Review for Scream (1996)
Scream was the very first horror movie I had ever seen. I watched it when i was seven years old a New Year's party and it scared the hell out of me. Although I was scared out of my mind, I thank the film for starting my love of horror movies. Although a lot of horror films have come out recently and some of them have been pretty good, Scream will always be my favorite horror film. Scream is about seventeen year old Sydney Prescott who, after a year, is struggling with the mysterious rape and murder of her mother. Her life then becomes a living nightmare after a hooded serial killer who uses movie references and phone calls to torment his victims starts to stalk and torment Sydney. Sydney, with the help of her friends, must find the killer before he finds them first. There is a lot that I love about this movie. For starters, the acting in this movie is very well done. The standout performances for me are from Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard. Neve Campbell, who plays Sydney in the film, stood out really well in this movie. She balances Sydney's struggles with the death of her mother and being stalked by a serial killer perfectly. Unlike a lot of "Scream Queens" in modern horror films, Neve gives Sydney a lot of edginess which makes the character appear really tough to the audience. David Arquette also does a great job with his character Deputy Dewey Riley. He portrays Dewey's quirkiness perfectly which makes the character extremely loveable and funny. Arquette gives Dewey a childlike feel and you look at Dewey differently then you look at other film police officers. Dewey looks and acts like a child who was given a police officer suit and is trying to play it serious which is what gives Dewey his charm. Another performance which stood out for me was Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis. Skeet plays Billy fantastically. Skeet gives Billy a real creepiness and edge which adds mystery to the character. Every time he is on the screen, you look at him and something seems off. Every look he gives and the way he delivers his lines makes you think that he is the killer. I also really loved Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher. Matthew gives a really comedic performance as Billy's best friend Stu. Matthew portrays Stu's comedic side perfectly as well as Stu's more serious side perfectly as well. What stood out for me the most in this film was the opening scene of this film. The opening scene is one of my favorite scenes in movie history. What made the scene work for me was how Wes Craven took a much overused horror movie cliché and how he made it truly terrifying. The scene's acting was very believable, the music was eerie, creepy and very exciting and the scene set up was masterful. I also loved how the film did not treat the audience as idiots. Instead of using the same old horror clichés like when someone hears a noise in a bush the person goes and investigates, the film used characters that were aware of these clichés and avoided them, which would be really hard to do. The writing in this film is also very well done. In this film, Kevin Williamson created a very witty and clever script. If you look at a lot of horror films of today, the characters are very one dimensional which makes you not care for their fates. Kevin avoided making the characters like this by making them feel very real. He gave each character their own personality and their own traits which set them apart from other characters and he did it with perfection. All in all, Scream is a near perfect horror film. It is funny, serious, scary and clever and it is full of good performances, a great script, nice direction, and intelligence. So if you are a horror movie fan, then I suggest that you go and watch the movie which single handedly reignited the dying horror genre in 1996, Scream.
"A+"