George Clark’s review published on Letterboxd:
Scream had me screaming, not because it was scary but because it was so fucking good! Wes Craven has long been known as one of the masters of the horror genre and this king of self aware slasher-horror only goes to prove it all the more. The iconic “ghost face killer” has gone down as one of the best slasher killers in history as the mask alone enlists a sense of comedy and fear into its audience and works like pure gold at creating a villain that is both, at once, feared and beloved by the viewer. Of course, the real stars of Scream are Matthew Lillard, Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox who all do a fantastic job at portraying characters that have gone down in history.
Scream’s last act is pure iconic bliss with the reveal of the killers going down a treat. Whilst “who it is“ is slightly obvious as time goes on, the way it’s executed is phenomenal. Just as Deadpool is the superhero film that made fun of and reinvented it’s genre, Scream did just that for Horror in the 90's and ended up working like a dream. The endless iconic horror references from Wes Cravens very own “The Nightmare on Elm Street” to John Carpenters horror masterpiece “Halloween”, allow for a rather self aware horror that is constantly making commentary on the state and tropes of the genre.
Now it’s rather embarrassing that I haven’t watched this before today, it’s iconic and works like an utter dream for the slasher genre. Scream will no doubt go down as one of the more important horror films of the last few decades. With both this and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse today, it’s been a good day. I loved it!
