The perfect way to celebrate the Halloween season, and revisit the franchise before the release of the fifth installment!
“Neve Campbell leads an all-star cast in this iconic slasher thriller that launched the Scream franchise and breathed new life into the horror genre. After a series of mysterious deaths befalls their small town, an offbeat group of friends led by Sidney Prescott (Campbell) becomes the target of a masked killer. As the body count rises, Sidney and her friends turn to the “rules” of horror films to help navigate the real-life terror they’re living in. Also starring Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan and Drew Barrymore. Buckle up for an irresistible killer ride!”
Master of Horror, Wes Craven, is known for many things in his career, including the creation of one of the most well-known horror icons, Freddy Krueger. It’s poetic that his work in the horror genre, beginning with his directorial debut of Last House on the Left, would make a lasting impression on filmmaking, culminating with the Scream franchise, a film that ultimately ended up saving the genre. The trend up to that point, as was the view of the genre, was that horror films were mindless murder sprees, more worried about body count and gore than an involved story and deep characters. While this certainly wasn’t true about all films in the genre, it was clear there was a disconnect with audiences at the time. Jason Voorhees and other autonomous killing machines weren’t attracting the business they once were, and things seemed to be coming to an end in many franchises. Then came Scream, while not immediately a smash success, it’s word of mouth continued to grow, thus changing the course of the genre forever.
What exactly was it about Scream that other films couldn’t get quite right? The writing is one of the stand out factors of the film, written by Kevin Williamson, it’s a modern and fresh take on the genre, one that hasn’t become a giant sequel churner (at this point anyway) with no variety. It was very ‘meta’ in it’s writing as well, referring to the rules of the horror genre, something very relatable to audiences that weren’t as familiar with them. These rules were also turned on their head at the very beginning of the film, when the well-known actress was immediately killed off, giving us the impression that absolutely anything can happen.
It had been quite a few years since I’d seen the Scream. Revisiting it now after 25 years, it has aged considerably, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This film is right at the cusp of a societal change that includes loads of technology right at our fingertips at all times, so while today it wouldn’t be as easy to receive an anonymous call from someone we knew, or have a 30-second delay on a wireless camera 200 feet away, we can appreciate that these things are happening in Scream, and that they probably never will the same way again.
You don’t need me telling you how great of a film Scream is, that much is a given. Here’s the technical specifications for this new 4k release:
Video
Scream is presented in 2160p 4k Ultra High Definition Widescreen 2.39:1 featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10. This presentation is exceptional, especially the Dolby Vision, which produces the dynamic meta-data that ensures the levels in each scene look the best possible. The deep darks are really noticeable here, with impressive clarity as well. As many times as I’d seen the movie I noticed things I hadn’t in earlier releases, such as when the boyfriend is moved outside in the chair in the opening sequence before the light is turned on, and even the sparkling nature of the killer’s costume, which always looked pure black to me. Grain is well-balanced in this release, but the bright and vivid colors contrasted against the darker sequences make this an absolute must-see for fans of this film.
Audio
The audio unfortunately doesn’t look to have been remastered for this release, as it contains the same DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 from the Blu-ray. While the track itself still stands out as quite good, especially some of those jump scares we get, it would have been nice to see a little work done to give us an updated Atmos track.
Special Features
One new extra is included, with the other older extras imported over from the prior release. This 4k release includes the digital as well, but no Blu-ray copy. However, it does have an empty disc-holder on the inside cover, whether this was intended for consumers to place their Blu-ray copies there, I highly doubt, but that’s what I plan to do myself to save on shelf-space.
Extras include:
- A Blood Legacy: Scream 25 Years Later
- Audio Commentary by Director Wes Craven and Writer Kevin Williamson
- Production Featurette
- Behind the Scenes
- Q&A with Cast and Crew
This is a great film to finally have in 4k, but it’s a shame we’ll probably never see the others on UHD in physical form any time soon, or if at all. However, it’s a perfect time to pick this up and revisit the entire franchise in anticipation for the fifth installment, which sadly will be the first one without Wes Craven directing. For those unfortunate enough to have issues with getting a copy due to shipping delays, hang in there, it’s worth it!
