Scream (1996) ****

There was a time when Neve Campbell was every thinking man's dream girl. She was, for nerdy dudes in the 90s, what Molly Ringwald was in the 80s. In 1996's “Scream,” Campbell plays Sidney, a traumatized teen who lost her mother to a vicious murder. Now, one year after that tragedy, her small town is rocked by a new series of killings, perpetrated by a killer wearing a black robe and a twisted, ghost-face mask. The killer targets and taunts Sidney, while slaughtering a truckload of her classmates and friends.

“Scream” has a lot of fun with the concept of “meta.” The characters are movie junkies who constantly reference the “rules” of horror films while living out those rules within the movie itself. These rules include prohibitions against having sex, drinking, or doing drugs. Doing any of those makes it likely you won't survive the movie. Also, never say “I'll be right back.” You probably won't.

It could be easy, looking back, to remember “Scream” as one, big in-joke shared with the audience; meta self-awareness run amok. This is especially true if you also watched all the sequels, which, in true horror-movie fashion, got cheesier as they went. The original “Scream,” though, is actually a decent horror flick in its own right. Neve Campbell is excellent in her first leading role, and the supporting cast is mostly top-notch, including Courtney Cox as a pushy, tabloid reporter. It's a horror comedy that actually manages to be both.

The thing to remember about 1996 was that horror films had gotten really BAD. It was just one sequel after another, full of stupid one-liners. “Scream” was a breath of fresh, terrifying air. It was so unexpectedly good that word-of-mouth caused it to make more money in its second week in theaters than in its first, which is unheard-of for a horror flick. The film showed that a general audience existed for a quality horror movie with good writing and a good cast. Did this usher in a new age of quality horror films? Unfortunately, no. A bunch of directors tried to reverse-engineer Wes Craven's recipe, and all we got was a bunch of copycat films, like “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” It wasn't until the current era that we got a true Renaissance of decent horror movies (movies like "Green Room," "It Follows,"  and "Get Out"), partly supported by the growth of streaming services that allow genre films a better chance to find appreciative audiences. “Scream” was a one-off, but it was a lot of fun, and it made 1996 a better, funnier, and scarier time to live.

4 stars out of 5