Scream (1996)

Summary: Teenager Sidney Prescott is a young woman who is alone in the family mansion after her father has gone away. It is a year after her mother was raped and murdered, and now the media has descended on the town after the murder of another teenager Casey Becker, who we know has been terminated by someone disguised as “Ghostface”. One of the reporters, Gale Weathers, believes that the man jailed for Sidney’s mothers murder is innocent so she is disliked by Sidney. While waiting for her boyfriend Sidney is attacked by Ghostface, but escapes, but when her boyfriend Billy Loomis arrives, he drops his phone, causing Sidney to accuse him  of being the killer. He is arrested but let go, and Sidney and her friend Tatum are looked after by Sherriff’s deputy Dewey. . When school is shut, firstly the teens hold a party and secondly the school principle is killed by Ghostface. Many of the party goers depart, leaving a small number who are predated by Ghostface, who for a start traps Tatum in the garage door, killing her. Will the others survive, and who is the killer?

Content: No nudity, but some implied sex and a bit of what some call “dry humping”. Mostly scenes of Ghostface chasing people round someone’s mansion, sometimes successfully as in the first scene when Casey is chased about and she and her boyfriend killed and apparently disembowelled (some versions may not be that graphic). Preliminary scenes as Sidney and Tatum are guarded by Dewey. Once the final party starts it is downhill all the way, involving Dewey, the deputy, Gale the reporter and numerous students, who are gradually dispatched. It goes on for forty minutes. As it goes along people are making jokes about horror film tropes.

A View: This is of course a classic movie, the first of a whole genre of similar outings where young people are dispatched in a particularly gory way. It made a lot of money and was followed by a number of sequels all starring Neve Campbell. There has also been a reboot last year, starring Campbell and Courtney Cox, which was terrible. It is a bit of screen history so worth a watch if only for that reason.

I have reviewed quite a few slasher films on this site, some of them terrible but here are three which might hold the interest: The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Elevator and Friday the 13th .