This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Nick J’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Giving it a 3.5 for now; metatextual/deconstructive works never hold up that well on rewatches. It's why I can't rewatch those "Deadpool" movies (the comics don't hold up well either) and can't finish "Hunter x(position) Hunter." But for now, I enjoyed it.
The attempt of this film is that it did not want to play down the audience's intelligence, that anyone who goes into this film is familiar with the horror genre and familiar with, y'know, life and reality. I enjoyed how, for lack of better terms, gritty and realistic the film is. Whenever Ghostface Killah attempts to murder someone, there's always more of a struggle and therefore all the kills are tenser and chaotic, that there's still a chance the victim can get away. Craven builds upon the sense of tragedy he infused into "Nightmare On Elm Street" and makes the murders in the small town feel horrifying. Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott does well enough to show a complete distraughtness with the situation and how it brings back the trauma that came with the murder of her mother. Tl;dr, when tragedy strikes, it feels real, it feels like it changes people, it's taken seriously and therefore the audience does too. It's a bit weird with the soberly serious tone mixed in with metatextual horror film buff humor (including a chuckle-worthy cameo by director Wes Craven as Freddy the janitor) and overall fun violence with some creative kills (I spit on your garage) and visuals (the news van's window covered completely in blood), but I guess it works well enough all together. It's a wild ride with a great final act, the overall mystery and fun characters help keep the film well-paced, and it has future WCW Champion David Arquette. If you're into slashers and somehow haven't seen this yet (and hopefully you're going into it with as little information as possible), it's definitely worth a watch.
