Why would anyone review a film which has been in national release for months? It might be because every performance of Return of the Jedi is still sold out, or it might be because the film being reviewed is so good that it is still drawing big crowds week after week. That is the case with Scream, directed by Wes "Nightmare on Elm Street" Craven and released by Miramax's Dimension Films. To fans of horror movies, to fans of slasher flicks, to fans of thrillers, of mysteries, love stories, teen trouble films, or of comedies, Scream is one of the best films of 1996 (and of 1997, if coming attractions are any indicator of what's ahead this year).
Scream defies classification in any one category. Yes, it is a slasher film: that is Drew Barrymore playing Casey Becker, the young woman being terrorized by a mysterious telephone caller who kills her boyfriend while she watches and who then chases her with a knife, even as her parents drive up to the house. But Scream is also a love story — sweet Billy (played by Skeet Ulrich, who was last seen doing a swan dive through a window in The Craft) really, really, REALLY wants to reheat his relationship with his girlfriend Sidney Prescott (played by Neve "Party of Five" Campbell), but Sidney has some personal issues to deal with and she is grateful that Billy still loves her even though they no longer do the wild thing together. Scream is also a mystery, with the whole town wondering if Billy himself is the slasher who did in Casey and her boyfriend — especially since he was the only person around when Sidney claims that the slasher went after her.
As Scream's background story unfolds, the audience begins to become wrapped up in the lives and histories of the characters. Obnoxious tabloid television reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox from "Friends") begins to suspect that an innocent man may be on death row because of Sidney's testimony against him a year previously, and when Billy comes up with an iron-clad alibi and is released, Weathers anxiously follows every lead by courting the town's answer to Barney Fife, "Deputy Dewey," played by David Arquette (from Threesome, Beautiful Girls and johns), who winds up strengthening Billy's alibi just hours after arresting him.
What becomes apparent to us as we follow poor Sidney and her nemesis Weathers is that EVERYBODY seems to be a suspect in the slasher killings, from Dewey, who is the brother of Sidney's best friend, Tatum (Rose McGowan, breaking away from films like Encino Man and Bio-Dome with a terrific performance as the girl who never seems to have an alibi when anyone is killed), to the high school's Principal Himbry (Henry "The Fonz" Winkler, making a welcome return to the movies).
Or is the killer really Sidney's father, the missing Mr. Prescott (Lawrence Hecht)? Or is it Randy (Jamie Kennedy of "Ellen" and "Unhappily Ever After"), the geeky video store clerk who openly lusts after Sidney and seems to know everything about horror movies, not a particularly useful area of knowledge when everyone in town knows that the killer terrorizes his victims by quizzing them about horror films and killing them for giving wrong answers. (By the way, dear reader, do you know who the killer was in Friday the 13th? Would you bet your life on your answer? Casey did — and she and her boyfriend both lost . . . their lives, that is.) Naturally, the killer can't be that other obnoxious woman reporter, could it? (Of course not, she's Linda Blair! Why would anyone suspect an actress who played a girl possessed by the Devil in The Exorcist to play a mad slasher?!)
What about Stuart, Tatum's loony boyfriend and the possible future brother-in-law to Deputy Dewey? Oh, come on! Just after horror film expert Randy warns everyone to never, EVER say, "I'll be right back," Stuart says it . . . and disappears . . . just before the missing Mr. Prescott's car is found; which means Prescott is the slasher and has killed Stuart, right? Or maybe Prescott's daughter Sidney lied about being attacked, and she is now trying to frame her boyfriend? Reporter Weathers thinks she framed Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), the (possibly) innocent teenager about to be executed because of Sidney's testimony about a rape-murder which occured exactly one year ago. But Cotton Weary himself is on death row . . . isn't he?
The audience knows that the slasher may wear shoes just like Sheriff Burke's (Joseph Whipp), but that proves nothing, not any more than the fact that two high school boys (Troy Bishop and Ryan Kennedy) were both caught stalking Sidney while wearing costumes exactly like the slasher's. Principal Himbry likes to wear the same type of spooky mask, after all, and that doesn't prove anything, does it?
Are you beginning to see the point, dear reader? Screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven have broken all of the rules defining movie genres with Scream. In fact, one of the characters utters the already famous line, "Life is like a movie — you just can't pick your genre."
Scream is an edge-of-the-seat, bring-a-date-to-hang-onto movie which also happens to be outrageously funny. You may think of it as "Friends" meet Ten Little Indians while Michael Meyers and Freddy Krueger have Trouble With Harry.
The biggest surprise of the film (and Scream has a lot of surprises, of course!) is the fortunate pairing of Skeet Ulrich with Matthew Lillard, who plays Stuart. Lillard's agent has informed this reviewer that the two actors had never met before the film, but the on-screen chemistry between them is incredible. In the scenes in which they each accuse the other (in front of their girlfriends and horror expert Kenny) of being the killer, when the two of them together accuse Kenny of being the killer (which he all but admits at the top of his voice in the crowded video store), and in almost every other scene which they have together, they outshine almost every performer, which is saying a lot, considering the high caliber of the whole cast.
Scream is a real must-see film, and every single person to whom I have recommended it has thanked me for the advice. Scream is surprisingly good and has lots of little surprises: buried near the end of the credits, for example, under the "ADR Loop Group" list is the name of Justin Shenkarow; the much-honored star of "Picket Fences" and of "Eerie, Indiana" apparently loved this film enough to take such a minor behind-the-scenes role that his name appears twenty-fifth from the bottom of the credits.
Oh, by the way, speaking of surprises, I can't resist one of my own: no matter what you might think, high school jock Steve can't be the slasher. Watch and listen carefully and you'll agree with me, I'm sure.
Go to bargain matinees and you can see Scream again and again. It's worth it.
(Note from the Grand Panjandrum: Scream: the Sequel is due out in late 1997.)