20131110: Horror Review--Scream

Scream

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 1996, rated R, 111 minutes. Crime, horror, drama.
2. IMDB: 7.2/10.0 from 168,302 user ratings.  Aspect, 2.35; estimated budget, 15 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 80% on the meter; 72% liked it from 472,612 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 5,146,403 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Wes Craven.
6. Starring:  Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, David Arquette as Deputy Dewey, Courteney Cox was Gale Weathers, Matthew Lillard as Stuart, Skeet Ulrich as Billy, Rose McGowen as Tatum, Drew Barrymore as Casey, Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary, W. Earl Brown as Kenny, Lawrence Hecht as Mr. Prescott.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Casey and Steve get killed in the opening sequence, which sets much of the tone of the rest of the film.


2. The next day, the school where Casey and Steve had attended is abuzz with the news, and the local television channels are overflowing with it.


3. Sidney sat next to Casey in school, and her mother was assaulted and killed the year before.  The culprit was not apprehended.  A lot of the attention of the film flows to Sidney, her boyfriend Billy, plus their friends Stuart and Tatum.  Deputy Dewey knows Sidney from the year before.


4. We see the same MO working against Sidney the next night.  The perpetrator tells Sidney that her mother did not want to die.  Billy gets arrested for it.  Sidney gets to thinking about the two murder incidents, and the cops have a costume that looks like the one the perpetrator used.


5. Gale Weathers and her hapless, overweight cameraman Kenny try to get the story first.  Sidney cold cocks her, but apologizes the next morning.  Gale, on the other hand, insists that Sidney's mother was a slut, and that Sidney identified the wrong man at the trial.


6. Her classmates are more than a bit crude and insensitive.  Two of the boys wear a Halloween costume that resembles the one used by the killer.  Some of the girls speculate whether Sidney did the murders, and whether is was a pathetic cover up.  The killer finds her in the girls' room at school, and Sidney gets away via some good scrambling.


7. As the story progresses, the principal gets killed, Sidney's friend Tatum is killed, her boyfriend Billy gets knifed twice in the gut, Kenny gets his throat slit, and a couple more people get killed.


8. When the guilty are revealed, it makes sense from the earlier parts of the film.  Loose ends are tied up.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: An otherwise excellent film spoiled by its endless spoofing.
2. Four stars of five. 


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Exceptional.


2. Sound: 10/10 Well done.


3. Acting: 10/10 Fine.  Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich gave particularly good performances.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Too clever.  Too referential to the genre.  Too many references to other movies.  Too many sentences that start 'This the part where...'  If not for the spoofing, I would have rated this 5/5, and ranked it among the best horror films I have ever seen.