Scream 1996 Review
Wes Craven‘s Scream, released late 1996, is regarded as one of the greatest horror and slasher films ever made. This movie rekindled interest in the slasher genre during the '90s when the genre‘s popularity was on a steep decline. The film's popularity and overall success ( 173 million USD ) launched a multimedia franchise with sequels like Scream VI ( 2023 ) and even a television series.
Scream starts in a town called Woodsboro where high school student Casey Becker is home alone when she all of a sudden gets a phone call from an unknown person. They discuss horror films when suddenly the caller turns evil. He threatens Casey‘s life and reveals that her boyfriend is tied up on her porch. To save his life she has to answer questions about horror movies correctly. When she failed to deliver the right answer to a question about Friday the 13th her boyfriend had to pay with his life. Casey attempted to flee but got stabbed by someone wearing a ''Ghostface'' costume.
This opening scene with Casey Becker ( played by Drew Barrymore ) sets the tone perfectly for what is about to come in Scream. It reveals multiple vital ideas that contributed to the film's success right off bat. The characters in Scream are mostly aware that they are in a horror movie and that the Ghostface killer might be amongst them. This suspension that the killer could be one of them is an amazing concept that is well executed in this movie, leaving the audience speculating during the whole 111 minutes. This scene is also quite shocking because it kills a possible main character at the start which leaves the audience unsure of how the plot will progress.
Scream then follows teenager Sidney Prescott as the main character but also her high school friends, the police ( specifically Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley ), and investigative journalist Gale Weathers who all in some way or another are sooner or later involved in either the murders or accusations. Following the murder of the university’s principal and the temporary closure of the university, Stu Macher throws a party at his house where the rest of the movie goes on.
You can‘t make a review about Scream and not mention the ending. The final moments of the movie truly are surprising and exciting. While Sidney Prescott and her boyfriend Billy Loomis have their moment upstairs at the party, Ghostface interrupts them and stabs Billy. Sidney manages to evade him and runs outside where Ghostface goes on to kill Gale‘s cameraman and stabs Deputy Dewey. Sidney runs back into the house and locks the door keeping Stu and another guy ( Randy ) outside as they accuse each other of being the killer.
The seemingly wounded Billy then returns from upstairs and allows Randy to come inside before shooting him in the shoulder, revealing that he and also Stu are the killers. Scream then ends with Gale saving Sidney by shooting the killers after they wounded themselves to make it seem like they are the only survivors. The plot twists the end offers are well-written. The audience most likely speculated who the murderer might be during the 111 runtime of the movie but almost no one could have guessed that it was two people working together.
Kevin Williamson who was struggling to get his projects off the ground, inspired himself by reports of the Gainesville Ripper as he wrote a screenplay that satirized clichés of the slasher genre. From the start, Williamson intentionally designed his characters to be knowledgeable about horror films and their typical elements with the intention of creating a unique killer who not only knows about these clichés but also exploits them and uses them to his advantage. Another thing worth noting is that Wes Craven turned down the opportunity to direct this movie multiple times and only changed his mind when he saw the script written by Williamson as Craven was determined to re-establish himself after multiple career setbacks.
The movie's self-awareness, the great acting, the amazing catch, and of course the great directing and writing are some of the reasons why Scream is as good as it is. It opened up many different avenues and spawned many different imitators like ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'' or ''Urban Legend'' to name some. Truly a unique movie that is worth a watch.
