Scream

What’s the Story?

SCREAM's opening pays tribute to WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, as menacing phone calls torment a girl, played by Drew Barrymore. The voice belongs to a robed and masked psychopath, who viciously slices his prey and leaves her hanging from a tree. Slaying A-list starlet Barrymore immediately and pitilessly is just the first curveball the filmmakers throw. The maniac's real target is Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), a high-schooler whose own mother (described as a tramp) was raped and murdered exactly one year before. Sidney barely survives an attack herself by the hooded marauder. This renewed bloodletting creates a media sensation in Sidney's small town of Woodsboro, and brings a visit by tabloid-TV journalist Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), whom Sidney already knows and detests. Then again, a lot of the characters here are detestable. Craven and Williams do a good job etching teen subculture, but give very few of these endangered kids redeeming features. Instead there's the nihilistic sense of jaded, horror-movie-loving teens who are smart but desensitized and mean. The one grownup who launches into a righteous, outraged tirade about the kids' morals soon gets skewered himself by the maniac (it's hinted that he's a hypocrite anyway), and the young people celebrate his demise with a beer blast and HALLOWEEN viewing party. Meanwhile the murderer gets especially busy and Sidney faces her worst fears.

Is It Any Good?

Written by hot scriptwriter Kevin Williamson, SCREAM was a monster hit when it premiered. It brought a sharper level of intelligence, production values, and acting talent to a disreputable (but to adolescent and post-adolescent viewers, irresistible) genre that exploded in ticket sales almost 20 years earlier -- the teen-slasher horror film. Williamson, aided by Wes Craven (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), had the great idea not only to write SCREAM on a smarter level -- it's a cunning "whodunit" with Agatha Christie twists -- but also set it amidst media-savvy protagonists. These SCREAM players have seen that slasher-movie slop, and they know (or think they know) the tricks. One boy is even a video-store clerk who spells out "the rules" of horror films to try and predict what's going to happen next.SCREAM nearly earned an NC-17 for violence. Despite the dialogue's flirtation with self-awareness and satire, the gore here is brutal and intense. While you'll see critical raves about SCREAM being "funny," know that the undeniable witty lines mix with deadly-serious killings and betrayals. Though the thrilling pace and steady jolts keep young audiences watching, we can't recommend SCREAM for adolescents and teens.