Scream (1996) Movie Review
Scream (1996) Movie Review
Scream is probably the most ‘mixed-bag’ movie I’ve seen maybe ever. On the one hand, it’s way more intense than I thought it was going to be in terms of violence and atmosphere, but it also had moments that made me laugh out loud. I’d heard that it was kind of a comedy, but I didn’t really expect to be laughing this much at a movie about kids being killed. It was legit entertaining, and I’m definitely glad I saw it. It’s everything people say it is… creepy, witty, subverts expectations, and twists and turns in all kinds of crazy but awesome directions. I can’t say I didn’t love this movie, because I totally did. To give you an idea if you haven’t seen it, it’s like a bloody version of Can’t Hardly Wait on steroids. Dang, I really, really liked this movie. Like, for real. I’m still thinking about it hours after I saw it.
The story famously starts off with Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) picking up the phone. She’s home alone, and the caller is a mysterious man who has a weird thing for horror movies (I’m sorry, they probably tried their hardest to make the voice scary, but it wasn’t...at all). They begin to have a tedious conversation about horror movies before things get serious and both Casey and her boyfriend Steve (Kevin Patrick Walls) are killed by Ghostface, the stalker on the phone. And, also, a quick shout-out to the cool title with the slamming noise, that was legit awesome. Anyways, so the whole town gets really hyped up about the murders, especially because it has been nearly a year since a woman was murdered there. The woman’s daughter, Sidney (Neve Campbell), is now in high school and seems pretty depressed. Her friend Tatum (Rose McGowan) is there to constantly make her feel better, and it gets worse when Sidney has flashbacks because of the murders. Her greasy, kinda sleazy- looking boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) is starting to creep her out and she’s not really having it, so he gets arrested quick-like. Meanwhile, Ghostface is starting to stalk Sidney, and after a couple more mysterious and gruesome deaths, including the school’s principal (Henry Winkler in a strangely memorable role), Sidney settles in for a party with her friends, and things get kind of messy from there, especially when Tatum’s older brother Deputy Dewey (David Arquette, Dewey is low-key the best character in the movie) and news reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) get involved.
Possibly my favorite thing about Scream was the characters. They all had personality, and the movie didn’t take them too seriously but spent just enough time on each one to make them seem real. Sidney got a little dramatic at times and I felt like she was a little too emotional, but that’s fine… I’m probably too emotional myself. One character I probably related to a little too much was Stuart (Matthew Lillard), Billy’s weird friend who reveals that (here’s kind of a BIG SPOILER alert, GUYS) his motive for murder was because of peer pressure. After Sidney calls the police on him and Billy, he asks her if she actually called the police, and after she says yes, he says, “Oh, man… my mom and dad are going to be so mad at me.” And I was like, wow, yeah… pressure from parents and peers is a real thing, and I’ve experienced some of it myself. Sometimes everything just seems like it’s in the shadow of your parents, and Stuart really brought that into this movie. Randy (Jamie Kennedy), the horror movie nerd who tells everyone the rules to surviving, was also a fun character they put to proper use. And of course Billy is just perfect as the shady and suspicious boyfriend with the aggressively 90’s haircut.
It’s a very well-crafted movie that I can’t help but love. Everything about it is just so “yes”... the suspense, the characters, the dialogue, the self-awareness (that thankfully doesn’t go overboard), the gruesomely entertaining kills… if you like horror movies, this is a must-see, honestly. It’s dark and kinda grim but if you set aside the fact that kids are being slaughtered, Scream is a really fun throwback movie that just is everything you want it to be. It’s scary (it’s not truly terrifying, but you know what I mean), it’s funny, it’s just great.
There are a couple of problems I have with it, though. If Ghostface was after Sidney the whole time, and the entire scenario revolved around her, then why didn’t he just kill her instead of the dozen other people that got sliced and diced? What was really the point of using the phone in the first place (it could be a potential giveaway as to who the killer was)? Like, the whole “don’t answer the phone” thing was cool, but I feel like if they wanted to use it, they should’ve kept doing the gimmick the entire movie. Another small problem I had was how the killers dressed up as Ghostface during, like, the stupidest times. Sidney and Tatum are in the grocery store and then Ghostface is legit in there somehow. Did he put on his costume in the grocery store bathroom and come out just to see them there? If so, that’s pretty risky. Someone could see you, which would ruin everything. And why are there only three cops in the entire town? Could they not hire anyone else just to like, serve the duties? It seems like they would be on patrol, like, all the time, but they were just sitting there eating ice cream, we all scream for ice cream.
I think the brilliance in Scream that most people pick up on is how self-aware and referential to other horror movies it is, and while it acknowledges those tropes, it pretty much plays by its own rules. And yes, I loved that in this movie, but I feel like my favorite message that it had (which may or may not have even been intentional) was how Scream portrayed characters that were caught in the pressure of their lives and finally snapped and that part was really weird because lots of kids today just feel very imprisoned sometimes by what they can and can’t do, and in this movie, some of those characters just let loose and go all-out doing terrible things. I’m not sure if the filmmakers really meant for it to be that way, but it was that way for me and I’m sure glad it was.
Safety Chart:
Violence: 8/10- Graphic killings. It’s pretty bloody and not for little kids. There are a handful of gory shots and lots of discussion of death and murder.
Language: 7.5/10- Some uses of the f-word. Cursing is somewhat frequent but it’s not overly aggressive.
Drinking/Smoking: 6/10- Underage teenagers drink beer and the cops let them (literally). Drunk kids try to drive and swerve all over the road.
Scream is a slick, fun horror movie that is smart enough to not take itself too seriously, but isn’t exactly a comedy (while having comedic moments), and it works really well. I felt like it had a couple minor problems but nothing that will take down its grade, which I will be giving it an A+. Maybe that sounds a little high to you but Scream is just a really amazing movie that really did it for me, I think. And if you like horror movies or good movies, then you should see it as well. Well, now that this review is over, I guess I’ll go answer the phone…
