Day 4- "Do you like scary movies?"

I thought I'd have to write a whole lot about Scream (1996), one of several slashers that made its way onto my willies list, and frankly I'm feeling a bit lazy today so I wasn't looking forward to it. Lucky for me, I wrote about it in my "Top 10 Slashers That Aren't Blah Blah Blah" list, so I'm going to simply quote myself here. Now that's shoddy blogging!

If spawning countless inferior copycat knockoff flicks is the hallmark of a great film, then it should be no surprise that Wes Craven's Scream is near the top of the list. This movie resurrected the dead and stale slasher genre as it managed to be both cheeky and truly fucking frightening. Unfortunately, the copycats only looked to Scream's self-referential aspects and overlooked the fact that the film also sticks to the formula and does it well. The laughs are balanced- outweighed, even- by some of Craven's finest work; the famous opening sequence is undoubtedly one of the scariest in any horror film.

In its wake, the slasher film quickly became diluted once more with inferior flicks and countless parodies- it's easy to overlook and/or forget how powerful Scream truly is. Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven managed to simultaneously update the formula and adhere to it- that's the sign of a true landmark effort.

There you go! I couldn't have said it better myself.

Or could I?

Anyway, here's that "famous opening sequence in all its glory. Lazy Thursdays rule!