as a huge film fan, i hugely regret not watching this earlier.

Wes Craven’s Scream is a film that operates as 1. a teen slasher film 2. and a parody of teen slasher films. rounded up by Scary Movie, a film that operates as a parody of this film.

this isn’t cliche though. the structure is fairly straight forward, the twists and turns are unsuspecting, even for someone who grew up with the Scary Movie films and sorta knew what happened in this franchise. the acting in this isn’t too bad either, a lot of solid performances. Mathew Lillard 100% the standout. finding out a lot of his dialogue was improvised just shows that he absorbed his character, and even during tense scenes he still finds perfect timing to drop a joke. not even the jokes were cheap. this film is a black comedy, so the jokes are dark and related to the scenes in the film. but they work. the violence is fun too, and the confrontations with ghost face are funny and horrifying. this film works and the glue behind it is the late great Cravens horror direction that we all know to love. his shots, editing, style just work. i cant rave about this film enough, the references are also pleasant. watch this if you haven’t! I can’t wait to check 2 & 3 out.