Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
A teen slasher movie about teens who know about the genre, and still get slashed.
Liked
The creativity, the shoutouts to the classics.
Thoughts
A well-executed horror movie with some unique twists.
My favorite part was the references to other movies of its ilk, like Halloween and Silence of the Lambs. Sometimes they wink at the camera (loved the Freddy Kruger joke), other times they flat out talk about them as the plot points. The humor from those scenes definitely enhanced the scary experience.
The cast was pretty good and recognizable, including David Arquette' silly mustache, Rose McGowan' fantastic breasts, Courtney Cox, and solid work by Neve Campbell as the lead. Most were able to use this as a stepping stone to do mediocre stuff. Drew Barrymore's opening scene was fantastic. Most amusing casting was the Fonz as the principle.
Another creative thing Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson did was regarding the identity of the killer. I liked that twist, although I am positive if I thought twice about it, the implausibility would be glaring.
It definitely earned its R rating, but it was actually pretty low on gore, and high on tastefully-done blood. I am pretty certain the success of this film led the new wave or slasher movies, and unfortunately the wave of torture porn. Even though this film was more about psychological terror and blood packets.
The main problem with the film was how outdated it already felt, mainly because phones and caller ID played a giant part in the suspense and plot. Taking a whole day to retrieve phone lists from police database was laughable. And I loved that they used the full name for a cell phone.
Despite the outdated and implausible aspects, I enjoyed the tribute/satire of its own genre and its refusal to be unoriginal.
What I would change
Better use of the stinger chords. I think they overused it at times, losing the element of surprise.
Random
I loved the credit hate for the city of Santa Rosa, for not letting them film there.
