Scream (or So This Really Launched a Franchise?)

Everyone's seen the "ghost face" mask popularized by the Scream movie franchise. And even though I've seen my share of horror films, I'm not by any means an expert. In fact, until sitting down to do this review, Scream was one of those movies that never had the opportunity to cross my path. So I'm going into it as a virgin -- that means I'm safe, right? According to the rules?

The rules of horror movies are what Scream is all about. It's a masked slasher preying on teens, and some of the teens know that to survive a horror movie you have to follow certain rules -- like not have sex, and dont say "I'll be right back." Those things are guaranteed to get you hacked to pieces as soon as your next scene! So the film doesn't take itself too seriously and, in fact, the maniacal ghost-faced killer is a much more vulnerable and fallible killer than others in the genre. He gets hurt, he can be fought against. And yet, in each end (until the very end, at least) he manages to always get the better of his victims. 

In this way, Scream is a comedy about horror movies, but just as bloody as your usual R-rated hacker/slasher fright fest. But while this has impressed a generation of movie-goers, I could not help but think that the film had come a good twenty years late. Because while I had not seen Scream before, I had seen Student Bodies, which was much more of a comedic spoof on the genre. Of course, Student Bodies was a true B-movie, while Scream boasted the up-and-coming brat pack of young Hollywood, including the likes of Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy and Riverdale's Skeet Ulrich.

It's still a fun movie for a night of popcorn on the couch, especially if you're a first-timer like I was. These things tend, for me, to lose their tension when you already know who's going to die and who is really under the killer's hood.