Scream (1996 Film Review)

1996 Dimension Films
Directed by:Wes Craven; Written by Kevin Williamson
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, and Drew Barrymore
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 111 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 10/10

One of Sidney Prescott's classmates and the classmates' boyfriend have just been brutally murdered. Suspicion turns toward Sidney's classmates. Unfortunately, a couple of those classmates are her boyfriend and his best friend. Even more unfortunately, this is all happening near the one year anniversary of the murder of Sidney's mother. Soon, the uniquely masked killer is after Sidney too. Can she survive, find the killer's identity, and bring them to justice? It's a scream, baby!
1996's Scream is a once in a lifetime horror film, even if it's had six sequels in the 20 years since. Directed by Wes Craven, the man known as the "master of horror," with Kevin Williamson writing at his peak, Scream's unique accomplishments have not been topped by any of its successive slasher competitors. Deconstruction has deservedly received a bad rap over the last decade, whether its millennials using the word as an excuse to abandon whatever their given faith for nihilism, or global conglomerates buying up major franchises and hiring hack creatives to destroy them. Scream breaks down the slasher subgenre to its bare bones, reveals its skeleton, then displays absolute reverence for it as it builds a Grade A slasher film around it. Featuring rivers of Gen X snark and humor, and yet also belief and conviction in the bloody, nightmarish frame in which it is playing, Scream is the landmark horror film of the 90s, and the next competitors aren't even close
As far as characters and acting go, Scream is like the original 1977 Star Wars. .Many of the actors could never really move on from their roles because, in some way, it feels like they ARE their roles here, archetypal, iconic characters that have weathered the test of time without blemish, portrayed exactly as they should be. Williamson throws in just the right amount of camp and humor to not ruin, but solidify the tone of the film, and Craven seems to be on every same page, the two working together in perfect lockstep, along with the cast and crew. Composer, Marco Beltrami, who has worked on myriad popular films, presents a score that remains the pinnacle defining moment of his career, exactly what the film needs, along with its unique song soundtrack.
I've come back to Scream as much as I have any 90s film, and I have not a negative word to say about it. The film stands tall with 1978's Halloween, as a pillar of not just the slasher horror subgenre, but horror in general. It never has to say "I'll be right back." It's always here.