Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson created one of the most influential horrors of the 90s when they released scream back in 1997, they took the slasher genre and made it fresh, exciting and added elements of humor. I loved that Wes added a lot of himself into this movie, having one of his own films mentioned, A Nightmare on elm street.
The casting choices also had a great deal to how the film panned out. Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker at the start of the film. when I first started watching this movie and Drew was at the start, I felt an element of ease to the film. I believe it was because they had used such a high profile actress at the time to start the opening scene, because who would ever kill off Drew Barrymore? well that was my first thought anyway.
The opening scene definitely set the tone for the film as it jumped straight into suspense, and violence with a touch of dark humor along side it. Drew was incredible in this scene, from the way she speaks to the killer on the phone to the way she slides the knife up and down, it gave the viewers an idea of the murder weapon. The suspense was rife during this climatic opening scene, we hadn't even seen the killer and he had already gave me chills, not knowing where he was and could appear at any moment. Terrifying.
The suspense was built up beautifully right from the point of the first call to Casey, even when the killer was asking the trivia questions, it made me feel on edge. I still felt that it wouldn't be the end of Casey that, her boyfriend would get to her in time or that she would be able to call authorities, but this was turning out to be a true cat and mouse game. The next shock for me came when the masked killer revealed Casey's boyfriend strapped to a chair, the brutality of it completely unnerved me, especially that early on in the movie.
The murder scene. This kill is by far one of the most shocking in the first film in my opinion, as I stated before I never expected Casey to be killed let alone be the first victim. What made it far more impactful was that Casey's parents were arriving home just as the attack began, it was completely chilling that she was trying to call out to them but because of her injuries she was unable to.
I think its every parents worst nightmare to discover something has happened to their child, when Mrs Becker picked up the phone to dial authorities and all she heard was her daughter gasping for breath as Casey still held onto the phone. This still gives me goosebumps, I think Wes Craven was incredibly smart in this moment, as now it felt like anything could happen. There are no rules.
As this is one of my favorite movies of all time, I really want to show the respect it deserves so I am splitting this film review into 3 parts, the other two parts will be posted soon!
Again thanks for reading.
Tash.
Sources used for pictures; IMDB
Scream like SAw are amazing one off films. The sequels cheapen the original experience.
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