Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven's ingenious subversion of the slasher movie, "Scream" is the second of director Craven's brilliant spins on the genre (after 1984's "A Nightmare on Elm Street") as well as one of the most influential horror flicks of all-time. It's also one of the most lauded, too, and rightly so. Breathing new life into the genre at a time when the likes of Michael Myers and company were either treading water or trapped in overly outlandish sequels, this story of Sidney Prescott's (Neve Campbell) simultaneous attempts to overcome the trauma of her mother's murder and survive a new series of killings subverts slasher clichés, indulges in hilarious meta self-analysis, and delivers the kind of bloodshed that fans of the genre want to see while remaining grounded in some semblance of reality. It's a movie I've watched tons of times and never get tired of, and which seems to reveal new details about itself and the care put into making it upon each rewatch. And the cast is iconic across the board, from Campbell's turn as Sidney to Courteney Cox's role as tabloid reporter Gale Weathers to Matthew Lillard's gleeful performance as Stu Macher -- one half of a ghostface duo that the series has struggled to match in the years since. If "Scream" lacks the polish of its later sequels, it more than makes up for it with its creativity and entertainment value.
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