Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Scream
1996
***
Director: Wes Craven
Cast: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich

In New Nightmare Wes Craven played with movie reality as his cast members kept getting killed. In this inventive parody, which was scripted by Kevin Williamson, he takes the joke a step further. The story is set in the town of Woodsboro where a masked killer targets teenagers. However, that's pretty much irrelevant. The main point is to play with our knowledge and expectations of horror film clichés. It's ultimately one joke streched very thin, and it has very little to offer to those uninterested in the genre. The film was a massive hit and it has since spawned three sequels (2, 3 and 4), its own subgenre as well as a very profitable Scary Movie spoof series.