Scream (1996)

This splatter spoof from long-time genre director Wes Craven (A 
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) wraps with a finale so uproarious and 
over-the-top that I left the theater almost giddy.  The sequence, 
one of the year's more-memorable and pure gold for anyone with a 
taste for blood, is set at a Friday night slasher-movie marathon, 
with a trivia-testing masked killer knifing everyone in the house, 
from the obligatory teenage girl in the tight top to the wiseacre 
half-nerd horror-expert.  That guy also gets the biggest laughs in 
the movie, both on-screen and off, when he stands up to recite The 
Rules:  "Never have sex.  Never drink or do drugs.  And, never, 
ever, say 'I'll be right back.'"  And, of course they do, and they 
are, and more than one person exits a room, never to return.  
You'll die, too, laughing as Craven recreates a scene from HALLO-
WEEN, and then cross-cuts between it and the original, the latter 
playing on a VCR.  If only the rest of the movie were as ingenious.  
In fact, the first hour so closely (cheaply?) resembles the source 
material that you may just fall asleep. (Rated "R"/105 min.)

Grade: C+

Copyright 1996 by Michael J. Legeros

Originally posted to triangle.movies in MOVIE HELL: December 29, 1996