Review of Scream (1996) by Filipeneto — 12 Feb 2018

A good parody of horror films?

This "horror" movie is set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California, and tells how the young Sidney Prescott, a year after the brutal murder of his mother, is pursued by a mysterious psychopathic killer, masked with black clothes and a mask that looks like something out of a Munch painting. Directed by Wes Craven (who became famous with the franchise "Nightmare on Elm Street"), has a script by Kevin Williamson and includes Drew Barrymore, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette in the lead roles, playing respectively the young Casey, the protagonist Sidney, an ambitious reporter called Gale Weathers and the sheriff's deputy, Dewey.

As audience, we are in doubt about what really is this film: if it is a mere horror movie then we are facing one of the worst: although some situational scares, the film does not scare anyone, on the contrary: the killer is bumbling, fumbling and spends at least half of the film playing with the phone and stumble around the stage. In turn, the victims are mostly young immature teenagers, so pathetic and mentally retarded that we come to the point of delighting us with their deaths. There is no terror, just false terror, and there is no suspense, only false suspense.

If this movie isn't a horror movie but a teen film (perhaps one of the most indigestible film genres that exists), then they are on their favorite ground and I just wish, when they saw the sad end of the teenagers here, they decided to spend more lifetime devoting themselves to reading and developing their maturity.

Finally, if this isn't a teen or horror movie, it can only be a comedy that seeks to parody both genders. And, if this is true, then this is a great film, which made us laugh from start to finish and ridicules, in a funny way, both film genres. The dialogs of the adolescents, seeking to theorize the "formulas" of horror films and how to survive in a horror movie, are particularly funny. It's quite possible that it was the Wes Craven's intention with this film, instead of making a conventional horror film. May have been ...