The Film Jockey reviews: "Scream"

In dedication to the release of Scream 4 in less than 3 months, I am going to be reviewing "Scream!"

As I stated in my previous article regarding the Scream franchise, these films brought a new and original twist to the horror genre. Kevin Williamson wrote the script and Wes Craven took on the project as director. Together they made a great team and created a legendary horror film.

Scream opens up with one of the most memorable scenes of horror movie history, and my favorite opening scene of all time. The film opens with Drew Barrymore as Casey, a young girl alone in a big, but not typically creepy house. The phone rings and she answers it. It's a strange man on the other end, but she dismisses it as a wrong number and hangs up. Shortly after, the phone rings again. The man says he wanted to "apologize" but Casey's not buying it. She hangs up again. Eventually, the man continuously calls her and begins harassing her over the phone with death threats and such. Without spoiling anything (which everyone should have seen this movie already, so there shouldn't really be any spoilers) I will move on. This scene is so greatly directed by Craven. He creates a really scary atmosphere with this house and the character of the "voice." The build-up of tension is great and it keeps your eyes glued to the screen. All of this leads up to a great finale (as far as opening scenes go), as Casey is directly confronted with the Ghostface killer.

Now, moving onto the film itself. Scream centers around the character Sidney Prescott (played by Neve Campbell). Sidney is a little more than your average high school girl. We discover that Sidney's mother Maureen Prescott was supposedly raped and murdered one year ago by a man named Cotton Weary, whom Sidney sentenced to death row with her testimony in court. Following the death of Casey, the whole community is in an uproar and local media makes connections to the death of Sidney's mother. Most of this speculation is done by Gale Weathers (played by Courteney Cox) who is the local "tabloid twit." Quickly enough, however, Sidney finds herself as the target of Ghostace. Helping Sidney through this is her best friend Tatum (Rose McGowan) and Tatum's big brother/town deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette). As Sidney tries to find out who is trying to kill her and why, she discovers some shocking secrets about her mother that she didn't know before.

All in all, this film has something that most other horror films lack. That "something" is substance. It's got real characters, real backgrounds and relationships to go with those characters and a great plot that doesn't just involve an unrealistic villain who can't die. This villain is a very real threat. Without spoiling anything, we find out that the killer has a very close relationship with Sidney, and in more ways than one. There is motive, but there isn't at the same time. Yes the killer(s) are psychotic, but they've also got their reasonings behind it. This always makes for an exciting twist when the killer has a real relationship with our protagonist. It gives the story that substance I'm talking about. After almost 2 hours of watching our heroine get attacked and nearly murdered, we better have a damn good revelation at the end for why it's been happening. And that is where Scream becomes smarter. Williamson had his story well thought out when he wrote it.

With that being said, everyone needs to see this film! Not only horror fans. Everybody in general loves a good horror flick sometimes, and this really is one of the best.