Scream

Aside from the in-jokes, Craven ensures we scream alongside his characters at the indestructible killer in the Halloween who taunts down the phone.

Scream is a howling great time.

Scream succeeds through its ability to elicit both shrieks of horror and hilarity, as every bad horror movie moment becomes a target for ironic deconstruction and campy send-up.

Craven does a better job exploring -- and exploding -- stereotypes.

The result is a popular movie not afraid to be witty, although its formulaic shocks remain just that: formulaic.

Scream raises the cheesy formula of the stalk-and-slash movie to an unexpected level of intelligence and valid suspense, propelled by believable characters and true-to-life response to extravagant threats.

Scream stands alongside the viewer and lets them in on the jokes and conversation. [...] More than that, Scream expects the viewer to talk back.

It's probably got more film jokes than the works of Joe Dante, John Landis, and Paul Bartel put together. I guess that's why I had fun watching it.

Scream trots out one suspicious and underdeveloped character after another to fake its ingenuity, and still comes up with a clunky climax, later than necessary.

The result is a perversely entertaining experience for horror buffs that subjects you to a series of stylishly gruesome episodes preceded by deadpan comic references to popular fright flicks.