Saturday, 31 October 2026 at 9 pm
Directed by: Wes Craven
USA, 1996, colour, 111'
The small town of Woodsboro in California. High school student Casey is home alone when she receives a phone call from an unknown person who begins asking her trivia questions about horror films. The caller grows increasingly brutal, and it all ultimately ends in the bloody murder of Casey and her boyfriend by someone wearing a mask with mouth openings stretched as if to emit a scream.
The police, whose ranks include Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley, launch an investigation that attracts intense media interest, and a television crew led by reporter Gale Weathers arrives in the town. Gale clashes with high school student Sidney Prescott, whose mother was raped and murdered a year ago, leaving the girl completely traumatised and unable to consummate her relationship with her boyfriend, Billy Loomis…
Two years after the metatextual horror gem Wes Craven's New Nightmare, horror genre classic Wes Craven was hired to direct the hot script Scream by newcomer Kevin Williamson, which several film studios had been vying for. With its metatextuality and blend of satire and horror, the screenplay seemed tailor-made for Craven as one of the most prominent genre-oriented film postmodernists, and it became, alongside A Nightmare on Elm Street, one of the two biggest successes of his career. As the latter film launched the series of the same name, so too did the huge, completely unexpected success of Scream – which grossed over $170 million worldwide on a $15 million budget – launch an entire franchise, which has so far spawned six films, the first four of which were directed by Craven.
The film not only grossed a great deal of money but also received mostly favourable reviews from critics, although some criticised it for having too much humour compared to horror and an excessive amount of overly explicit violence. These completely unfounded criticisms are now almost unanimously dismissed, and Scream is considered not only the best instalment in the series, but also one of the best horror films of all time. The opening sequence, a kind of prologue, is particularly notable, in which, unusually for (low-budget) horror films, it featured major star Drew Barrymore (even more unusually, her character is killed off at the very beginning), the sequence is brilliantly written, directed and acted, and today it has the status of one of the best sequences in the history of the genre.
Besides its two big stars, Barrymore and Courteney Cox, the film introduced up-and-coming young talents, among whom Neve Campbell shone in the lead role, and David Arquette, the younger brother of former stars Rosanna and Patricia Arquette, won over the audience in the role of the charmingly awkward Deputy Sheriff Dewey. Following the huge success of Scream, Craven and Williamson also co-created the sequel, Scream 2, while on Scream 3 Williamson stepped back from the screenwriting position. After a long hiatus, the veteran director and the much younger screenwriter reunited for Scream 4, Craven's final film and one of the series' high points. The duo also successfully collaborated on the horror film Cursed, starring Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg and Portia de Rossi.
Commentary by: Damir Radić
Tickets for the screening on 31 October 2026 at 9 pm can be purchased online HERE, as well as at the Surogatkino KIC box office before the start.