We are officially less than halfway through with our list! Yay! As you all have probably noticed we are fully in R rated territory and today's pick is a genuine slasher classic, not to mention a phenomenon that is still going strong 27 years later!
Day 16 - Scream (1996)
The late, great Wes Craven was one of the masters of horror and Scream (1996) remains one of his crowning achievements. Following the Jason Lives model, screenwriter Kevin Williamson and Craven team up to deliver a film that practically revolutionized horror in the process. Having changed the face of horror in the previous two decades (The Hills Have Eyes, and A Nightmare on Elm Street) Craven does it again with Scream by crafting a movie that both references and adores horror but isn't afraid to criticize it. The story of Sidney Prescott and her fight for survival against the deadly Ghostface killer has all the trademarks of a fantastic Craven film, including incredibly suspenseful sequences, a terrifying killer, and amazing ideas but this time he is aided by a phenomenal script by Williamson. Scream's script, full of self-referential dialogue and zippy one-liners, is one of the many reasons of why this film's status has only grown throughout the years. Williamson manages to craft well-rounded characters that you care about, make the villain completely terrifying, and add the cherry on top of the sundae, which is the witty dialogue. Not to mention, Craven and Williamson stack the film with a cast of '90s legends, including Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, Henry Winkler, and of course Roger L. Jackson as the voice of Ghostface. Scream is a loving tribute to the slasher genre that references it with glee (Craven himself does a cameo as a janitor dressed like Freddy Krueger!) but is not afraid to be funny and satirize the genre. It manages what a lot of films aspire to do, which is satirize the genre and become an entry in the genre itself. Terrifying throughout but funny when it needs to be, Scream (1996) is a high benchmark for the horror genre that delivers everything you'd want from a slasher.
*All of the recommendations that we make can be found at the El Paso Public Library Catalog!
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