Scream (1996)

Scream is a 1996 horror film directed by Wes Craven from a screenplay by Kevin Williamson, and the first of the Scream series. Filmed mostly in Santa Rosa, California, the film tells the story of the fictional town Woodsboro, CA being terrorized by a masked killer who enjoys tormenting his victims with phone calls and movie references. The killer’s main target is Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), a teenage girl whose mother Maureen fell victim to a brutal murder one year earlier. The film takes on a who done it mystery, with many of her friends and townspeople being fellow targets and suspects.

Scream revitalized the slasher film genre in the mid-1990s, similar to the impact Halloween (1978) had on late 1970s film, by using a standard concept with a tongue-in-cheek approach that combined straightforward scares with dialogue that satirized slasher film conventions.

Directed by Wes Craven
Produced by Cathy Konrad
Cary Woods
Written by Kevin Williamson
Starring David Arquette
Neve Campbell
Courteney Cox
Matthew Lillard
Rose McGowan
Skeet Ulrich
Jamie Kennedy
W. Earl Brown
Joseph Whipp
Liev Schreiber
and Drew Barrymore
Music by Marco Beltrami
Cinematography Mark Irwin
Editing by Patrick Lussier
Distributed by Dimension Films (USA)
Release date(s) December 20, 1996
Running time 111 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $14,000,000 USD (estimated)
Gross revenue $173,046,663
Followed by Scream 2

Rules

A signature device, started in Scream and continued in Scream 2 and Scream 3, was the typical “rules” for the slasher subgenre of horror movies, always recited by the movie-buff character Randy.[1] In Scream, those rules are:

* You can never have sex.
* You can never drink or do drugs. (The “sin factor, an extension of number one”.)
* Never, ever, EVER, under any circumstances say “I’ll be right back”, ’cause you won’t be back.

A similar set of “rules” was used for the movie’s trailer:

* Don’t answer the phone
* Don’t open the door
* Don’t try to hide (on the video/DVD/Bluray edition, it’s “Don’t leave the house”)
* But most of all, don’t scream

Again, the important thing about this genre is to realise that it is not meant to be taken too seriously. With Scream the slasher movie reached a whole new level of tongue-in-cheek and, sometimes, out and out humour. Our masked murderer is still present but, let’s face it, there are masks and masks and this one is distinctly erring on the goofy side. Him manner of movement is also laughable. Rather than the sombre, steady plodding and brooding wait, this murderer dashes about, shashing wildly wherever his arm can reach. It did not take a degree in comedy writing to transfer this character into a form suitable for the later send-up movie, Scary Movie. If you want a good night’s all round entertainment then look here. If you want to be scared witness, maybe you need to look elsewhere. It depends on your ‘fear threshold’.

~ by blackdog7 on September 13, 2009.