Michael Reuben
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Scream (Blu-ray)
Scream turns fifteen this year, and it’s hard to remember that this landmark in pop culture was ever anything but a surefire success. Director Wes Craven didn’t want to make another gory film; head honcho Bob Weinstein hated the killer’s mask; both casting and script were in flux; and just days before shooting began, the school board of Santa Rosa, California rescinded permission to film at its high school (and is appropriately dissed in the film’s credits). But obstacles like these become mere bumps in the road when the result grosses $170 million worldwide on a $15 million production budget. Even better, Scream’s self-reflexive approach to slasher films revived the genre for a generation that had grown up with it and already knew all its tricks. Kevin Williamson’s script worked in 1996 for its sheer novelty, but its inventiveness still holds up today.
[SIZE= 11px]Note: This Blu-ray from Lionsgate contains only the theatrically released R-rated cut of [SIZE= 11px]Scream.[/SIZE][/SIZE]
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Film Length: 111 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
HD Encoding: 1080p
HD Codec: AVC
Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
MSRP: $19.99
Disc Format: 1 25GB
Package: Keepcase
Theatrical Release Date: Dec. 20, 1996
Blu-ray Release Date: Mar. 29, 2011
The Feature:
In the small California town of Woodsboro, someone is killing people. It may or may not be the same person who, almost exactly one year earlier, raped and murdered Maureen Prescott, mother of high school student Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). The whole experience has left Sidney traumatized and sexually reticent, to the frustration of her boyfriend, Billy (Skeet Ulrich). But Sidney’s inhibitions are probably a good thing at the moment, since the killer appears to be an afficionado of slasher films, and according to the rules of the genre – as enumerated by video store clerk Randy (Jamie Kennedy), who just happens to have an unrequited crush on Sidney – only virgins survive to the credits.
SPOILER ALERT! Having been referenced, ripped off and parodied so extensively, Scream is sufficiently well known that I’m going to assume everyone knows certain plot points. Still, one of the reasons why the first film was the best in the series is that everything was new. So if you’ve somehow managed to miss out on the Scream series, stop reading now.
In a move that would become a trademark, Scream opens Psycho-style by killing off a character who appears to be central – in this instance, Casey (Drew Barrymore), who receives a strange phone call when she’s home alone. The twelve-minute sequence establishes the killer’s methodology, which combines encyclopedic knowledge of horror films with a sadistic delight in reenacting them. It also shows us the killer’s disguise of choice: a generic Halloween costume with a mask based on the Edvard Munch painting entitled The Scream.
The remainder of the film is set among the town’s high school population, most of which finds the latest murder epidemic to be an exciting diversion, especially when it causes Principal Himbry (an uncredited Henry Winkler) to cancel classes. What better excuse for a party? (Another reason why Scream is the best of the trilogy is that slasher films require the victims to behave stupidly, and adolescents supply thoughtless behavior better than most characters. In the later films, the key characters were older.) The party is thrown by Stuart (Matthew Lillard), the goofball dating Sidney’s best friend, Tatum (Rose McGowan).
Sidney attends, because she’s staying with Tatum, her father being out of town on business, even though it’s the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death. Also, Sidney’s getting calls from the killer. Suspicion initially falls on Billy, but he’s cleared by phone records. Now Sheriff Burke (Joseph Whipp) is concerned, because Sidney’s father (Lawrence Hecht) isn’t in the hotel where’s he’s supposed to be. Indeed, he can’t be found at all. The sheriff tells his deputy, Dewey (David Arquette), to keep an eye on Sidney.
As it happens, Dewey is Tatum’s brother; so it’s not so odd when he shows up at the party thrown by his sister’s boyfriend. But accompanying him is the aggressively nosy reporter, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), on whom Dewey has a crush. Gale (whose name is a bad pun on an old-time TV actress) made her reputation with a book about Maureen Prescott’s murder and the ensuing trial that, Gale contends, sent an innocent man (a briefly glimpsed Liev Schreiber) to death row. Of course, it’s obvious to anyone watching that this new rash of violence supports Gale’s theory that the real killer is still at large. It might even give her another best seller. People have killed for less.
As Randy the video clerk says, everyone’s a suspect.
Williamson delights in playing with references and genre beats, especially when he has the partygoers watching Halloween or slips in names like “Wes Carpenter” or has a character declare that all the sequels to Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street “sucked” (this presumably includes Craven’s own New Nightmare). And Craven gets into the game as well, throwing in little touches like a cameo by The Exorcist’s Linda Blair and doing his own quick cameo in a Freddy Krueger sweater. In the end, writer and director even manage to give the killer a passable motive, while at the same time declaring that motives are irrelevant. After all, what excuse does one really need for a good old-fashioned cinematic blood bath?
