Starting with the mysterious death of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) as she is home alone one night and receives a strange phone call, right up through the end, horror master Wes Craven will keep you guessing throughout.

As the story unfolds, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is at the center of it all, for it is widely believed that the man who murdered her mother has come back to seek his revenge – on her.

There to tell the tale is television reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), who isn’t looked kindly upon by much of anyone because of her desire to get the story above all else – mostly everyone’s feelings.

One by one, the deaths continue to mount and the mystery deepens, without anyone getting any closer to really finding the identity of the killer. It all comes to a resounding climax when those who remain at the end do what kids do – they throw a party and watch some scary movies to try and forget their troubles. Unfortunately for them, it just gives the killer a good place to kill a number of them all at once.

While the length is probably a bit more than your typical slasher film, it’s not really noticeable because it keeps moving throughout and before you know it, the movie is over – but in a way that will leave things wide open for a sequel (there were actually two).

Rated R for strong graphic horror violence and gore, and for language.