Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and Drew Barrymore
Available On Video: Pan-and-Scan version ($14.95), Widescreen version ($19.95), deluxe Widescreen Box Set (tape one features the film, tape two features the film with commentary by Craven and Williamson--$34.95), and on DVD in a widescreen version ($29.99) and a widescreen Collector's Series edition ($39.99), all on Dimension Home Video
Body Count: 7
Review: Some will agree with me, others will hate me for saying it, but like it or not, Scream is the most important slasher movie to be made since Halloween in 1978. Apart from being one of the top five highest-grossing horror films of all time, Scream is an important part of the slasher genre because it's the film that brought the slasher movie back from the dead.
Now I know that the genre wasn't truly dead when Scream was made--but let's face it, it was in sad shape. Prior to Scream, the only big-screen slasher films to be released within three or four years were Halloween: The Curse of Michael Meyers and Hellraiser: Bloodline; both of which sucked royally. Scream changed everything. Not only did it bring a new slasher film to the screen, but it also managed to create a new slasher icon (the "Ghostface" character), jumpstarted the career of Kevin Williamson (who has since gone on to pen I Know What You Did Last Summer and help create Halloween: H20), and effectively pay homage to the slasher genre as a whole. It's nearly impossible to count all of the slasher references within Scream, and that's part of the beauty of the movie--it's a true slasher fan's movie--and it surprised everyone when it became the hit that it did.
But once again, like it or not, you have to appreciate Scream, if for no other reason, for revitalizing the stagnant genre and getting some long-overdue films (Bride Of Chucky, Freddy Vs. Jason, and Carrie 2) off the ground and into theaters. Trivia: The amount of references within Scream is too huge to list here, but there are some anecdotes worth noting. First of all, Skeet Ulrich (who plays Billy Loomis) is seen getting an umbrella shoved into his chest in the film. While this is obviously a movie prop being shoved into him, it still caused unbearable pain in the actor, for it hit him in the exact spot where, twenty years prior, he'd had open-heart surgery. The look on his face is the look of true pain.
Also, if you watched all of the credits, you'll notice in the "special thanks" section the line "No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa, CA school board." This is done in reference to the fact that the Santa Rosa school board refused to let the producers film the school in their district, saying it was too violent and offensive. Personally, I'd say that was probably the dumbest move ever made by a school comission regarding a film--just think of the tourist revenue that the town would be getting now.
Read the Scream script!
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