Scream1981

Scream (1981)

This isn’t a review for one of the Wes Craven movies, but actually a slasher movie from the early ‘80s. In this one a group of rafters spend the night in a ghost town that lives up to it’s name. Several of them are killed off by an unseen killer on that 1st night. The next day they find their boats have been taken, but a couple of dirt bikers show up and head off for help. That idea goes to hell when a mysterious cowboy brings the body of one of them into town and then tells them a story of he and his captain getting fired form their jobs as sailors. More death happens until we get an ending that is very confusing.

This is a terrible movie. I just don’t know where else to start then with that simple statement. The story is confusing as hell. We have a mysterious killer that is never seen by the audience. The only reason we know that there is a killer is because we get POV shots as he is murdering the characters. Oh and if there were ever a group of characters that deserved to be murdered the ones in Scream are them. They find a body and then someone wanders off. They find that body and then someone wanders off. They finally get smart and then well someone wanders off… See the pattern yet? There is no though put into what is happening. It is almost like someone said, “give them a body count and they won’t care.” Movies like Scream are so insulting to me as a horror fan.

This movie is filled with so many random things that are just sort of tossed in there to make a movie that I just don’t get it. I mean it is hinted that the killer is maybe an old sea captain, which makes sense for a movie set in the desert. We know this because of the cowboy who was a sailor that wanders into town and tells them about the captain and then leaves. You are trapped in a town with a killer and no one asks that he go for help? Really movie? Then they toss some damn twist in about it maybe they are both ghosts (never seen a ghost that can handle an axe like that…). But it definitely ends with a feeling like the filmmakers didn't have a clue and were hoping that the audience tried to fill in the blanks for them. Of course that is what I did.

While the movie has a body count most of the kills happen off camera and are really lame. The only decent one involves an axe taking someone’s head off and even that one lacks blood! Where is the arterial spray? Oh and this movie has terrible music in it. We get one sort of creepy song that they use again and again. But there is also a piece of ‘80s synth that sounds like it should be the happy upbeat intro to a sitcom. This is used again and again when we are supposed to be in suspense of what might happen next. Who the hell was making these choices?

Terrible story, dumb characters, lack of gore, frustrating ending, and lousy music makes Scream a chore to sit thru. Everyone should skip this one. I certainly wish that I had.

½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer