Scream is a slasher movie released in 1996, directed by acclaimed horror creator Wes Craven and starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and Drew Barrymore. It was an instant success and spawned a long-running strong of sequels, though these were met with less acclaim than the first.
Campbell stars as Sidney Prescott, a high school student who is targeted by a serial killer known as Ghostface. Having already killed two other students in the movie’s first scene, Ghostface proceeds to attack Sidney after threatening her over the phone. Sidney escapes, and a media circus forms around the mysterious attacks. Sidney’s boyfriend and father are suspected of being Ghostface, and soon the principal of Sidney’s school is also killed. One of Sidney’s classmates throws a party to celebrate the school’s temporary closing in the wake of the murders, which attracts Ghostface, and the partygoers are killed one by one. Sidney must protect herself from the killer before she becomes the final victim.
Upon its release in December 1996, critics praised Craven’s work on Scream, and the director received the Gérardmer Film Festival’s Grand Prize the following year. Scream also received the International Horror Guild’s award for Best Film in 1996, and was nominated for six Saturn Awards the next year, winning three. Of particular interest to critics was the movie’s self-referential treatment of horror movies, as Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) presents several “rules” of the genre that one must follow in order to survive the plot. Scream then methodically subverts each trope in turn. Stu’s rules have since passed into legend among horror fans, as the cliches he points out still apply to contemporary movies as well.
Cast
Neve Campbell
Drew Barrymore
Skeet Ulrich
Courteney Cox
Rose McGowan
David Arquette
Pictures
Videos
Featured image via collider.com