Do you like scary movies?

Written by Kroze Kresky and Ashley Penrod

Scream 4 is coming to theaters and Lionsgate has brought the original Scream movies to Blu-ray with three new releases!

Scream

Wes Craven has been a huge name in horror since he arrived on the scene in the early 80s, bringing a new breed of horror films into the genre. With such greats as the Nightmare on Elm Street series and The Hills Have Eyes, he established himself as a master of horror. By the time of the 90’s, people were already wise to the tricks of the horror flicks of the past decade; and so, once again, Wes Craven tried to reinvent the wheel… Enter: Scream.

Scream was meant to be a commentary on what horror films had quickly become, but devolved into its own self-parody. A bunch of murders (all emulating classic various horror-film deaths) are being committed all over town by the mysterious figure known only as “Ghostface”, who taunts his victims before he kills them by calling them on the phone. With no one knowing who they can trust anymore, a group of teens find themselves all linked to the various murders; Either through suspicion, or direct relation to the deaths. Can they figure out who the mysterious Ghostface is and fight him before he is able to kill them all off one by one?

Granted, for most ComicsOnline readers, the plot of Scream seems incredibly generic by now, but back in 1992, when it was released, it was a breath of fresh air for the genre. Thanks to its focus on such young and upcoming stars like Drew Barrymore, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Rose McGowan, and Matthew Lillard (ZOINKS SCOOB!), who were already very popular among teens in the 90’s, this brought in a whole new age demographic into the horror genre. Even still, the plot doesn’t feel quite as fresh as it once did… The acting is also a mixed bag, due mostly to the talent being culled from across various 90’s teen drama shows, and most of the up-and-coming actors had to turn up the cheese a bit for this film.

Special Features:

• Audio Commentary by Director Wes Craven, Writer Kevin Williamson

• Production Featurette

• Behind the scenes: “On the Scream Set” and “Drew Barrymore”

• Q&A with the cast and crew

• Theatrical trailer

• TV Spots

• 1080p Video

• English and Spanish Subtitles

• English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

Scream 2

Following hot on the heels of the first movie (and not wanting to let a good start go to waste), Wes Craven immediately started working on Scream 2 not too long after the first movie’s production had been complete, bringing back several of the first movie’s young stars for the second outing a year later. Once again, we follow Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who is now in college and trying to leave the “Ghostface” incident far far in her past but it seems that she can’t get too far from it.

After a movie is made based on the events of the first Scream film, Ghostface has now gained a cult following, much to Sidney’s displeasure. When a killing is committed at a screening of the movie by someone dressed as Ghostface, Sidney and her friends become trapped in the same nightmare they managed to escape a year ago.

Once again, Wes Craven tries to make this more than a regular horror film by continuing to spoof several of the genre conventions as he did in the first movie, only this time he takes it one step further by also spoofing the original Scream as well. This still manages to be entertaining, but once again it seems that trying to make a commentary on horror films becomes a bigger focus of the movie (at the sacrifice of some of the more interesting bits of the story itself).

Once again returning with Campbell are David Arquette and Courteney Cox, along with new faces Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy and Jerry O’Connell to the cast. This time around the acting seems a lot more solid, no doubt in some part to the Veteran cast already having a solid handle on their roles, as well as bringing in the acting chops of the highly experienced Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the film.

Special Features

• Audio commentary with director Wes Craven, Producer Marianne Maddalena and Editor Patrick Lussier

• Deleted scenes with optional audio commentary by Wes Craven, producer Marianne Maddalena and editor Patrick Lussier

• Producer Marianna Maddalena, and Editor Patrick Lussier

• Outtakes, Featurette

• Theatrical trailer

• 1080 Video

• 5.1 English DTS-HD Audio

Scream 3

In 2000, the gang returned for a third installment in the horror franchise with Scream 3, (which was also supposed to be the concluding chapter of the story…but someone wanted to make more money so now it is just the lead up to Scream 4).

It has been a few years since Sidney (Neve Campbell) has had to deal with “Ghostface”, and now Hollywood has decided to capitalize on her experience, releasing “Stab 3”; a new installment in the “Stab” movie series (yes, Scream within Scream). Things get serious when cast members start getting murdered on the set, and Sidney is approached by Detective Kincaid to assist with the case. Sidney teams up with Dewey (who was working as an advisor on Stab 3) and the remaining cast members to try and stop this newest threat. The new killer is revealed to be someone close to Sidney, and is revealed to be the catalyst the events shown in the first two installments. Will Sidney be able to stop the true mastermind once and for all?

Special Features

• Audio Commentary by Director Wes Craven, Producer Marlanne Maddalena, and Editor Patrick Lussier

• Deleted Scenes and Alternate Ending with Optional Audio Commentary by Wes Craven, Producer Malanne Maddalena and Editor Patrick Lussier

• Outtakes

• Behind-the-Scenes Montage

• Theatrical Trailer

• TV Spots

• 1080p Video

• Widescreen Presentation

• English and Spanish Subtitles

• English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

Overall:
With the original movies being re-released onto Blu-ray for the first time (in honor of the upcoming sequel: Scream 4), you would have thought that they would have put a little bit more of an effort into the Blu-ray. Sadly, that is not the case, as the film looks exactly like an up-scaled DVD thrown onto a Blu-ray disc. Lacking anything new in terms of special features, or even cleaning up the DVD artifacts that come from having so much of your film in the dark, this disc is quite the disappointment for a release done to usher in the newest entry in the franchise. Besides a trailer for Scream 4 on the disc, there really isn’t anything here that you don’t already have if you own the initial DVD release. This re-release of the movie that started off an entire sub-genre of teen slasher horror films which continues on to this day is more than just lacking, it makes Scream seem way more dated then it already is.

ComicsOnline gives Scream, Scream 2, and Scream 3 on Blu-ray 2.5 out of 5 teen horror flicks.

Get your copy of Scream, Scream 2, and Scream 3 at Amazon.

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