Dom Robinson reviews
Scream
Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE
Producer:
Cary Woods and Cathy Konrad
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast:
Casey Becker: Drew Barrymore (The Wedding Singer, E.T., Poison Ivy, Bad Girls, Gun Crazy )
Sidney Prescott: Neve Campbell (Scream 2, The Craft, TV: "Party Of Five" )
Gale Weathers: Courteney Cox (Scream 2, TV: "Friends" )
Deputy Dewey Riley: David Arquette (Scream 2, Fall Time, Road Flower, Wild Bill )
Billy Loomis: Skeet Ulrich (Albino Alligator, Touch, Boys )
Randy Meeks: Jamie Kennedy (Scream 2, TV: "Sliders" )
Cotton Weary: Liev Schreiber (Scream 2, Walking And Talking )
Neil Prescott: Lawrence Hecht
Phone Voice: Roger Jackson
Steve Orith: Kevin Patrick Walls
Casey's Father: David Booth
Casey's Mother: Carla Hatley
Kenny, the Cameraman: W. Earl Brown
Obnoxious Reporter: Linda Blair (The Exorcist, Exorcist 2: The Heretic, Hell Night, Reposessed )
Fred, the Janitor: Wes Craven (The Fear )
Principal Himbry: Henry Winkler (Target For Rage, TV: "Happy Days" )
Scream the definitive horror
thriller of the 1990's from master of the genre Wes Craven .
The residents of a picturesque small town are being victimised by a sly psycho
with a twisted love for scary movies, who originally struck exactly a year ago
when he killed Sydney's mother. As this masked predator continues to mimic
horror films with real-life acts of terror, it becomes clear that solving this
mystery is going to be murder!
Wes Craven's clever horror tale has quite a cast involved, beginning with
Drew Barrymore who is first on the list for termination so doesn't get
a great deal of screen time, but the babe quotient doesn't end there as the
film's main heroine is Neve Campbell from TV's Party of Five ,
closely followed by Friends star Courteney Cox as a hot-shot
TV reporter on the verge of breaking the biggest story in her career.
David Arquette takes the male adult lead as the local deputy, while
the teenagers caught up in the murders are Skeet Ulrich as Sydney's
boyfriend, plus Jamie Kennedy, Kevin Patrick Walls and Liev
Schreiber .
Finally, there are notable, uncredited cameos by Linda Blair , most
notable as The Exorcist 's Regan, Wes Craven himself as the
janitor, plus Henry Winkler as school principal Himbry. Heyyyyy!
The picture quality is superb, bringing out flesh-tones and gore in equal
measures. The disc is made all the better for being presented in widescreen
2.35:1 as shown in the cinema.
It's interesting to note that the widescreen process has some strange effects
used at times, sometimes to make a face appear slightly stretched across the
screen (see Drew Barrymore in first scene; and a close-up of Courtney Cox later
on), while other scenes leave the middle of the picture normal, but squeeze the
sides of the picture, resulting in more picture info being enclosed within the
2.35:1 ratio (see scene of Henry Winkler making his last entrance into his
classroom; and all the kids sat in the lounge watching TV at the party).
While the film was shown in cinemas in Dolby Digital 5.1, the Dolby Surround
soundmix on this disc is also very effective. As you'd expect in a horror film,
there are shocks at every turn, jumping out at you crisp and clear.
The version of the film on this disc is the 'R'-rated version as shown in the
UK and USA cinemas, although a director's cut has been released on NTSC
Laserdisc which includes a commentary track by Wes Craven, plus twenty seconds
of restored footage, namely :
1. In the prologue, two seconds are cut of Drew's Boyfriend's entrails
spilling out onto the floor (replaced with a previous face-shot of him looking
anxious), plus less lingering on Drew's entrails, done by doubling the speed
of the zoom.
2. In the film, there are cuts for Rose going crunch in the garage dog flap.
3. There is less lingering on the cameraman with slashed throat
(a second or two cut - pun not intended!)
4. Less on-screen mutual mutilation by the killers (3 scenes).
Alas, there are no extras on this disc.
Overall, completists will go for the NTSC director's cut which is this disc's
main competition, but, lack of extras aside, this is definitely a worthy release
in terms of picture and sound quality.
FILM : ****
PICTURE QUALITY : *****
SOUND QUALITY : *****
EXTRAS : 0
-------------------------------
OVERALL : ***
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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