Halloween Nightmares – Scream

Who? Written by: Kevin Williamson Directed by: Wes Craven Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, Skeet Ulrich, Henry Winkler and Drew Barrymore.

Why should I watch? Scream holds up incredibly well twenty years after its release as both a horror movie and a savvy satire of horror tropes. While it’s been sequelized (three times to date), ripped off (approximately eleventy billion times to date) and spun off (a clever, slightly over-caffeinated series on MTV was just renewed for a third season), it has never been matched for sheer cleverness and fun.

The story is fairly simple: high schooler Sidney Prescott (Campbell) and her friends are menaced by a masked knife wielding maniac who could very well be one of them. What makes it stand out from the crowd of teen slashers is that these kids have seen horror movies before and know what the rules are – a very refreshing angle from which to approach the material.

The overall mystery is quite clever (and doesn’t cheat) with Craven staging the mayhem with flair. The opening scene in particular is a breathless sequence inspired in part by Hitchcock’s  film Psycho and it’s a master class in building and sustaining suspense. A lot of movies couldn’t live up to such a bravura opening sequence, but Scream continues to deliver right up until the very end. There’s even a scene cleverly scored to John Carpenter’s iconic music from Halloween so not only is it a terrific movie, it’s also seasonally appropriate.