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"Scream": My Favorite Horror Movie

Welcome, one last time, to my countdown of my 25 favorite horror movies. My previous choices, in order from 25th to 2nd favorite, have been Scream 3, Friday the 13th Part 2, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Piranha 3D, Hatchet, Pumpkinhead, Paranormal Activity, Slither, Scream 2, In the Mouth of Madness, The Cabin in the Woods, Indious, The Last Horror Movie, Child's Play, Scream 4, Let Me In, The Descent, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Zombieland, Suspiria, The Children, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Mist and finally, The Exorcist. It's been a great pleasure to share my perspective on these films with all of you and delve into why they are my most beloved entries in the horror genre. I find it difficult to believe we've already reached my number one choice. My pason for the franchise this movie launched is well-established by now, so many of you probably won't be surprised to see the indomitable dney Prescott and company landing in the top slot. Ladies and gentlemen, I very proudly present my favorite horror movie of all time:Scream

So what's so great about Scream , anyway? It's certainly not the first slasher flick about a group of teens being terrorized by someone with a knife and a menacing disguise. It doesn't have an astronomical body count. Some would argue it's at least as funny as it is scary, and nce it features no real supernatural elements, it doesn't have the ability to frighten on quite the same metaphycal level as some of the films I ranked below it. All of this may be true, but to me, it's also bede the point.

Scream wasn't trying to be the first slasher film, it was trying to use the entire rich history of slasher films to reinvigorate them for a new generation. It focuses on quality rather than quantity when it comes to its kill scenes; only a handful of people actually die in this first installment, but for me, every ngle murder was clever and memorable. Faulting it for not having profound metaphycal implications is a non-starter nce that is mply not what the film is about, but Scream does still have a lot to say about the modern human condition in our increangly media soaked, fame seeking culture. Bedes all that, it's mply an energetic, wickedly fun film that captured lightning in a bottle, bringing a blockbuster senbility to horror at a time when the genre desperately needed something to jolt it back to life. Scream landed at just the right moment to remind us that just because this genre is horrific doesn't mean it has to be uniformly drab and depresng, and that not every character has to lose their sense of humor the moment scary shit starts happening. Humor is one of mankind's oldest coping mechanisms, so it's always made sense to me that those most in danger in the Scream films are so often found bantering about murder and attempting to make light of it. Despite the humorous elements of the story, Ghostface is as sadistic and bloodthirsty as any other horror movie killer. His savagery, as well as the plaubility of the premise, are enough to qualify Scream as a legitimate horror movie, whatever else it may also be.Wes Craven's steady hand as director also helps the film walk that fine line between horror and comedy without falling off the cliff into total parody. Craven maintains an ominous mood throughout, even during the humorous moments, and whenever Ghostface attacks, there is a distinct pause to the comedic elements of the movie that allows the scarier aspects to shine through. It's obvious that Craven took great care to make sure Scream did not get too far away from the horror genre it so lovingly sends up. Insting on copious amounts of blood in several key scenes is certainly part of that. More important, however, is Craven's success in creating a film where we can never be exactly certain when and where Ghostface will pop up next. Many of the scenes where the black cloaked killer makes his move are genuinely jolting and, as much as people like to pretend they're too tough for this kind of movie, I am willing to bet that most people jumped at least once or twice the first time they saw it. Some people apparently conder this kind of scare - the killer leaping out of nowhere - to be somehow cheap. As far as I'm concerned, the type of people who make that argument have no buness expecting to like a slasher flick anyway. Such moments are a time honored staple of the subgenre and few other slasher flicks boast as many quality, well-crafted scenes of this kind as Scream does.

Another thing Scream has going for it is that it's hip. People tend to roll their eyes when you describe a horror flick as "hip" these days, but that's mainly due to the flood of imitators that Scream inspired. Many of these inferior also-rans went out of their way, in very overt fashion, to try to "out-hip" this movie and it eventually got to the point where "hip" actually started to seem anything but. Still, Hollywood will always be full of hacks trying to ride the coattails of any project that proves to be profitable and/or influential. Scream

was the original

hip horror movie and it cannot fairly be blamed for the derivative clones that came after, anymore than we can blame Child's Play for inspiring Dolly Dearest, or Paranormal Activity for Paranormal Entity. It's old hat now for a character in a scary movie to display some awareness of "the rules" of horror, but it was Scream that first articulated those rules in savvy and ironic fashion. Much credit for the success of Scream is owed to a superb script from Kevin Williamson, as well as a talented cast that was clearly greatly enthused about the project. The viewer is plunged into mayhem almost from the very start of the film, as high school student Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) answers a phone call from someone who claims to have dialed the wrong number. After she hangs up, the person calls back, apparently to apologize. The masculine voice sounds a bit flirty at first, and Casey seems to think she might be about to get asked out on a date. She engages in conversation with him, telling him she's about to watch a scary movie and foreshadowing the real life horror film she doesn't know her life is about to turn into. I probably don't have to describe to anyone the startling and eerie turns the phone call takes after that or how this now clasc opening scene plays out. Suffice to say that Barrymore turns in one of the best performances of her career as the ill-fated Casey Becker, even garnering favorable comparisons to Janet Leigh in Psycho.

