Scream

“Don’t Answer The Phone. Don’t Open The Door. Don’t Try To Escape.” ~Scream (1996)

IMDB Summary: Attempting to cope with her mother’s murder, Sydney and her horror movie-obsessed friends are stalked by a murderer who seems to have a hard time letting the past go.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 78%

Why I love it: It’s super clever and funny and scary all at the same time.

Top Ten Best Things About Scream:

10. Drew Barrymore’s hair. It’s exactly how I picture a normal girl from the fictional town of Woodsboro, California would look.

9. The fact that she dies early (and badly—she’s basically gutted) in the first scene. It’s 12 minutes long. A little nod to Psycho, where Janet Leigh is killed off early.

8. The trick question the caller asks her: “Who is the killer in Friday the 13th?” Duh. It’s Mrs. Voorhees. The Jason with the hockey mask doesn’t show up until the second Friday the 13th, where he’s a very tall, full grown man as opposed to the scrawny dead-ish kid who’s been somehow surviving in the lake for 20 years at the end of the first one. Makes no sense. Either does the fact that the whole thing has nothing to do with it being Friday the 13th, which never even gets mentioned. Or bad luck.

7. Skeet Ulrich is hot. Almost hotter than Johnny Depp, who he totally looks like and was in A Nightmare on Elm Street, also directed by Wes Craven.

6. The Fonz. Especially when he fixes his hair in the mirror.

5. The horror film rules.

You will not survive if you have sex.

You will not survive if you drink or do drugs.

You will not survive if you say “I’ll be right back.”

4. The Tatum death in the doggie door of the garage. She was kind of a bitch.

3. The cuteness of Courtney Cox and David Arquette. I know they got divorced, but still.

2. The Halloween movie references (from angelfire.com):

Casey is popping popcorn, kind of like Annie.

Casey tries to let out a scream but can’t until her parent’s are already in the house, just as Laurie Strode in Halloween 2 who can’t let out her scream until Dr.Loomis, Marion Chambers and the cop are already inside the hospital.

When Casey’s parents discover something’s wrong, her father says “drive down to the Mackenzie’s!” just as Laurie Strode does to Tommy and Lindsey.

Skeet Ulrich plays Billy Loomis. The name Samuel Loomis was used in both Halloween and Psycho.

The Halloween theme is playing through most of the ending.

The song “Don’t Fear the Reaper” is in both movies. The Scream version is a remake and is played while Billy sneaks into Sidney’s room towards the beginning of the movie. In Halloween it is playing in the car while Laurie and Annie are on their way to babysit.

1. … And it’s a great cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9DcX23-w94

Next: The Funhouse