Excellent acting by all (but Ray) kept this movie alive. It had better characterization than Scream, yet Scream was possibly better. Every murder had a long "chase" scene before it, which really kept you going. I love how the killer plays a lot of pranks on the four main characters in this movie and it is really suspenseful. The whole scene in the department store was freaky and the talent show scene was GREAT!The sequel to this movie was just a gorefest, however. It's too bad that a lot of good movies die this way... (Scream 2 also sucked and so did Halloween 2.) Why do good flicks always have bad sequels?!?