Her cast mates also turn in strong performances across the board. Rose McGowan shines as the feisty and talkative Tatum Riley. Matthew Lillard is amungly animated and over the top as Tatum's boyfriend, the goofy Stu Macher. Skeet Ulrich brings intenty and depth to the role of Billy Loomis, keeping the viewer uncertain of exactly what to make of him. Jamie Kennedy is nerdy in a way that is mostly endearing as horror buff Randy Meeks. Even Henry Winkler is memorable here in the small role of the unpredictable Principal Himbry. Scream is an ensemble piece that features characters who are unusually well-drawn for a slasher film. As such, all of the actors above are integral to the plot. However, as important as everyone else in the cast may be, the real stars of Scream

are the "Holy Trinity" of dney, Dewey and Gale, who horror fans are lucky enough to meet here for the first time.The role of dney Prescott ultimately went to Neve Campbell, who tried out for the part after Drew Barrymore turned it down in favor of playing Casey Becker. I conder this to be destiny; not only does each actress seem better suited to the part they ended up playing, but Ms. Campbell in particular seems to inhabit the role of dney completely. Vulnerable without being foolish, tough as nails without being invincible, dney has grown into arguably the ngle most gnificant "Final Girl" in horror movie history. Her closest rival would no doubt be Laurie Strode from the Halloween franchise, but dney has several things going for her that Laurie lacks. There has never been a Scream film without dney as played by Neve Campbell. In contrast, there have been numerous entries in the Halloween series that do not feature Laurie Strode at all, and a couple of remakes that star Scout Taylor Compton as Laurie instead of Jamie Lee Curtis, which has the result of making Laurie a conderably more convoluted character than dney. Laurie is also more prone to doing stupid things than dney is, such as in the first Halloween, when she stabs Michael Myers in the eye with a hanger and then decides to t down close to his prone form and start blubbering with her back turned to him instead of running away or finishing him off while she has the chance. Compare this to dney turning Ghostface's own motus operandi against him when she dons his cloak and mask at the end of the first Scream, or ung a TV set to fry his brain (to say nothing of the many intelligent actions she takes in the sequels) and it's easy to see that dney comes out on top. In fact, I sometimes think that if dney and Laurie ever crossed paths, dney would slap Laurie in the face and tell her to stop acting so damn weak.

http://i45.tinypic.com/dn0i0o.jpg" class="photoborder" /> The adolescent dney is also fortunate to have some attentive adult back-up to help her avoid Ghostface's knife in the form of Deputy Dewey Riley (a charmingly dopey David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), the sly, tenacious reporter who Dewey rapidly develops one monster of a crush on. Dewey and Gale have obvious chemistry from the start, establishing a sweet, flirty rapport in their very first scene together. At first, Gale is merely ung Dewey to get the inde track on a major breaking news story, but before long, it's pretty clear that she has real feelings for him as well. If the burgeoning romance between these characters seems particularly realistic, it's not just because of the talents of the actors or their director. As many no doubt already know, Arquette and Cox did indeed fall in love during the filming of Scream. It's imposble to really know where the acting ends and the real emotions of the actors begin in their scenes together. Regardless of how their chemistry came about, though, it greatly enriches Scream, giving us characters who are extremely hard not to care about as they experience such authentic emotions right before our eyes. The first time I watched Scream, I found myself feeling a keen sense of anxiety about whether Dewey and Gale would make it to the end alive or meet a grisly end at Ghostface's hands, leaving dney the sole survivor. Most other horror movies mply do not feature characters compelling enough to make me worry overmuch about their well-being.After that initial viewing, I returned to the theater four more times to watch Scream again. I was thrilled to see a high energy horror film bringing the genre back from the brink of death and getting general audiences excited about scary movies again. More than that, though, I was thoroughly impressed by how complex and well made the film was. The vocal minority of people who complained that Scream "wasn't scary, just funny" came out of the woodwork almost immediately to try and steal the movie's thunder, but to me, those arguments missed the mark. Yes, certain moments of the film, especially after Ghostface stands revealed, are degned to invoke laughter. However, the mere fact that we can laugh at such gory proceedings raises some uncomfortable questions about human nature that are kind of scary in and of themselves. There is the sense that we're laughing at something we shouldn't be and this fact highlights just how desentized modern audiences have become to violence in the movies. The coolest thing about Scream's premise is that it becomes more scary the more you think about it. Whereas other slasher franchises endeavor to make us afraid of monsters that can invade our dreams, rise from the grave or raise Hell itself to the earthly plane, Scream aims to make us fear something a little closer to home. It suggests that we should probably keep a watchful eye on our fellow horror movie fans to make sure they are not plotting to kill us. It even argues that we should maybe be just a little afraid of ourselves.

