Scream ***** (1996, Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, David Arquette) – Classic Movie Review 622

A slasher maniac is on the loose in an American suburban town called Woodsboro, apparently targeting those who get horror trivia answers wrong.

A new Nineties generation of post-modern teen horror thrillers is kicked off by director Wes Craven’s tremendously edge-of-seat, knowing 1996 chiller Scream. It is propelled by splendidly exuberant performances from a very neat young cast. Neve Campbell stars as Sidney Prescott, with Skeet Ulrich as Billy, Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, Matthew Lillard as Stuart, Rose McGowan as Tatum and David Arquette as Deputy Dewey.

One year after the death of Sidney’s mother, a serial killer known as Ghostface starts a reign of terror killing off teenagers and two students turn up dead. Sidney begins to suspect her mother’s death and the two new killings are related.

As the killer begins to pick folk off one by one, Sidney and her friends find themselves contemplating the rules of horror films in a bid to survive. These are: 1. You will not survive if you have sex; 2. You will not survive if you drink or do drugs; 3. You will not survive if you say ‘I’ll be right back’; and 4. Everyone is a suspect.

The movie adds a couple: 5. You will not survive if you ask ‘Who’s there?’ and 6. You will not survive if you go out to investigate a strange noise.

Expert screenwriter Kevin Williamson ensures that the big laughs mix with huge scares, witty dialogue and clever horror-movie satire ideas in expert doses. And Craven directs all fired up and full on.

The pre-credit sequence, with Drew Barrymore’s character Casey terrorised by a phone call while making popcorn and waiting for her boyfriend, is astounding, and nothing is able to top it. Unfortunately, Casey gives the wrong answer to one of the killer’s questions.

There have been five sequels so far, with Scream 4 in 2011, still with Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, and made by Craven and written by Williamson.

Scream 2 was released on 12 December 1997, less than a year after the first film. Scream 3, released on 4 February 2000, was intended as the concluding chapter of the series.

But 11 years later, the franchise was revived with Scream 4, released on 15 April 2011, starring Hayden Panettiere. Then an anthology TV series Scream, which followed new characters and settings, aired for three seasons from 2015 to 2016 on MTV and on VH1 in 2019.

The franchise was revived again when a fifth instalment in the film series Scream (2022) was released on 14 January 2022, the first in the series not directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015.

The sixth instalment in the series, Scream VI is released on 10 March 2023, as a direct sequel to Scream (2022). Hayden Panettiere, who starred in 2011’s Scream 4, will make her official comeback as Kirby Reed in Scream 6. But the only returning cast member from the original film series is Courtney Cox as headstrong journalist Gale Weathers. Franchise star Neve Campbell refused to return as Sidney Prescott disliking the pay offer, so this the first film in the franchise with neither the actress nor the character.

RIP Wes Craven, horror genius, who died on 30 August 2015, aged 76.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 622

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