I don't normally do this, I know I know. It's rare to see me reviewing such a popular film. But considering what SCREAM it about, I had to see it and review it for you guys since it involves a topic near and dear to my heart: horror movie cliches. I was so psyched to hear that a movie was coming out which would not only be a horror movie satire, but a horror movie in and of itself. However, when I heard that Wes Craven directed it, I was less certain. Craven is, in my opinion, perhaps the most overrated director in horror. The self-proclaimed horror master has, I believe, only made a few decent films and lots of bad ones. SCREAM, luckily, turned out to be one of his very best and self-assured movies.

Now, the plot: A girl (Drew Barrymore, in the film for five minutes, don't let the box cover fool you) receives a phone call one night in which she is tormented by a crazy dude who ultimately puts her life and her boyfriend's life in the hands of her knowledge of horror movies. She fails and both are killed. People at her school, of course, are up in arms and the news jumps all over the story.

One particular girl find herself the victim of another such phone call and attack yet she miraculously escapes with her life (on more than one occassion). Her family has a weird history as her mother was raped and killed a year earlier and a man was caught and sent to prison. This tormented teen (Neve Campbell, one of the stars of PARTY OF FIVE) spends the movie being worried and screaming as one by one her friends are killed. Courteney Cox, an eager reporter, follows her closely to find out what's happening and soon enough becomes involved in the action.

The point of watching this relatively plotless film is for a few reasons. One, the killer runs around wearing a costume with a mask modeled after Edvard Munch's famous painting, aptly titled, THE SCREAM. This a brilliantly creepy plot device on Craven's part and everytime you see the killer, it is truly chilling. Two, the movie leads you to believe that the killer could be anyone of many people, so you are kept guessing until the climax. Three, the use of movie trivia is a lot of fun.

Why, then, didn't I give the movie a full four stars? Well, mostly because the film didn't live up to the potential showed in the first five minutes, one of the most effectively frightening sequences in recent film memory. The killer's taunting phone call includes some great trivia, such as, "who was the killer in the film FRIDAY THE 13th?" Don't jump to an answer as poor old Drew did. This was a great scene and from it I expected a great movie.

It wasn't. There were some terrific moments, to be sure, and as a whole it was thoroughly entertaining. But, being a devoted horror film buff, I expected more use of the horror film cliches and more satire. Instead, a few film names were dropped and one terrific scene has a character going through horror film rules (like, never have sex). But, somehow, the idea of satirizing bad horror films has such potential for great wit that was rarely realized in SCREAM.