Another part of Scream's complexity is the potent mystery it weaves throughout its run time. In addition to enjoying a clever, high octane slasher, audiences also get to try to figure out who Ghostface might actually be beneath that flowing black cloak. Some people have no doubt been able to accurately guess at least half of the answer to that fundamental question and some of those same people seem to think that means Scream is predictable. However, the trick that the film pulls off so well is that it casts ample amounts of suspicion on almost every character at one point or another. No matter who Ghostface turned out to be, there would be something they did earlier in the script that you could point to and say "See? I told you it was them." Randy is the biggest movie geek of the bunch and nurses a not very well concealed infatuation with dney, who seems to be Ghostface's main target. Billy shows up at dney's house right after Ghostface disappears and becomes the number one suspect in the eyes of the law. Tatum seems offended when her friends suggest that the killer couldn't posbly be a woman. Principal Himbry clearly suffers from some rather violent mood swings and seems to enjoy dresng up in the Ghostface mask which he confiscates from rowdy students. dney's father (Lawrence Hecht) manages to find his way onto the suspect list merely by his protacted absence and his failure to ever arrive at the hotel where he told his daughter he'd be staying. I conder it to be a very good thing that so many characters could have made a plauble Ghostface and the fact that there turns out to be two killers makes the mystery that much harder to fully solve.Although Scream was undoubtedly a huge success and has nce joined the ranks of horror films that are condered essentials of the genre, its' still underrated in certain circles, mainly by those who don't conder it to be a true horror film. I invite anyone who has such doubts about what genre this movie belongs in to recall to memory the image of Casey Becker stumbling through her yard, mortally wounded and rasping for help from her parents, who are mere feet away but cannot hear her. Or the image of Casey hanging dead from a tree as lightning flashes behind her. Or the image of Tatum's head bursting like a pumpkin after she gets caught in a garage door. Or Steve Orth (Kevin Patrick Walls) screaming in pain and futility as his intestines are spilled into his lap. Or Ghostface bursting out at dney for their first, brutal confrontation. The mple fact that Scream's characters often laugh in the face of danger is not enough to make it a comedy, or to erase the plethora of genuinely horrific moments it contains. There is no telling what dire straits the horror genre might still be in if Scream hadn't come along precisely when it did. Most importantly of all, Scream introduced us to dney Prescott, the best, most kick ass heroine that horror has ever seen, who may very well be one of the strongest female characters to show up in any medium. dney alone might have been reason enough to make Scream my top choice, even if I didn't love practically everything else about the movie (which I absolutely do). The contributions this film has made to the genre we all love so much are hard to overstate and to this day, have still not been fully appreciated.And that's the ballgame, folks! This countdown has been both a blast and a challenge to create, and I'm eternally grateful to everyone who voiced their support (and, in some cases, their critiques). I hope you all enjoyed my list and that it helped you better define your own tastes, even if only by virtue of your total disagreement with every word I've written. The official countdown may be over, but because I'm not ready to let it go just yet, and because narrowing my favorites down to only 25 movies was an agonizing process, I do have one final surprise up my sleeve. Stay tuned for my list of Honorable Mentions, where I'll say a few quick words about some other great horror films that ended up falling just shy of my top 25.

My second favorite! One of my favs! Good call!!!

I just have to say that I have enjoyed reading through your list and nce you started writing it I have always been looking forward to the next installment. Now that it's finally done I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! Actually, I do know...I'm going to go back through and re-read some of them. It's a great list full of great movies.

Kudos, also, for not going with one of the cliche clascs as your number one and sticking to your preferences. I've never made a list of my own, but if I did Scream would be right up there toward the top for reasons that you gave in your own review. It's just a fantastic movie with the exact right amount of everything: horror, humor, drama, acting, mystery.