Scream (1996)

Principal Himbry: You make me so sick. Your entire havoc-inducing, thieving, whoring generation disgusts me. "Now everybody is a victim and everybody is a suspect!"Scream is one of the greatest achievements in horror history. It's a movie that is so many things all at once. It has it's straight horror plot that is like every other slasher, but it is so much more. It's an homage to the slasher genre and a spoof in the slasher genre at the same time. Think about that; the movie is making fun of the genre while paying its respect to it. That isn't done easily, but the writing of Williamson and the direction of Wes Craven get it done. This is a masterpiece; maybe not the type of masterpiece we are used to, but a masterpiece none the less. The movie is just straight up cool from the first scene with Drew Barrymore to the last blood-soaked massacre. This has to be the most fun horror movie ever made. There's no lull; its straight up, none stop violence and satire. The cast is what you'd call a technically gifted cast, but for a movie like this; they shine. Neve Campbell is the perfect innocent girl. Courtney Cox is a lot of fun to watch as the reporter. The film touches on so many aspects of the slasher genre. It mentions the scream queen, it shows clips of Halloween. One of the characters is basically a running commentary on the horror movie events that are being translated to real life with the killings. He says stuff, like:Randy: The police are always off track with this shit! If they'd watch Prom Night, they'd save time! There's a formula to it. A very simple formula! and:Randy: Careful. This is the moment when the supposedly dead killer comes back to life, for one last scare. The movie is brilliant on so many levels. There is a scene near the beginning of the movie that gives a killer away in such a subtle way. I'm not going to discuss what scene it is or how or what gives it away. I didn't even notice the first couple times I watched the movie, but watching it again I found the scene amazing because Craven is saying here's a killer in a way that no one is going to notice upon one viewing. Now that I'm on the subject of the killers; I might as well say that the movie works pretty well as a mystery-suspense as well. Well, that is as long as you don't see Scary Movie before watching this. There are some many characters that could be in on it, that could be the killer. It makes it very fun on the first go around to decide who you think it is.This movie is really overlooked when it comes to naming some of the best of the genre. Viewers who are only casual horror film watchers don't really get everything out of it that is there. To them its viewed as your standard slasher, with dumb characters, the same old plot and tons of killings. In fact, this is one of the smarter horror movies you'll ever see and part of it's cleverness is not letting non-horror buffs in on the fun. It seems like Craven is putting the standard plot progression in there for the viewer who can't get all the little jokes and references that are catered to the lovers of the genre. For me, this movie is basically perfection. It combines humor, horror, suspense and mystery and makes for a fresh and exciting experience. It's obviously an important movie in the genre because it did breath new life into it. Nobody had seen anything new and exciting since the birth of the slasher with movies like Psycho, Black Christmas, Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. After those, it's hard to name any that came out and weren't just blended versions of those four. That is until Scream. It's unoriginal on the surface, but totally original beneath it and that basically puts it in a class all by itself.Tatum: You're starting to sound like some Wes Carpenter flick or something.