The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, November 4-10
Scream (1996)
Directed by Wes Craven
Do you like scary movies? Then you’ll certainly want to see the film that revived the slasher genre. Craven’s flawlessly directed, self-aware satire of its own kind still terrorizes nearly two decades later, while Kevin Williamson’s acerbic screenplay remains a comedic delight. With a cast of some not-to-be-forgotten 90s faces, we find ourselves amid bloody days at Woodsboro High School, where two students have just been brutally gutted and their killer remains at large. Sidney Prescott (the aptly virginal Neve Campbell), whose mother was murdered in a similar manner nearly a year before, starts to receive disturbing phone calls from the killer—and in this town, everybody’s a suspect. Though the whodunit aspect lingers throughout the film, the intrigue is in the interpersonal relationships of the characters––Sidney’s boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich), her best friend Tatum (the forever sardonic Rose McGowan), her boyfriend Stu (a perfectly lanky Matthew Lillard), and the nerdish, lovelorn, horror-movie expert Randy (Jamie Kennedy). Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” came to represent the franchise musically, and certainly lends a fiendish tickle to the soundtrack. You can break all the slasher film rules; you can guess who you think the killer is; you can root for Sidney or the masked butcher––this remarkable story deserves to be watched year-round. Samantha Vacca (November 6, 7, midnight at IFC Center’s Craven tribute)
