Scream (1996) Rated R Starring: David Arquette, Courteney Cox, and Skeet Ulrich Rating: out of

For some reason, I passed on Scream during its first-run in theaters. I knew it was supposed to make fun of slasher films like Halloween and Terror Train, which are movies I absolutely loved to watch as a teenager. Plus, it's directed by Wes Craven, the man responsible for A Nightmare on Elm Street, one of the classic horror films of the 1980s, The Serpent and the Rainbow and Shocker -- all of which are favorites of mine. The idea of the film appealed to me, but I just never got around to seeing it. It turns out that I was missing a really entertaining movie.

The plot is strictly a standard slasher movie hand-me-down: a young girl named Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who's family has a dark past, is stalked by a psycho in a gimmicky outfit. The psycho even calls her on the phone to announce the fact that he's after her. The town is put on alert after two other teenagers are slashed apart and, of course, hysterics ensue.

The difference is that the teenage characters are aware of all of these clichéd plot points and inform each other about what to do and what not to do when confronted with a psycho killer. Of course, they do this before actually being attacked and, when they are attacked, they revert to the cliched behaviors.

Screenwriter Kevin Williamson likes to stick to the clichés to the letter. For example, Sidney's friend Tatum (Rose McGowan) gripes that the big-breasted women always get killed in slasher flicks. Tatum proceeds to wear clothes that accentuate her breast size throughout the entire film. Does Tatum live to see the credits? Guess what?

The movie plays like a comedy, but it is a slasher movie. The gore and violence levels are just as severe as they are in Friday the 13th or Motel Hell. For someone expecting just a comedy, this could cause a bit of a disturbance. Otherwise, the movie is a lot of fun.

The real shocker, to me, was the performance of Courteney Cox. I'm familiar with her, as most people are, as a member of the ensemble cast of TV's Friends, a show I try to miss as often as possible. In Scream, she plays a tabloid TV reporter trying to get an angle on the whole situation and write a book about it. While in no way, shape or form is her performance Academy Award-level, it's definitely convincing and appropriately unlikeable.

Neve Campbell, who strikes me as likeable in everything she does, is adequate enough as the intended victim. Skeet Ulrich, who appeared with Campbell in The Craft, comes way too close to acting and looking like Johnny Depp for comfort.

Scream is not a typical slasher film because the female characters have true intelligence and are not reliant on males to save them. Also, the ending is not a typical "is the killer really dead?" ending. No, this film's got an ending that any typical slasher film would kill for.

So if you missed it and you're in for some scares, laughs and a general good time, search out Scream in either the bargain theaters or, soon, on the video shelves. It's worth it.

Trivia: Originally, the movie was to be filmed at Santa Rosa, CA High School. When the school board read the script they objected to the violent nature and the production was moved to Healdsburg, CA. (Source: The Internet Movie Database)