In the nineties the slasher genre was pretty much dead after seeing it's heyday back the eighties when a lot of slasher films where being made yearly. Yet it's thanks to the film that i'm about to review for all you today that the slasher genre not only survive the nineties but was brought back to life really by actually giving us good characters that we like and by giving us a good plot and so the join me as I review the film that introduced us to Ghostface with the film in question being called simply just "Scream" enjoy.
The plot of the film is on the one year anniversary of her mothers death teenager Sidney Prescott finds herself and other teenagers being targeted by a mysterious killer. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this film plot not only really holding up really well all of these years later with the films plot also being just as fresh and just as new and different as it was back in 1996 with this films plot being just as entertaining and just as engaging as it was back in 1996 as well with the plot of the film still being one of the best plots in nineties horror film history in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is David Arquette as Dewey Riley , Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott and Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers. Also starring in this film is Rose McGowan as Tatum Riley , Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher , Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis , Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks , W. Earl Brown as Kenny , Joseph Whipp as Burke , Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary , Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker , Henry Winkler as Principal Arthur Himbry and Roger L. Jackson as The Voice Of Ghostface.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well the in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films cast really nailing down there characters perfectly and giving us some truly iconic characters with all of this films actors being perfectly cast so well in fact that it's now hard to imagine anyone else playing these characters as all of this films characters just fit there characters perfectly so much so that they basically just are those characters with the acting in this film really being helped by the fact that not only is the film directed by the late and great Wes Craven who knows how to get a good performance out of his cast but also due to the fact that the films script is just so good that all the cast have to do is just say lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.
To many people the most iconic side character in this film is Randy and that's fair enough however a case could be argued for Tatum being a truly iconic character in this film as well as Randy. With the character having alot of the humor that the films are really known for on top of that her lines are instantly quotable and while her death scene could have been avoided as she was more then halfway out of that cat flap before she died anyway it doesn't take away from the fact that her death was truly brutal and while yes Randy does give us the rules for not only this film but for the next two films it's Tatum that manages to keep Sidney grounded when everything else is spiraling out of control but I will admit that her character could have been better as she does come across as being the stereotypical snarky best friend type of character and really nothing more then that she is still a rather fun and entertaining character.
As a mystery this film does really well in telling it's actual mystery as the film does give you very subtle clues. Alot of which you only notice upon repeat viewings of the film like the fact that when Stu is about to say that will give away that he and Billy are the killers Billy will just shut him down right there and then something that he wouldn't do if they weren't the killers and on top of that is the fact that the very idea of just straight up hinting that Billy is the killer all throughout the film almost to the point where we the audience start to believe that he's not the killer was a smart move as it then gives us a reason to check the film out again to see if there's something that we missed the first time around but going back to the clues the fact that alot of the people apart from Sidney and a few others are seen wearing the exact same footwear as Ghostface does make it seem like anybody could be the killer and the fact that Billy and Stu do spend alot of time together in this film is a great subtle way to show us that there this films killers.
There's one thing that's slightly confusing when we get to this films climax tho and that's the fact that when see Billy get "killed" there's no way to see how he could applied the blood to himself. As don't forget we've just seen him completely shirtless which means that he couldn't have hidden what he needed to hide in order to pull of this effect off as one of the intended victims would have been right there in the room with him thus she would have known that Billy was at the very least the killer behind these killings this is something that could have been fixed with just one quick shot showing how Billy and Stu managed to hide the make up that they quite clearly planned to use and yet because they don't do it it makes all the more confusing when it comes to the final film and that one very quick shot could have fixed that and it would have gone along way to showing us that these two kids really did think of everything and of every single part of this plan.
As great as this film is there are some things that I really didn't like about the film like the fact that alot of the side characters felt rather undercooked which does make sense as there not the main characters but at the same time it does make it hard for us the audience to make any of connection to them. The other thing that I didn't like about this film is the fact that it really doesn't take advantage of the fact that anybody could be a suspect like how cool would it be if instead of capturing Billy not long after the first kill, of the film we see alot more people being blamed for the killing whilst none of them actually are the killer and we get to see the fact that some people could be blaming others for either petty revenge or just to prank there friends all the meanwhile the real killers are still free this is something that would have taken full advantage of the fact that anybody could be the killer and it would make us the audience not thing that Billy and Stu are the killers thus making there big reveal near the end of the film all the more surprising and shocking at the exact same time.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember what ever this films grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this film has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and forty six minuets. Which was a tad bit on the long side for this film to have but at the same time there's not really anything left in this film that you can really cut out of the film without seriously harming the plot of the film as the film really does have more then enough there interms of plot to cover that large of running time and cutting anything from the film would mean that clues to working out who the killer or even killers are in this film which would make the big reveal at the ed of the film not really make sense in the slightest but i will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a horror film that means that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As this films kills are all just stabbings which would normally be a huge downside for me as that can get boring after a while but here it does oddly make sense as this films killers are just teenagers who are using whatever they can get a hold of to commit there crimes which means that it does make sense that alot of there kills would be stabbings and while we do get some different kills in this film the overall majority of this films kills are stabbings with all of this films kills looking really good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall even after all these years this film is still so good and is quite easily a must watch for not only any horror fan worth there salt but also for any slasher fan worth there salt as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that means that this very film earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 9 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and a swell as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Scream fandom wiki page , Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being the official Scream fandom wiki page simply because the official Scream fandom wiki page actually has images from this film up on the official Scream fandom wiki page and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on the official Scream fandom wiki page were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
