The picture is so full of cross-references, self-mockery and movies within movies (including a stalking that's recorded on video) that it can't help turning into a precious two-hour in-joke.
It is a fright film that takes elements from classics that evoked the screamin' meemies and reinvents melodramatic applications offering a new spin to slice-and-dice antics. Gallows humor runs rampant, too.
The assumption that there's something inherently clever about a slasher movie making reference to both its genre and the filmmaking process is a fundamental flaw of this tiresome, blood-filled comedy.
Scream may be a cut above the gore fests that line the dimly lit back wall at your video store, but it is a far cry from genre classics like Halloween or Craven's own Nightmare On Elm Street.
The movie contains the usual stock horror characters, but they are supplied with dialogue, often surprisingly smart and funny, that serves as a running, biting commentary on slasher conventions.
