Monday, October 15, 2007

Scream

(1996) ****

Q: "Do you like scary movies?"
A: "What's the point, they're all the same, some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It's insulting."

The teenaged residents of an upper-middle class California town are being terrorized by a serial killer with a taste for horror films and a peculiar, unsettling sense of humor. This tragedy reopens old wounds for one of the teenagers, still grieving her mother who was viciously murdered only a year prior. The apparent killer was caught, but an ambitious local newswoman is questioning whether the right person is in jail.

"Scream" has one of the more genuinely suspenseful opening scenes I can recall, and from those early moments the tension plays out skillfully through the movie. It manages to be successful both as a parody and as an example of the classic teenage slasher film. It is fun, ironic, gory, and surprising. This is my second viewing and I was delighted that the film really stood up to the repeat watching.

And yes, I threw this review together VERY hastily, so as to bump Zac's mug off the top position on the blog. Hope you can forgive me. There are some things I just can't face. *Shiver*

2 comments:

JPX said...

I loved Scream when it was first released but I don't feel like it's aged well. I'm just not a fan of Kevin Williamson. Still it's a good one if you've never seen it before and I'm happy you dug it. Unless you're really curious I'd stay away from the 2 (imho)dreadful sequels.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

I was thinking about going through these movies this year. Have they even been reviewed on here before?

At the time, Scream was very exciting as it was the first decent slasher flim in well over a decade.

On repeat viewings, I thought the blonde killer hammed it up a little too much. And what the hell ever happened to Skeet Ulrich?

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