Video:
In a cruel irony, the best of the Scream films suffered the worst treatment on DVD. Despite multiple issuances, Scream was never mastered with 16:9 enhancement, which makes its release on Blu-ray especially welcome. Unfortunately, this first wave of releases from the newly formed partnership between Lionsgate and a newly reconstituted Miramax is not without issues.
With a few caveats that I’ll get to in a moment, the image is finely detailed with good black levels and only occasional hints of so-called “crushing” (or, as I think of it, indistinctness) in some of the outdoor night scenes. This may be due to the original photography, because the credited DP was Mark Irwin (with additional photography by Peter Deming), and Irwin’s work is not notable for deep blacks. In any case, colors are vividly and, as far as I can tell, accurately rendered throughout, and flesh tones look normal, especially in contrast to the copious amounts of (fake) blood that flows in the last third of the film.
So what’s the problem? Well, normally I can just recite that I saw no evidence of digital tampering, but in this case I can’t. Here and there, I kept spotting telltale signs of slight, but definite, edge enhancement – nothing on the order of what we used to see on DVD, but enough to create an occasional ringing around a figure or a slight shimmer in a background. When noticeable, the effect was transient and did not detract from my overall viewing experience. Had I not been watching as a reviewer, I might simply have tuned it out. But on a display larger than my 72" RPTV, it could be much more distracting, and really it shouldn’t be there at all.
Although I can’t know for certain, I suspect these are the artifacts of crowding a nearly two-hour film, with extras and lossless sound, onto a BD-25. It’s a dubious practice under any circumstances, but especially in the case of a film that hasn’t been finished on a digital intermediate. Whatever one may think of the pros and cons of the DI process, it seems to have the advantage of better preparing a film for the compressionist, maybe because DI colorists have to think in terms of large-format projection. The kind of artifacts I saw on the Scream Blu-ray would not be tolerated on a release print or digital source, and they shouldn’t be allowed on a consumer Blu-ray either.
The alert reader will have noticed that I did not use the term DNR. For the unalert reader, let me stress that I am not, repeat, not criticizing this transfer for the application of noise reduction or any similar technology. To my eye, all of the image’s detail is intact. (If someone with a larger screen sees it differently, please let me know.) I don’t know why artificial sharpening was applied to some scenes; I just know that I saw the kind of artifacts that result when such sharpening has been done.
Audio:
Presented in DTS lossless, the 5.1 mix is typical of its era, in that its rear-channel effects are somewhat more showy and obvious than you would expect from sound designers today, who try to blend the channels more subtly. The thud of footsteps overhead (using the rear speakers) or cars driving from back to front are typical of the effects used in Nineties films, but they still work. The dialogue is clear and effective, and so is Marco Beltrami’s original score, along with the entertaining soundtrack selections. I’m not sure Craven would have been willing to use “Fear the Reaper” so liberally, if Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners hadn’t bombed earlier that year (if you’re a fan of Jackson’s film, the song is inseparable from images of Michael J. Fox and Trini Alvarado running around a cemetery). But it all worked out for the best.
Special Features:
All of the special features have been ported over from the 1998 Miramax “Collector’s Edition”, which was also included in the 2000 “Ultimate Scream” boxed set. In the interest of saving time, I haven’t revisited them. The video features are in standard definition at 4:3.
Commentary with Director Wes Craven and Screenwriter Kevin Williamson.
Production Featurette (6:12).
Behind the Scenes. Divided into two parts: “On the Scream Set” (3:25) and “Drew Barrymore” (2:53).
Q & A with the Cast and Crew. Also divided into two parts: “What’s Your Favorite Scary Movie?” (2:44) and “Why Are People So Fascinated by Horror Films?” (2:31).
TV Spots. There are seven spots, reflecting various marketing strategies.
Trailers. Both green and red band theatrical trailers are included as separate extras. At startup the disc plays trailers for Scream 4, the Saw collection and Lionsgate horror and cult classics on Blu-ray. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are also available from the special features menu.
The missing. Not included from the “Collector’s Edition” are a special effects gallery with drawings and stills; cast and crew profiles; and a collection of horror film trivia entitled “Did You Know?”
In Conclusion:
While not the most auspicious beginning for the Miramax/Lionsgate partnership, this is still the best that Scream has ever looked since I saw it in the theater. Maybe they’ll do a better transfer for Craven’s director’s cut (the one with even more blood).
Equipment used for this review:
Panasonic BDP-BD50 Blu-ray player (DTS-HD MA decoded internally and output as analog)
Samsung HL-T7288W DLP display (connected via HDMI)
Lexicon MC-8 connected via 5.1 passthrough
Sunfire Cinema Grand amplifier
Monitor Audio floor-standing fronts and MA FX-2 rears
Boston Acoustics VR-MC center
SVS SB12-Plus sub
