49. Scream (1996) - Wes Craven

Scream (1996) - Wes CravenA psychopathic serial killer is stalking a group of teens just like in the movies! Again, when it comes to movies about movies I can't get enough of them. And a movie that celebrates the 80's slasher genre was always going to appeal to my nature, especially when it was the movies that I grew up with they were referencing. I was too young to see Scream when it hit theatres ten years ago, but I remember getting it on video the day it came out. It came out just at the right time for me, it's when vhs copies of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween were constantly in my video player and then this gem came along. The characters were speaking about horror the way that we spoke about horror, quizzes about who was the real killer in Friday the 13th and why Jamie Lee Curtis was able to survive Halloween were things we always talked about. The plot device of the characters speaking about "the rules of the horror genre" is one of the most ingenius I've come across in any film. The characters are telling us how the movie should play out and they are so familiar and so self-aware of their role in the movie, that it becomes even more terrifying for what happens to them. They speak of how dumb it is to climb up the stairs when a killer is chasing you rather than running out the front door but what happens when the front door is locked? That same character ends up running up the stairs, even more terrified because they know what's coming. Like Bond to Austin Powers, the more familiar you are with horror movies the more references you spot and the more fun you have with Scream. It may not be as terrifying on the whole as Halloween or as creepy a concept as Freddy Krueger, but that opening sequence with the horrific death of Drew Barrymore must have given you the chills the first time you saw it. Here is an a-list star, teased, stalked and butchered in the first scene like no other slasher victim before then hung from a tree for her parents to watch. After seeing that, you know that Scream isn't going to be like any other horror movie, anything goes from that point. I love how Wes Craven uses the music from the score of Halloween in the film's final act, to add even more dramatic tension to the film. I love the characters of the film, especially the film geek Randy, he is such an awesome creation. And what about the memorable dialogue when Billy and Stu are doing their villain monologue, it's incredibly written and performed, Matthew Lillard's energy is insane. As the ghostface killer says.... "What's your favorite scary movie"?. Scream is mine.

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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.