Therefore, I'll simply give it