or is that nostalgia talking? I mean, it did come out sixteen (!!!) years ago.

So while I would definitely agree that Scream is 'scarier' than CitW, it's really not that scary a movie. It relied on the familiar slasher tropes: gore, jump scares and the omnipresent killer. It was also frequently humorous, lessening the overall tension. I was in my early teens when I first saw it and that was a time (at least for me) when I was more than willing to buy into what I was watching on-screen without thinking too much outside of that. Nowadays when I rewatch the movie it's for the tongue-in-cheek commentary than to fall into a horror atmosphere (versus movies like The Descent and 28 Days).

FWIW, I think Scream is still the better overall movie. CitW, once you warm up to the driving conceit of the movie, kinda beats you over the head with it in the third act.

Still a fun ass movie overall though and definitely on my short list of films to recommend to anyone looking to get into horror.