Scream Review

Messages: The film may scream but it doesn't say anything good.

Role models: Almost all the principle characters are sarcastic, if not downrightmalicious teens, with very little evident empathy for the deaths oftheir buddies. Sidney, the heroine, seems to have the strongest senseof conscience, yet she unintentionally frames an innocent man formurder and commits some other very questionable acts.

Violence: Savage stabbings and throat-slittings, close-range shootings, lots of hand-to-hand fights with the killer. One casualty has her neck broken by a rising garage door. Another is electrocuted by a toppled television set.

Sex: The young characters speak frankly about sex and nudity. Though the act isn't explicitly shown, the heroine becomes intimate with her treacherous boyfriend, giving up her virginity, apparently (another frequent topic). Her late, offscreen mother is repeatedly described as a promiscuous home-wrecker, and apparently she was.

Language: Abundant profanity.

Consumerism: Primarily references to other highly rentable horror movies.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Alcohol flows abundantly (before the blood does) at a teen party. Another character referred to as drunken enough to be framed for a killing.