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Originally Posted by cheebacheeba
It's a horror film VS a parody here.
Nearly everything about the scream series has been tongue in cheek, and a deliberate re-creation of the slasher genre.
I mean it does well at doing it - I quite liked Scream and the first sequel...though the series went to shit.
If we're strictly going on the first installments vs each other, Halloween was a superior film in terms of atmosphere and tension, and the somewhat claustrophobic setting built further on that...the addition of Dr Loomis to further add to the narrative and the overall dread and mystique of this character was a great addition too. It was a chilling story, and was genuinely scary.
...and that goddamn musical score, it's iconic, and for good reason.
Scream was a fun foray into the slasher genre that took the piss at every other turn, but was an overall decent story, with some humourous dialogue and some killers that seemed to really have some great fun doing what they were doing.
The first time through, it was a bit of a mystery and personally I thought the reveal was excellent. The characters perhaps seemed a little more affable.
It did rely more on jump scares and shock and awe over atmosphere, but it wasn't completely lacking there either.
I'd recommend this over Halloween for a younger audience who hasn't had a lot of exposure to horror, wouldn't be a bad entry point, and would likely generate some interest in the kinda of films that inspired it.
They're both, for what they were going for - pretty strong entrants.
I do think the comparison suffers a pretty narrow field of similar elements though.
The superior HORROR film in my eyes, was Halloween.
My personal preference and go-to film, would likely be Scream of these two though.
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Really good description of both films; I see them that way as well.
When I saw Halloween as a kid on TV, it was more an experience. I learned to appreciate it as a film later.
Scream, on the other hand, as I was an old vet to horror film, I saw it as it was meant to be seen: a postmodern slasher horror homage. It started out with an expert opening, that was quite fine as horror and dark parody. After that, there was some snappy intriguing dialogue here and there, but I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed 80% of the middle.
Scream's ending reveal was satisfying enough, though it really has more meaning in the context of the hoard of silly "killer's motivation" reveals of late-'70 and '80 slasher films. But it's an inherently tricky, if not inherently flawed, endeavor to
not make a stand-alone film, but rather one partly dependent on the audience's knowledge of other films. Even as a target audience member, though acknowledging the impressive opening and the unique genre, my overall impression of the film at the time was that it was fairly entertaining, but not impressively entertaining, nor a film leaving a lasting impression on me.
I think the "significance" and overall excellence comparison of these two films has already played out... I'd suggest one is known by nearly everyone who isn't a horror fan, carrying 5-star ratings, and the other is not -- but rather swims along as more of a cult-following film. The fact that "you" know which film I mean, without me naming them, proves the point.