Scream: Critic Reviews

Not even horror fans who can answer all this film's knowing trivia questions may be fully comfortable with such an exploitative mix.

The best fright fest of the '90s.

Whatever you do, don't close your mind to such an inventive concoction. One last time, despite all your better instincts, go ahead -- open that theater door.

I liked it. I liked the in-jokes and the self-aware characters. At the same time, I was aware of the incredible level of gore in this film.

The assumption that there's something inherently clever about a slasher movie making reference to both its genre and the filmmaking process is a fundamental flaw of this tiresome, blood-filled comedy.

Craven has expressed a desire to get out of the horror business. Maybe that's why he's set out to make more than a horror movie. He's contributing to a long tradition of reflexive films, going back as far as the turn of the century.

The pic's chills are top-notch, but its underlying mockish tone won't please die-hard fans.

Turns slasher flicks into slapstick.

Scream is a rarity: a horror movie spoof that succeeds almost as well at provoking scares as laughs.

A bravura, provocative sendup of horror pictures that's also scary and gruesome yet too swift-moving to lapse into morbidity.

...a fun, well-paced slasher...

Maybe not the first metamovie, but certainly the one that popularized the genre.

Graphic mystery-homage to teen-slasher movies.

Once all pretense and self-congratulatory winks to the audience have finished, the climax pretty much goes on auto-drive relying on the basic slasher fare...

Self-knowing badness is in fact badness; it might actually be worse than just regular old badness because it is, in addition to everything else, smug.

A pointedly knowledgeable, frequently funny satire on slasher conventions and a terrifically scary, joyously suspenseful horror picture.

Fans of the genre can enjoy the way it plays with horror's conventions. Others can just chew their fingers in fright.

It's not stupid, it's not wussy and it pulls off a couple of pretty nasty jolts.

Witty, tightly structured, and often effective as a straight horror film.

At last, a horror movie to shout about!

Ironically, the predictability is actually one of the film's virtues.

A fun, scary and entertaining movie

Its commercial success was well-justified.

It's been a long time since a teen-slasher movie has offered up anything but dull buckets of gore. With Scream, the genre reclaims its roots.

The film was written by Kevin Williamson, and his screenplay is smart as it is hip.