Scream

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Year:	1996
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Wes Craven
Genre:	Ironic slasher
Starring:	Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Courteney Cox
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117571/
Tagline:	Don't Answer The Phone. Don't Open The Door. Don't Try To Escape.
Favourite line:	"You're absolutely right. It is not fair. Fairness would be to rip your insides out and hang you from a tree so we can expose you for the heartless, desensitized little shits that you are!"

Wes Craven's mega-hit post-ironic slasher is nowhere near as bad as you may fear.
Writer Kevin Williamson cleverly takes the rules of horror which, through character Randy Meeks, are carefully explained to the horror illiterate and, for the most part, inverts them. Thus we have the lone female right at the start, who ends up sliced and diced, and the surprise ending that defies all horror movie internal logic.
It's violent too, especially the climactic scene as the motives etc are exposed and our heroine must fight for her life.
The wit is a little on the puerile side at times, and can grate, but there are enough moments of sickness, be they visual or verbal, to allow for this annoyance.
Borrowing liberally from all of the famous slasher movies, name-checking them and, in one moment of sheer outright cheek, even stealing the incidental music (in this case John Carpenter's amazing score for Halloween), horror geeks will have a ball spotting references and answering the horror related questions that are posed.
I know, because I am one of you, so don't feel insulted.