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#640 - Scream
Wes Craven, 1996



A small town is shocked when a masked villain who is obsessed with horror movies starts to commit seemingly random murders.

It's a familiar cry, that of "I was born in the wrong generation". I feel like that's an accurate summary of my attitude towards Scream, a film that was intended to turn the tiresome slasher film formula on its head by not only deconstructing the staleness of the genre's conventions but also by rebuilding said formula for a newer and more jaded generation. To this end, Scream does indulge both its self-awareness and capacity for suspense through its opening sequence, in which a bubbly teenager (Drew Barrymore) is made to defend herself against the threat of a murderous villain by answering said villain's questions about horror-movie trivia. The attention soon shifts to one of her classmates (Neve Campbell) as she contends with the threat herself even as she has to deal with a prior trauma and the adolescent pressures put upon her by her boyfriend (Skeet Ulrich). Between the sensationalist murders popping up around town, Campbell's own attempts to avoid scrutiny from a gawking public, and the arrival of an opportunistic current-affairs reporter (Courteney Cox), there's obviously a lot going on as the local populace deal with the threat in various ways, even if that does extend to dressing as the villain for laughs or holding massive house-parties.

While Scream isn't really the first film to deconstruct horror-movie logic, it's arguably the most notable example of such a film. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that it goes after the low-hanging fruit that is the slasher sub-genre, which has always been about the cheap thrills associated with seeing photogenic co-eds be hacked apart by a vindictive person in a mask. The characters featured in this film might not always know the exact details of every slasher movie, but they are familiar enough with the conventions to the point where one of the characters outlines the "rules" which every such film supposedly obeys. The rigidity of the rules and conventions guides the development of not just the overarching narrative but also the direction of various sequences, such as Campbell wryly remarking on the stupidity of horror-movie heroines before being forced into making the exact same mistakes when she herself is attacked by the villain. It's the kind of humour that comes across as clever more so than funny, and it's very easy to get tired of cleverness, especially when it's exemplified by Jamie Kennedy's film buff who will literally stop a film in order to explain horror movie rules to a semi-interested audience. This isn't enough to stop the film feeling like it's got to throw in some self-awareness to justify its willingness to follow what is otherwise a relatively standard slasher narrative.

On its own terms, Scream doesn't really hold up on a repeat viewing. In my experience, films that are as predicated upon the reveal of the villain's true identity as this one is tend to be a bit underwhelming a second time around. Sure, there's the odd line or action that stands out but it doesn't do so in a way that significantly supplants the core narrative. It's still a decent enough plot as Campbell must deal not only with her past trauma but also with the various threats against her, whether it's the actual killer or the other townspeople's various hurtful reactions to her crisis. The cast is peppered with performances of varying quality, with Kennedy and Matthew Lillard providing the main sources of comic relief (with the latter's zaniness compensating for the former's geeky snark) while other characters play some fairly rote roles (such as Rose McGowan as Campbell's fiercely loyal best friend). Between that and Craven's technical competence (which is definitely on show during the film's bloody finale), the film is still very much watchable but it's not scary and not that funny either. While I would say that it doesn't really need to be scary to be an effective parody of horror's faults, it definitely doesn't feel like said parody has aged all that well.