(1996)
4.5
Lucia Bozzola
With contemporary horror master Wes Craven at the helm and a cheekily self-aware script by Kevin Williamson, Scream (1996) single-handedly resuscitated the teen slasher genre for the media-saturated 1990s. From the opening slaughter of blonde star Drew Barrymore through the last-minute heroics of final girls Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, Scream simultaneously sent up and reenacted 1970s and 1980s slasher film conventions (with a nod to founding father Alfred Hitchcock). With a telephone-and knife-wielding psycho taunting beset babes, clueless authority figures, and references to such slasher chestnuts as Friday the 13th (1980) and Halloween (1978), Scream played off the teen audience's pop knowledge while taking a jab at the debate over the effects of media violence. The teen audience responded by turning the unheralded horror flick into a $100 million smash. Along with spawning the inevitable sequels, Scream's success reestablished the strength of the adolescent demographic and resulted in a host of teen horror movies, including the Williamson-penned I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and The Faculty (1999), as well as establishing Williamson as the teen scribe for the late 1990s.
cast-crew for Scream on AllMovie
Scream (1996)
