Scream 1996

I remember watching this in the Commons room when I was in Korea. I walked in as someone put this movie on and, at this point, I was disillusioned with horror movies. I hadn’t seen any good movies for awhile. I was hooked from the beginning.

<img src="scream.jpg" alt="Scream.">

Photo Credit: Dimension Films

Released: Dec 20, 1996

Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins

Director: Wes Craven

Writer: Kevin Williamson

Actors: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette

PLOT

Do you like scary movies?--Ghostface

A girl, who’s mother died the year prior, and her friends are being targeted by an unknown killer. A killer who has a love for horror movies.

MY THOUGHTS

I thought the kills were bloody and gory fun. We get 7 kills (not including Maureen Prescott since they only mention her.) Casey’s (Drew Barrymore) death was shocking and the best because of it’s brutality. Not to say the rest of the kills are brutal or bad. The only one that I thought was bad was Tatum's kill because she tried to go out a doggy door? The special effects team used about fifty gallons of blood for the movie.

No, please don't kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!--Tatum

The acting was great. I think the chemistry between the cast members helped the viewers care more for the characters. For me, this makes me even more scared for the characters. Even the minor characters of Casey (Drew Barrymore) and Tatum (Rose McGowan) were great. 

David Arquette plays Deputy Dewey, older brother to Tatum. He’s supposed to be 25 years old, but he’s actually younger than Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, and Jamie Kennedy, who play high schoolers. Originally the role was meant for a well built, handsome actor. But Arquette wanted that role and he ended up with it. I like how he plays the nice and naive cop. I feel like he has a great character arc over all the movies he’s in.

Courtney Cox (known for the TV show Friends) plays Gale Weathers an obnoxious reporter who wrote a book about Maureen Prescott’s murder. She’s tough, but in the end there is some heart to her. She does remind me of reporters who would do anything, no matter how sleazy, to get a story. But you do get to see glimmers of a heart in this movie. Especially with Gale’s scenes with Dewey.

Neve Campbell (known for Party of Five and I MUST mention Wild Things! LOL If you know you know. Good movie.), one of my favorite final girls. She plays Sidney Prescott, a teenager who’s mom was brutally murdered the year prior. Her friends keep falling victim to the masked killer.


There are certain RULES that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie.--Randy


Jamie Kennedy plays Randy Meeks, friends with Sidney, Tatum, and Stu. Even though all the friends know a lot about horror movies, Randy is the epitome of a horror fan. He knows so much information about the movies it’s insane. He comes up with the rules to survive a horror movie. He’s also the one that told us (the viewers) who the killer was without us even realizing it. In the video store he called it. He has a crush on Sidney and so he doesn’t like Billy.

Skeet Ulrich (who was in The Craft) plays Billy Loomis. Sidney’s hot, yet suspicious boyfriend. The scene where Sidney is in the bathroom and two girls are talking about her, one of the girls is one of Skeet’s girlfriends. Also, in the scene where Sidney comes out of the closet and attacks Billy with an umbrella, the stunt person was supposed to hit a pad that was covering Skeet but it missed and hit a metal wire beneath the skin from open-heart surgery he had as a kid, which causes intense pain if hit. The shocked expression and scream of pain were genuine and Wes Craven kept it in the movie because it was so authentic.

It's the millennium. Motives are incidental.--Randy

Matthew Lillard (who plays Shaggy in live action Scooby Doo and 13 Ghosts) plays Stu Macher, best friend to Billy and boyfriend of Tatum. Where Billy is brooding and serious, Stu is the jokester and always joking around. The great thing with Matthew is he is great at ad-libbing. He ad-libbed “I always had a thing for you Sid” and when the gun was missing he said “Houston, we have a problem”. Plus, the scene where Billy drops the phone on Stu’s head, Skeet actually dropped the phone hitting Matthew in the head. Again, Wes Craven left Matthews' reaction in the movie because it was authentic. 

The soundtrack is pretty good. I mean, it has an Alice Cooper song on it. I also have to mention the song Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. For me, everytime I hear this song I automatically think of the Scream movies. 

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I thought Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven took the typical slasher plot and elevated it. (Yes, I said elevated. It’s not like this new “elevated” horror.) A group of friends are being killed off by a mysterious, masked killer over a two day period. I think they mixed just enough bloody kills with a great mystery and added just enough self awareness to make this a great movie. By doing this they revived not only slasher movies, but horror movies in general. 

If you can’t tell, I really enjoyed Scream and I totally recommend this movie to horror fans and anyone wanting to dip their feet into slashers.

  • Henry Winkler, who plays Principal Himbry, only ever appears in three scenes in the film, all of which take place in his office. He wanted to go uncredited in the movie so that the younger actors would get more attention.

  • In the principal's office you can see his black leather Fonzi jacket from Happy Days hanging in the closet. Also, at one point, he is looking in the mirror and he begins fixing his hair just like Fonzi did.

  • Kevin Williamson listened to the soundtrack for 1978 Halloween for inspiration while writing the script. 

  • During production, Ghostface's signature black robe was going to be white, to make him appear even more like a ghost. This was changed in fear of people comparing the costume to those that the Ku Klux Klan wear.

  • Wes Craven makes a cameo as the janitor Fred. He’s wearing a red and green striped sweater just like Freddy Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise.

  • The scene where the killer smashes his head through the window and Casey hits him in the face with the phone, Wes Craven was actually wearing the costume and was really hit in the face.


If you want to see my other Scream reviews, click here: Scream Franchise.

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore: 4/5

Sex/Nudity: 1/5  (There’s no nudity, just one sex scene that is really mild.)   

Scare factor: 4/5

Enjoyment factor: 10/10

My Rank: 4.75/5

IMDB: 7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes: critics:  7.9/10  audience:  7.9/10

Letterboxd: 4/5