10 Scariest Scenes In "True Story" Films

10. Scream Didn't Just Borrow From Movies

We've spoken at length about Wes Craven's seminal 1995 horror film that helped give new blood to the long-dormant slasher genre, but Kevin Williamson didn't only draw on his love of film for the script.

The screenplay is notoriously cinema-obsessed, casually referencing most of the major films of its genre within the opening scene and peppering in more obscure references as the film progresses. It's part of what makes Scream's legacy so endearing, ingratiating cinephiles early in their obsession with cult references that serve as a gateway to less mainstream works that inspired it.

As for Williamson's killers though, he largely drew from one source: while previous movie killers had drawn inspiration from Ed Gein, he opted for a less publicized tabloid. Danny Rolling had killed eight people, five in the course of four days during a spree as the Gainesville Ripper in 1990.

What struck Williamson most, and what made the film as effective as it was, was Rolling's predilection for staging the bodies in particularly gruesome fashion, ensuring maximum shock value upon discovery. This, along with some visual cues taken from the opening of Dario Argento's Suspiria, served as the basis for Drew Barrymore's corpse to be gutted and strung up so graphically.

Furthermore, like the Scream killers, Rolling offered absolutely no motive for his actions.