If you're of the same mind, then you might get some mild, sadistic amusement out of Wes Craven's "Scream," a veritable tribute to "Halloween" (1978), "Prom Night" (1980), "Terror Train" (1980) and other Curtis fright epics. Craven (the auteur of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series) and his scenarist Kevin Williamson have whipped up a seriously misguided movie in which every young actress on hand seems to be auditioning for the prized "Jamie Lee role."

"Scream" is one big horror-movie quote, supposedly an inside joke about kids who have seen one too many horror films and are now living their own horror film, the formulaic kind in which a masked psycho-killer stalks pretty teenage girls. But the film falls flat under its own gruesomeness and the only impression that one comes away with is that Craven himself has seen -- and made -- one too many horror films.

After a nifty (but overlong) prologue in which Drew Barrymore is practically taunted to death, the film settles down and slavishly recreates all of the Curtis films, while also quoting scenes from "Carrie" (1976) and "When a Stranger Calls" (1979). Neve Campbell plays a nice affluent girl with a creepy boyfriend (Skeet Ulrich, the Johnny Depp lookalike who played Sharon Stone's brother in "Last Dance") and a conveniently absent father. Campbell's trampy mother was savagely murdered last year and now, on the anniversary of her death, someone is starting to stalk Campbell herself.

How can this be when the man who murdered mom (Liev Schrieber in a wordless cameo) is behind bars? Well, there's one killing after another, with more than half the cast ending up dead, while TV reporter Courteney Cox avidly reports on all the mayhem for her tabloid boob-tube show.

The problem with "Scream" is that it utterly fails as a parody and is actually more violent and ugly than the movies it's supposed to be needling. The movie is also weighed down by a twisted, contradictory logic. Craven seems to be saying that all those awful horror movies from the 1970s and '80s were stupid, harmless fun while also demonstrating exactly how they can damage people.

Your average moviegoer may not pick up a knife and bludgeon someone to death after seeing a film like "Scream," but it's clear that a movie like this adds to our insensitivity and intolerance of one another.

Watching people being treated like slabs of disposable meat for 90 minutes or so isn't "stupid, harmless fun."

And it isn't cathartic.

It's desensitizing.

Meanwhile, the high school students talk worriedly about the evil in their midst. "How do you . gut someone?" one young woman wants to know. As the schoolmates band together in close proximity to the forces of evil, a brittle, high-powered television reporter (Courteney Cox) shows up to exploit the town's troubles.

Among the droller touches in "Scream" are the killer's mask, with is Edvard Munch by way of a trick-or-treat costume, and suspense scenes set in de rigueur locations like the high school bathroom. There is also an authoritative discussion about the rules of a horror-film party scene by characters who are in fact playing one.

To wit: sex equals death in a horror film. Those who drink or take drugs will be killed off, too. And: "Never, under any circumstances, say "I'll be right back.' Because you won't be back!' " But somebody ignores that lesson and winds up attached lifelessly to the garage door.

Janet Maslin
New York Times

One old standby is the scene where someone unexpectedly enters the frame, frightening the heroine, while a sinister musical chord pounds on the soundtrack. I love these scenes, because (a) the chord carries a message of danger, but (b) of course the unexpected new person is always a harmless friend, and (c) although we can't see the newcomer because the framing is so tight, in the real world the frightened person would of course be able to see the newcomer all the time.

The movie is also knowledgeable about the way TV reporters are portrayed in horror films. The reporter this time, played by Courteney Cox of ``Friends,'' asks wonderful questions, such as ``How does it feel to almost be the victim of a slasher?'' Savvy as she is, she nevertheless suggests to a local deputy that they shouldn't drive to an isolated rural setting when it's a nice night to walk down a deserted country road in the dark while a slasher is loose.

What did I think about this movie? As a film critic, I liked it. I liked the in-jokes and the self-aware characters. At the same time, I was aware of the incredible level of gore in this film. It is *really* violent.

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times

Of course, everyone from frustrated Billy to Sidney's humiliated father to the creepazoid school principal (Henry Winkler, and he's really funny!) could be the murderer, and half the fun of "Scream" comes from keeping count of the over-obvious clues that pile up and point to just about everybody.

But Craven and Williamson have an overall scheme that's much more subversive than simply cutting up slasher-movie cliches and the cardboard characters who live and die by them. By the time they reveal what's really going on in "Scream," they've whipped up a contemporary social satire as wicked and disturbing as a Jonathan Swift broadside.

It makes you wish more directors knew how to mix master's degrees with scare tactics.

Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

The unnamed setting of "Scream" could be dubbed Sarcasmville. Humor comes from the single-mindedness of some characters ("Now that Billy tried to mutilate her, do you think Sid would go out with me?" says one hormonal kid), their hyper-awareness of pop culture ("You can only hear that Richard Gere gerbil story so many times before you have to believe it," says another) and the movie's nutty willingness to make fun of itself: Linda Blair and Henry Winkler have scuzzball cameos, one teen tryst is underscored with "Don't Fear the Reaper" and a character misidentifies the movie's director as "Wes Carpenter." Bloody funny stuff.

"Scream" is marred by one bad performance -- the over-the-top Matthew Lillard, who thinks he's Nicolas Cage -- but what's nifty about it is that it simultaneously makes fun of slasher flicks and reminds us what's cool about them. "Scream" makes screaming fun again.

Chris Hewitt
Knight-Ridder Newspapers

Talking about slasher flicks during a slasher flick is supposed to make slasher fans laugh. It may, in between bursts of adrenalin rush, primed by the pumped-up sound effects, fake scares and plunging, bloodied knives.

But "Scream" is not a reinvention of the slasher flick. It's a reinvention of the marketing of a slasher flick. Oliver Stone suggested it with "Natural Born Killers:" Pretend you're making a comedy while you satisfy the urges of people who want to see fake butchery.

"Scream" is better made than most slasher films, but that's not saying much. It still features the standard slasher elements: bad acting, stupid dialogue, almost-naked girls and plenty of blood.

Bob Fenster
The Arizona Republic